Taking a Closer Look at Calendar Plugins

WordPress Hartford CT Meetup
April 23, 2024
[ Make Current ]

Watch Recording

Click below to watch our April 2024 meetup on YouTube, or visit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUukNACABLA

[ Make Current ]

Agenda

  • Speaker Introductions
  • Background on Plugin Deep-Dive Series
  • What Problems Does This Plugin Solve? (Ray & Peter)
  • The Events Calendar (Ray)
  • Other Alternatives (Peter)
  • Wrap-Up
[ Make Current ]

Ray Michno

Cute Yellow Wapuu WordPress Mascot
ray@ctwebgeek.com
  • Hartford WordPress Co-Organizer
  • 25+ years in IT
  • Developer/Software Architect
  • Pratt & Whitney, Aetna, UnitedHealthGroup
  • 7+ years using WordPress
  • Self-employed – CTWebGeek
  • Married, No Kids, Lives in Newington, CT
  • Geek
[ Make Current ]

Peter Ingersoll

peter@ingersollinteractive.com
  • Hartford WordPress Co-Organizer
  • 25+ working on the Web
  • Marketing, communications, design, tech guy
  • Hartford Courant, logistics, agency
  • 10 years using WordPress
  • Self-employed – Ingersoll Interactive
  • Married, two adult kids, lives in South Windsor, CT
  • WordPress Admin and DIY Advocate – IngersollWP.com
[ Make Current ]

Taking a Closer Look at Calendar Plugins

[ Make Current ]

Background on Plugin Deep-Dive Series

  • Ongoing series of Meetup events to take a closer look at some useful plugins that solve common problems
  • A supplement to Peter’s monthly “Tools and Plugin Spotlight”
  • Some examples of future plugins – Security, Caching, SEO, User/Member Management, etc.
  • Send us your suggestions!!
  • Not an exhaustive review of all available options or side-by-side comparison
  • Free and Paid plugins will be explored – and advice on when to pay for features
  • One plugin will be used to demonstrate general functionality – may not be the “best”, but one that best showcases the functionality
  • Light on slides – more focused on demos
[ Make Current ]

Why Use An Event Calendar?

  • Useful for showcasing virtual or in-person events on your website
  • NOT for appointment scheduling – may cover that at a later time
  • Examples of events:
  • Fundraisers
  • Meetings
  • Conferences
  • Paid Events
  • Information about the event can include:
  • Date & Time
  • Location & Map
  • Price
  • Event Details
  • Structured event data is helpful for SEO
  • Other alternatives for showcasing events exist, but YOU own your website and have complete control over the data
[ Make Current ]

Event Calendar Plugins Overview

  • Why use a plugin?
  • Familiar WordPress UI to add and modify events
  • Structured Data specific to Events
  • Data saved usually as Custom Post Type
  • Allows user role restrictions
  • Event display and styling options
  • Integration with other applications
  • Advanced functionality:
  • Ticketing
  • RSVP’s
  • Guest Management
  • Coding this yourself would be time consuming
[ Make Current ]

The Events Calendar

events calendar image
  • Plugin created in 2009
  • Over 700,000 active installs
  • Available on WordPress.org plugin repository
  • Actively maintained
  • Free and Paid add-on versions available
  • Non-profit discounts available

https://wordpress.org/plugins/the-events-calendar

[ Make Current ]

The Events Calendar Demo

  • What we’ll demo:
  • How to install and configure
  • How to Create an event
  • How to Display events
  • Page of all events
  • In Sidebar
  • On Home Page
  • Advanced Functionality
  • Repeating events
  • Integration with Google Calendar
  • Google Maps
[ Make Current ]

Live Demo

Wapuu Dev
It’s Demo Time!

The Standing WordPress Reminder

Rubiks Wapuu
Your WordPress experience is defined by your theme, plugins, and custom code. WordPress environments can vary greatly!
Understanding concepts is more helpful than specifics.

Extending The Events Calendar

[ Make Current ]

Calendar Options: Pie Calendar

https://piecalendar.com/
  • Free plugin with premium option
  • Add any post, page or custom post type to a calendar
  • Event posts can also appear in post lists
  • Layout the post or page as you wish, using any blocks
  • Place the calendar (month, list, etc.) where you wish
  • Layouts can be month, list, etc, and can be filtered by categories, using shortcodes
[ Make Current ]

Calendar Options: Google Calendar

  • Google calendars can be embedded in a page
  • Plugins are available that can connect to your Google calendar
  • Through API or calendar feed of public calendars
  • Pretty Google Calendar
  • ICS Calendar
[ Make Current ]

Other Calendar Options

  • There are several calendar plugins – it’s easy to get lost
  • Some plugins use external services, e.g. Timely
  • Related plugins include event ticketing and time booking
My Calendar is designed to be an accessible calendar plugin – both for editors and site visitors.
[ Make Current ]

Live Demo

Wapuu Dev
It’s Demo Time!

Wrap Up & Q&A

Wapuu with laptop and cat
[ Make Current ]