Adding Sidebar to Calendar & Single Events Pages

[jon]

There are 3-4 pretty things that should be easy, but I am struggling to get accomplished with the Events Calendar Pro.
Have gone through testing as well as the forum and no luck.
I have 3 licenses now, but have about 10 sites I need to do the following things on after finding solutions.

1. Add a side bar to my main Calendar page
There just isn’t an option that I can find to turn side bars on/off for the Events Calendar main page
Here is my main events page http://www.itsgreektomemn.com/events
And here is roughly want I want it to look like in a live page http://www.ponycorral.ca/featured-events/ or this mock up http://www.itsgreektomemn.com/test

2. Add a side bar to Single Events pages
Same issues as #1 but with the single events pages
Here is what I have http://www.itsgreektomemn.com/events/valentines-day-dinner/
and here is what I want with the side bar on the side and the event info/map below http://www.ponycorral.ca/featured-event/valentines-day/

3. Want my featured images to show Full Sized in Photo View
Need this in both my Calendar page & Single Events pages as it drastically cuts off the top and bottom

I tried this CSS code and it made it full sized only on the Calendar page, but the resolution stinks.
No change to the Single Events pages.

.tribe-events-list .tribe-events-loop .tribe-events-event-image {
    height: 100%;
}
 
.tribe-events-event-image img {
    height: 100%  !important;
}
 
.single-tribe_events .tribe-events-event-image {
    height: 100%  !important;
}

4. Want a Learn More or More Info link/button in Photo View
This is on the List View but in Photo View there is no dedicated link to push people to the single events pages.
Seem like a simple thing but I cant figure it out.

Thanks
Jon

[George]

Hi Jon,

Thank you for reaching out. We unfortunately cannot help with modifying how our plugins look or function.

⚠️ Please read this page about this fact before proceeding in this thread: https://theeventscalendar.com/knowledgebase/what-support-is-provided-for-license-holders/

I am sorry to bear this news, but it’s a rule we have to apply fairly to all customers and so I wanted to make it clear and set your expectations nice and early.

— George

[George]

While what I wrote above is true, and you will have to take the reins on getting your instances of our calendar to look or behave differently than how it does so out-of-the-box, I’m happy to at least try and shed some light on these topics to help you get started in the right direction with these topics. 😀

---

1. Add a side bar to my main Calendar page
There just isn’t an option that I can find to turn side bars on/off for the Events Calendar main page
Here is my main events page http://www.itsgreektomemn.com/events
And here is roughly want I want it to look like in a live page http://www.ponycorral.ca/featured-events/ or this mock up http://www.itsgreektomemn.com/test

This is true; there is no option.

However, what might help is to go to Events → Settings → Display in your site’s wp-admin. There should be an option there called “Events template:”.

Try out every single available template here — does any available template work better with the sidebars as you hope?

---

2. Add a side bar to Single Events pages
Same issues as #1 but with the single events pages
Here is what I have http://www.itsgreektomemn.com/events/valentines-day-dinner/
and here is what I want with the side bar on the side and the event info/map below http://www.ponycorral.ca/featured-event/valentines-day/

Single events pages are a bit trickier, and will unfortunately require custom coding.

Are you familiar with our Themer’s Guide, which covers some of the basics for modifying events template files? Check it out here for now and let me know if you have any follow-up questions about it ? https://theeventscalendar.com/knowledgebase/themers-guide/

---

3. Want my featured images to show Full Sized in Photo View
Need this in both my Calendar page & Single Events pages as it drastically cuts off the top and bottom

Can you share a link to some single events on your site whose featured images are drastically cut-off in the way you describe? I’ll take a look at these events firsthand and see if I can help with the CSS.

---

4. Want a Learn More or More Info link/button in Photo View
This is on the List View but in Photo View there is no dedicated link to push people to the single events pages.
Seem like a simple thing but I cant figure it out.

I will see if I can come up with a simple way to do this and share my findings. For now, let know about the questions I’ve posed above and we can continue from there! 😀

Thanks,
George

[jon]

Thanks I will let you know how these solutions work

[jon]

thank you for the further follow up, I will review it.
My previous reply was to your first response.

Jon

[George]

Cool, thanks for confirming you’ve checked that out Jon. Keep us posted here on further follow-ups and questions you might have. 🙂

— George

[jon]

Is there code or php file I can add to my child theme to allow Events Calendar Pro pages to have the option to show/call a sidebar?
It has been frustrating that the plug in doesn’t have this option out of the box, kind of makes the sidebar widgets pointless.
Thanks in advance for you assistance,
Jon

[George]

Hey Jon,

There’s unfortunately not anything our plugins provide out-of-the-box to offer this sidebar functionality you describe. It would only be possible by way of custom coding, which is unfortunately not something we’re able to help with as elaborated upon here: https://theeventscalendar.com/knowledgebase/what-support-is-provided-for-license-holders/

If you’re keen on getting these features implemented, you could write that custom code or hire a professional developer to do it for you. We have a list of great developers here → http://m.tri.be/18k1 (and have no affiliation with any of these folks—they’re simply some well-respected names in the community that we’ve compiled to share in situations like this one).

I’m sorry to disappoint about these things not being easier to attain. Please let me know if there are any other issues or questions I can try to help with!

— George

[jon]

George,
Thank you for your reply.
That is unfortunate that support is lacking since I have seen other places in the Forum where your staff has helped out with code to add a Side Bar like here https://theeventscalendar.com/support/forums/topic/how-can-i-display-the-sidebar-in-my-events-page/

I figured Events Calendar Pro would be pretty seamless, but side bars are a huge let down. Have tried to edit the Theme > Config-Events-Calendar > Views > default-templates.php but just can’t get it to call a sidebar.

Extremely disappointed that a plugin I paid $150 for doesn’t have this basic function, especial when you provide sidebar widgets. Questions on adding sidebars seem to litter the forum but finding guidance or support feels like chasing ghosts.

Thanks
Jon

[George]

Hi Jon,

It’s true that sometimes simple code can help sidebars render on the front-end. We indeed share that information and have even created step-by-step guides for making custom template files, like in our Themer’s Guide here ? https://theeventscalendar.com/knowledgebase/themers-guide/

I am sorry to hear that simple code isn’t enough for your issue here — to learn more about getting sidebars to render, check out these WordPress Codex guides:
• https://codex.wordpress.org/Sidebars
• https://codex.wordpress.org/Customizing_Your_Sidebar

If issues persist with your default-template.php usage, I’d recommend trying to activate different themes and seeing if that makes a difference; if so, then your current theme is factoring into the failure of sidebars to render. There may also be a CSS issue.

---

Sidebars are theme features in WordPress. We do not make any themes and so implementing custom sidebars falls outside the scope of support we provide, as elaborated upon here.

I am sorry for the frustrations that arise from these facts and hope the information I’ve shared above helps. If you have other questions that I can try to help with, please let me know.

— George

[jon]

George,
Thank you for your reply. Below is the code that I was able to use on my child theme functions.php to stop my theme from overriding any parts of the Events Calendar Pro. The theme is Enfold which is the top selling theme for WordPress so I figured your plugin would be more compatible out of the box. Hopefully this code helps others.

//remove Events Calendar override

add_action('after_setup_theme', 'ava_disable_events_mod', 50);
function ava_disable_events_mod() {
	$tec = Tribe__Events__Pro__Main::instance();
	
	remove_action('wp_enqueue_scripts', 'avia_events_register_assets',15);
	remove_action('tribe_events_template', 'avia_events_tempalte_paths', 10, 2);
	remove_action('option_tribe_events_calendar_options', 'avia_events_perma_options', 10);
	remove_action('tribe_general_settings_tab_fields', 'avia_events_general_tab', 10);
	remove_action('tribe_display_settings_tab_fields', 'avia_events_display_tab', 10);
	remove_action( 'tribe_events_cost_table', 'avia_events_upsell', 10);
	remove_action( 'avia_post_nav_entries', 'avia_events_custom_post_nav', 10);
	remove_filter('avia_breadcrumbs_trail','avia_events_breadcrumb');
	remove_action( 'tribe_events_before_the_event_title', 'avia_events_content_wrap', 10);
	remove_action( 'tribe_events_after_the_event_title', 'avia_events_open_outer_wrap', 10);
	remove_action( 'tribe_events_after_the_meta', 'avia_events_open_inner_wrap', 10);
	remove_action( 'tribe_events_after_the_content', 'avia_events_close_div', 1000);
	remove_action( 'tribe_events_after_the_content', 'avia_events_close_div', 1001);
	remove_action( 'tribe_events_after_the_content', 'avia_events_close_div', 1003);
	remove_action( 'tribe_events_single_event_after_the_content', array( $tec, 'register_related_events_view' ) );
}

I am still having two issues with the plugin itself regardless of which Basic Template Settings I choose.

1. The resolution of the Featured Image for each event is usually loads at a low resolution even though the graphic itself is crisp. This is most evident on the non-reoccurring events for some reason.

2. When clicking the “Past Events Link” it really stacks the events on top of each other pretty badly until you refresh the page. Example http://www.itsgreektomemn.com/events/
To test go the event page link I just posted and click “past events” to see it all jumbled, then when you refresh the page it lines up correctly.
Any way to get it to load correctly the first time?

Thanks
Jon

[jon]

Here are screenshots, although I assume you’ll see it when you load the pages
Have tested across all major browsers

Jon

[jon]

In addition to the screenshots I provided, the resolution issue can be investigated this way:

Go to the Past Events page and the featured image resolution is poopy, click on any Past Event, then go directly back to the Past Events page it then serves that one event’s featured image at full resolution. Visit another event and go directly back to the Past Events page and both show in full resolution.

Seems like something with the plugin isn’t serving the featured images initially at full resolution using Photo view. At first I though maybe it is because my Featured Images weren’t big enough, however, that had no effect at all and the issue was the same.

Jon

[George]

Thanks Jon, I am working on the two subsequent issues you mentioned here and should have a more substantive response for you soon.

Stay tuned!
George

[Support Droid]

Hey there! This thread has been pretty quiet for the last three weeks, so we’re going to go ahead and close it to avoid confusion with other topics. If you’re still looking for help with this, please do open a new thread, reference this one and we’d be more than happy to continue the conversation over there.

Thanks so much!
The Events Calendar Support Team

[Author]

Posts