Thread Starter
Mike
(@mgriffis)
The short answer: I’d like a way to populate repeatable fields that’s easy enough for a non-programmer (my client) to understand.
Ultimately, I’d like to turn the site over to the client and have it so they don’t have to call me every time they need to add a new event or edit an existing event. It’s a non-profit, and they can’t afford much.
So … if I could create an “event” using either The Event Calendar’s built-in tools, or something else, and then have a way to add the repeatable data to the event, that would be great.
I can handle the templating so the data is displayed as a single event, I just need a way for the client to be able to manage everything as a single event. (Does that make any sense?)
Mike
Thread Starter
Mike
(@mgriffis)
One more thing … There is no requirement that this be based on Modern Tribe’s The Events Calendar. It’s just one that has most of the functionality we need.
When you say “populate”, I guess I don’t know what you mean. The fields show up when you add or edit an event and the user can manipulate them. Were you hoping for some automation here? E.g. are you pulling in data via scripts or something?
Being the perpetual Luddite, I can say that by far the cheapest option here is going to be to have the users edit their own data by hand. Automating it will take time, money, and it will undoubtedly require the slaying of many bugs en route. It blows my mind as a developer how much people pay me because they refuse to think… ultimately, there’s no code in the world that can substitute for educating your users in operating the tools you give them. I’m harsh that way I guess.
Re Tribe’s The Event Plugin: cool. The other plugins I tried coughed up bloody PHP errors all over the place, but the Tribe was clean, so that’s a good sign… seems like it’s a good option.
Thread Starter
Mike
(@mgriffis)
Manual entry is what I had in mind. And I agree re The Tribe’s plugin. It seems to work well.
Let me test some more.
Ok. I’m tweaking stuff on the dev branch… various improvements which may affect what you’re doing (so you may want to download the latest dev version again). I will test this out a bit more before 0.9.5.11 goes public…
Thread Starter
Mike
(@mgriffis)
Looks like I skipped a step. I had neglected to “standardize custom fields.” When I standardized, the CCTM user interface shows in The Events Calendar edit page.
So far, so good. This looks VERY nice!
Ah, yeah. I updated the labeling there to reflect the behavior: as soon as you standardize the fields, the custom field metabox is controlled by CCTM instead of loosey-goosey. If you think there should be clearer labeling or some notice given somewhere, please feel free to make recommendations. I released 0.9.5.11…
Thread Starter
Mike
(@mgriffis)
Thanks. I saw the release just now.
And yes, I think you might want to make it a little clearer what happens when you “standardize.” In my case, it’s exactly what I want, but I hadn’t realized it at the time.
There is one other thing that seems upside down. On The Events Calendar edit page, the CCTM custom fields show before The Events Calendar native fields. It’s a small issue, but if it could be done the other way (without a lot of programming effort on your part), I think that would make more sense.
Otherwise, it looks like you’ve nailed this. It is just outstanding work. Thank you so very much!
Mike
What label would be clearer to you? “Standardize Fields” describes to me the behavior that gets implemented. How would you label it?
And have you looked at the FAQ? http://code.google.com/p/wordpress-custom-content-type-manager/wiki/FAQ — it’s described there.
I do try to make this stuff as transparent as possible.
Re the positioning of the metabox, I don’t think I have any control over that: the CCTM just intercepts the WP custom fields meta box. Those parameters (e.g. the ordering) should be available in 0.9.7 (see http://code.google.com/p/wordpress-custom-content-type-manager/issues/detail?id=34), but for now, it’s just following the ‘normal’ behavior and it thus subject to getting bumped.
Thread Starter
Mike
(@mgriffis)
I don’t have a problem with the way you labeled it. I had seen the FAQ, but it had been a while, and I had forgotten what it did.
When I said you might be able to make it clearer, I was thinking of putting a link next to the label showing a popup of the FAQ entry; perhaps you could use an icon of a little circle with a question mark in it. That’s an easy solution that would have cleared up my confusion.
Regarding the positioning, I believe the ‘standard’ custom fields from The Event Calendar (not the CCTM custom fields) were below the main editing boxes. That’s what made me think you had handled it differently somehow. The way it is now is functional, so that’s really good enough.
Thanks again for all you do. This is awesome!
Ok — the info icon is a good idea. Re the positioning, we’ll tackle that in issue 34.
Glad it’s helpful! Donations are always appreciated 🙂
Thread Starter
Mike
(@mgriffis)
>>Donations are always appreciated 🙂
Coming soon. 😉
