In January of 2020, we released The Events Calendar 5.0 with a substantial redesign of our calendar views. We called the upgraded views “V2”. We supported and maintained both V2 and the pre-5.0 legacy views (“V1”) until August of 2021 when we officially ended support for V1. The time has now come for us to finish the transition. With Events Calendar 6.0, we will be fully removing the legacy views from the plugin.  

If you are already using the updated V2 views, this change will not impact your site. However, if you are still using the legacy V1 views, then this update will automatically switch your site to using the updated views. Anyone still using V1 should test their site with V2 now to prevent issues when The Events Calendar 6.0 is released.

How do I know if my site is on V1 or V2?

Open the WordPress dashboard and go to Events > Settings > Display. The fourth option on the page is Use updated calendar designs. If that setting is enabled (checked), you are using the V2 views, and this update will not impact your site. If that setting is not enabled (unchecked) then you are still on the legacy views and should follow this tutorial to prepare your site.

Events Settings > Display to check the Use updated calendar designs option

If you or a developer have customized your site, it’s also possible that you have V2 de-activated manually via a WordPress function–even if the Use updated calendar designs setting is enabled. If you’re not sure, go to your calendar. If you see a Today button, your site is running V2 and you’re good to go.

Today button to denote

Step One: Enable V2 on a staging site

If you do not yet have a staging site to test with, you’ll first need to create one. We’ve got a separate article here all about the importance of staging sites and how to make one. We’d recommend that you also activate WP Debug on your staging site. Make sure your staging site is set up properly and current with your live site so that your testing is accurate.

There are two different ways to enable V2 on your test site.

Option A: Use the built in setting

This option is the easiest, and good for simpler sites or less experienced users. Just go to Events > Settings > Display and enable Use updated calendar designs. You will immediately see a visual change on your calendar’s front end.

Option B: Use the beta

We have beta versions of The Events Calendar 6.0 and Events Calendar Pro 6.0 available for download. Using the beta version(s) will provide more comprehensive testing, but is also more involved. We recommend this method for any sites that have extensive customizations. When you install the beta versions, your site will automatically be forced to use the upgraded views, just as it will when the final version is released.

Step Two: Troubleshoot any issues

Now you are ready to start testing and troubleshooting any issues you see on your staging site. The idea is to find any errors, broken functionality, or styling issues now so that you can mitigate them before they can impact your live site.

Errors & Broken Functionality

If your staging site is showing errors or not working as you’d expect, you can systematically review your extensions, plugins, and customizations to determine what’s causing the conflict. Start by deactivating any other plugins on your site, one at a time. After each one, check again for the error or problem you saw. If the issue disappears, you can then confirm that the last plugin you deactivated was causing a conflict.

If you find an issue with one of our extensions, it’s possible you just need a new version–many of our extensions have been updated recently to work with the V2 system. Unlike regular plugins, new versions of the extensions don’t appear in your WordPress admin, so you’ll need to check the extension library and see if an update is available. If the issue is with a third-party plugin, you can reach out to the developer and explain what’s happening so that they can add compatibility with the updated V2 views.

You can follow a similar process to review any customizations you’ve made to your site that could be causing errors. Remove your customizations one at a time and use that to narrow down which is causing warnings or other issues when used with V2. If you run into an issue with a snippet provided by The Events Calendar team, check out our knowledgebase. As with the extensions, we’ve updated many of our knowledgebase articles to include solutions for the V2 views. If the culprit is one of your own modifications, the knowledgebase is also a great place to start looking for a way to adjust it to work within the V2 views.

Styling Issues

The V2 views have a new modern design and you’ll see the difference right away on the front end. Depending on your theme and any customizations, you may also see some unexpected or unwanted changes.

Just as you did with plugins, one of the best troubleshooting steps is to look for a theme conflict. Try switching to a WordPress default theme (e.g. Twenty Twenty or Twenty Twenty-One) and see if the issue(s) you’re experiencing persist. If the issue is resolved, you know that it has to do with a theme conflict. We recommend reaching out to the theme developer–it’s possible they need to make some changes to be compatible with the updated views.

If you had made customizations to the legacy view templates, those customizations will not impact the site once it’s running V2. The new system has a completely different set of templates. However, the new templates are designed specifically to make customizing easier. We’ve got a whole set of articles to help you get started with customizing the new views. Here are a few links to get you started:

One of the new features available for sites running the updated views is a whole new set of options in the WordPress Customizer. Any settings you had in the Customizer for V1 will no longer apply, but you can open the Customizer to reset those and check out the new options available.

Need help? Premium users can open a ticket with our support team to assist in upgrading from legacy to V2 views. However, please note that we are limited to providing resources and helping point you in the right direction if you have extensive customizations. You will need to work through any necessary changes yourself or hire an outside developer to assist you.

Step Three: Prepare your live site

Once you’ve completed your staging site testing, you are ready to prepare your live site for the upcoming 6.0 release.

If you went through the testing steps and didn’t encounter any issues, congratulations! You can go ahead and move your live site to the upgraded views by going to Events > Settings > Display and enabling the Use updated calendar designs option. You can also choose to take no action on your live site, and it will automatically change to the upgraded views when you update to The Events Calendar 6.0.

If you tested on your staging site and ran into some errors or issues, the next step is to fix them. As described above, this may include updating plugins and customizations. You can make the changes on your staging site until you’re happy with the results. Then you can duplicate those same changes on your live site and switch to the upgraded views with confidence.

If you choose not to upgrade your views and do not plan to in the future, you need to make sure to configure your live site to prevent updates. To avoid being automatically upgraded to the views when 6.0 is released, you’ll need to essentially freeze your site in its current state. Please keep in mind that we do not recommend doing this.

Be sure to turn off all automatic updates on your site’s Plugins admin page. If you do not take this step, The Events Calendar will automatically update when 6.0 comes out and your views will be upgraded. To avoid future incompatibilities, you’ll also need to avoid updating third-party plugins, your theme, and WordPress itself.

If you accidentally update to 6.0 and need to switch back, you can downgrade your plugins

To disable the notices for legacy views V1 deprecation use the code below.

<?php 
add_filter( 'tec_events_views_v1_should_display_deprecated_notice', '__return_false' );