Using Event Calendar


You'll do most of the "heavy lifting" in Event Calendar right in the module itself, which is shown in its default monthly view in Figure 33.2.

Figure 33.2. Event Calendar's starting monthly view.


You're provided with handy links for creating a new event or switching among month, day, and year views. You can also jump to a specific date by selecting the date in the drop-down box and clicking Jump. Finally, a graphical button provides access to a more printer-friendly version of the page for users who prefer a hard copy. Note that the graphics shown in Figure 33.2 are custom; all I did was simply replace the graphics that came with Event Calendar with ones I preferred for my site.

Day view, shown in Figure 33.3, lists each of the day's "appointment blocks" in a separate line, with any related events listed underneath. An Events view, to the side, lists any day-long events. Figure 33.4 shows the useful Year view, which highlights days that have events in an alternate color. The color used depends on the events themselves, as you'll see in a moment.

Figure 33.3. Day view provides a detailed break-down of a day's events.


Figure 33.4. Year view provides an overview of events for the entire year.


When you create a new event, you'll provide several pieces of information:

  • A subject. Users are encouraged to provide clear, specific descriptions.

  • A topic. This is the list of topics from the Topics module in PHP-Nuke, which I discussed in Topic 29, "Using the Topics Module." The use of this list of topics rather than a separate list of event categories is a bit annoying. I tend to lump all of my events in my News topic simply because I came up with my topic list to suit my site's articles, not my Event Calendar.

  • The event's starting date and time, and ending date and time. You can also indicate all-day events by selecting the appropriate check box.

  • A color. Users will probably misuse this feature, selecting whatever color they like, but you can edit their submissions and come up with a standardized color scheme. I use red for Webcasts, green for conferences, and so forth.

  • An event description. This can include HTML formatting.

Administrators aren't given special privileges with Event Calendar: You need to approve your own submissions once they're complete.

Note that v2.13 of the module adds some cool administrator functionality. Waiting calendar submissions show up in the Waiting Content block along with other submissions, and you have the ability to create calendar administrators, much as you can create administrators for other specific areas of your site. Version 2.13 also lets you configure your own category names, which is nice. I should upgrade <grin>.



    PHP-Nuke Garage
    PHP-Nuke Garage
    ISBN: 0131855166
    EAN: 2147483647
    Year: 2006
    Pages: 235
    Authors: Don Jones

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