Clearskys.net Blog

Marking a post as an event - a clarification

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So far I’ve not had many error or bug reports for the Vent system, hopefully that is because it is simple to use rather than people just giving up and uninstalling it. A few questions have come up, however so I thought I would take five minutes to clarify one or two things.

Can a post be both a post and an event?

Once a post is identified as an event it is taken out of the normal blog hierarchy as
it’s status is changed from “post” to “event” and thus isn’t picked up by the
standard WordPress Loop query that is used to populate the blog. So a post can not be
an Event AND a Post at the same time.

Do I need to enter an end date?

You don’t need to enter an end date for the system to work. It is only “really”
required if you want to ensure that the generated hCalendar microformats are correct
for people who are going to export the event to a calendar application. An event
without an end date will still export but will default (depending on the calendar
application) to a 30 minute event.

Why does the system default to being disabled after I’ve activated it?

The Vent system starts in a disabled state for two reasons. Firstly, when it is first activated it doesn’t know what criteria you want to use to identify an event. If it was enabled from the start then it would mark ALL future posts as events from that point onwards.

Secondly, the Vent plugin is designed to also run in WordPress MU as well as the standard WordPress. In WordPress MU ALL plugins are activated by default. So if a user doesn’t want to use the Vent system they can disable it from within the settings page (WordPress MU users don’t have access to the plugins page).

Only when in an enabled state does the Vent system “Hook” into WordPress and start checking posts. So a disabled Vent system should have little to no processing overhead on a blog (or multiple blogs in WordPress MU’s case).

A short week ahead

Today marks the start of a short week with a full weeks worth of work that I have to cram in, so I thought I’d get some updates posted in case I don’t have the time later on.

StayPress

Development is chugging along, though it took a little bit of a back seat last week whilst I attempted to get my entry into this years Weblogtoolscollection.com plugin competition completed. The good news, however, is that some of the solutions I discovered for my entry will streamline parts of the code in StayPress and has helped me find some solutions to the little stumbling blocks I came across. So onwards and upwards this week.

Vent

More details on my entry into the aforementioned competition is available here. It is a system designed to allow you to use the scheduled posts functionality of WordPress to manage events. If you like it then please consider popping along to the plugin competition blog and voting for it.

Hoard Hunter

The Hoard Hunter game is still ongoing and there are still a lot of sectors remaining. It only costs $5 to enter and all proceeds go to Oxfam and the Gurkha Welfare trust. On top of that you could win an iPod Shuffle. The theme and plugin for the Hoard Hunter system are also now available for download so that you can run your own game online.

A Weekend of Madness

On Saturday and Sunday (19th and 20th July 2008) I will be attempting to run 100km from Petersfield, across the South Downs to Brighton (in the UK) with 3 other team mates, carrying our equipment on our backs. It is a distance of 100km (two mararthons + an extra 10km added on to the end). If you would like to support this moment of madness then please consider sponsoring me (or entering Hoard Hunter above). All sponsors will be appropriately credited and thanked (in a manner I haven’t fully worked out yet, but at the least your site will be linked back to).

I will be recovering in a public house in Brighton following the event (early afternoon of the 20th July). If you would like to meet up for a drink and a chat then keep an eye on my Twitter account for more details of the place I end up (it will in all likely hood be near Brighton Racecourse, which is the finishing point). I will be the dirty, smelly person in the corner trying to get the bar staffs attention (and/or calling for a nurse).

Plugin Factory

And finally the Plugin Factory is about to be reborn. When it was intitially launched I received quite a bit of interest for custom plugin development. Unfortunately I had to take the factory offline as my other workload increased to the point that I had very little time (on top of that I had moved so was without a reliable ADSL connection). Now, fingers crossed, I should be getting a brand new ultra-fast line connected soon and to celebrate will be launching the all new Plugin Factory, stay posted for more details.

Vent - version 0.5

Wow, that was a rapid rise through version numbers…

I’ve just made Vent version 0.5 available. It fixes a few niggles that made it past me late last night (and earlier today) but is a stable release now.

You can see the current version running on this blog (until WordCamp UK is over anyway), with the Next Event post at the top of the page and the Upcomming Events widget over on the right hand side. To view all of the events running this month you can use this URL : http://blog.clearskys.net/events/thismonth/

If you want to view the hCalendar microformats embedded within the page,I can recommend the Operator Firefox plugin, available from http://www.kaply.com/weblog/operator

The Operator plugin detects any embedded microformats and allows you to add or export them to a calendar application (such as Google or Yahoo).

The Installation instructions and download link for Vent can be found here.

Vent - version 0.1 released

Update: Now I have more time, I’ll add a few more detail to this post.

Vent is a plugin that allows you to use the scheduled posts functionality within WordPress to add and list events on your blog. It identifies a post as an event using a user-defined criteria so that the standard Scheduled posts functionality will still operate as before.

The plugin works with standard WordPress and can also be installed within WordPress MU for activation across all hosted blogs.

More details and installation, setup instructions can be found on the following page:

http://blog.clearskys.net/plugins/vent-events-system/

Download

Click below to download the latest version of this plugin.

Old Post is below

This is just a short note as I have to shoot out of the door in about 5 minutes.

I have just made available version 0.1 of the Vent system which is my entry into the Weblogtoolscollection.com competition.

More details and a download link can be found here.

Let me know what you think.

Hoard Hunter - the plugin

The main plugin (version 0.5) for the Hoard Hunter game is now available for download from the link below.

This initial version requires that payments received via PayPal are approved manually. There will be an update very soon with a more integrated PayPal option. If you would like to be notified of new releases of the game plugin and / or would like installation and running support then please consider making a charitable donation using the Donate button below. Donors will be invited to the private Hoard Hunter group where support, ideas, update notifications and links to development versions of the system will be posted.

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Hoard Hunter theme is now available

The Hoard Hunter Oxford map game theme is now available for download from the link below. Whilst this is a WordPress theme, it is not designed (nor will it function) as a standard blog. It has been developed solely for use with the Hoard Hunter game.

I am still undecided about the best way to release the plugin part of the game system. The plugin (and theme) were developed in order to raise money for charity so I may request that people who download the plugin either only use the plugin for fund raising or make a charitable donation. The way to do this, however, escapes me at the moment. I would rather not make payment a pre-requisite for getting the code.

Either way, the plugin will be made available tomorrow afternoon.

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Quick Hoard Hunter update

Firstly thank you again for all your patience. I am still without a telephone line and internet access so updates to software and blog posts will have to remain patchy for the time being.

I have now packaged up the Hoard Hunter plugin and theme ready for downloading and will aim to get them available on the site tomorrow afternoon. There is currently a small bug in the PayPal integration class, so purchased sectors have to be manually approved, but hopefully I will have it tracked down before the release (if not then the first release will have it disabled).

Once again, if you want to try out the front end of the system then head on over to HoardHunter.com and purchase a sector. It is only $5, supports charity and helps me debug the code. On top of that you could win an 2Gb iPod shuffle for your efforts.

Vent - adding events to your WordPress blog - teaser

I’ve now done some initial work on the plugin that I will be entering into Weblog Tools collection plugin competition this year, so I thought I would take the opportunity to post some details here.

Vent is a plugin that allows you to use the Scheduled post functionality of WordPress to add and manage future events.

Details of the next scheduled event can be displayed at the top of your blog page, as well as in a sidebar widget.

All future events can be viewed on an Event listing page, and on a “Upcoming events” sidebar widget.

You also have the option of converting past events back to standard blog posts so that they remain in the blog hierarchy.

You can specify the criteria you use to identify an event in the options panel. This means that you can still use your scheduled posts functionality for it’s intended purpose.

I’ll post more information as the development continues. I am also thinking of a possible fit into the StayPress family so StayPress will handle venues and bookings and now possibly events as well.

Hoard Hunter - fund raising using WordPress

Hoard Hunter is an online treasure map game designed and developed for people who would like an easy (and fun) method of fund raising online.

The system comprises of a custom plugin and integrated theme. The Hoard Hunter site is powered by WordPress MU (though the system will also run on standard WordPress) and uses a number of WordPress plugins to provide additional functionality.

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Google AJAX Libraries API Plugin

Update: I have updated this plugin to version 0.8- this version has a more extendable listener and also allows the loading of separate scriptaculous libraries.

Earlier this week Google announced their Ajax Libraries API.

The AJAX Libraries API takes the pain out of developing mashups in JavaScript while using a collection of libraries. We take the pain out of hosting the libraries, correctly setting cache headers, staying up to date with the most recent bug fixes, etc.

The Google Ajax Libraries API Plugin (what a mouthfull) is designed to make it easy to use the Google hosted libraries without the need to mess with your theme and plugin code.

When activated, the plugin will “listen” to all of the scripts added (via the WordPress wp_enqueue_script function) to your pages header and automagically switch the locally hosted library to a Google hosted one. Deactivating the plugin will remove the “listener” and your site will return to using the local versions.

WordPress MU administrators should copy the plugin into their MU-Plugins directory for it to be enabled across all of your hosted blogs.

Version 0.8 of this plugin is available for download below.

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