Duplication of recurring events

[Mark]

We are having some issues 1) with recurring events appearing multiple times on the same day as well as 2) appearing on days throughout the week that the event is not held on.

1) I believe the problem in the first case is that the locations are different for the same event. Is there a way to only show the event and then when the person chooses that event, it shows the additional locations where it is being held?

2) In the second case, there seems to be confusion when people see the start and end date for the event. Instead of having the start date and allowing them to choose if it is held regularly on Tuesdays, they do not choose the day of the event twice and then the recurring data. Then when they choose the recurring feature they repeat that end date and even though they choose weekly it is still running the event every day in between. (Events that occur multiple times each week i.e. Monday, Wednesday, Friday are also confusing people). Are there any plans to provide an explanation above the fields so people understand how to fill out recurring events properly or perhaps changing the way the information is entered?

If you have any feedback or suggestions on either of these issues, it would be helpful. Thanks!

[Mark]

The best example of the above is the February 2013 calendar here: http://scotsmanonline.com/events/2013-02

[Casey]

Mark,
Since this seems to be an EC Pro issue, I’m moving this thread over to that forum. Stand by.

[Mark]

Just wanted to follow up to see if anyone has had a chance to review this. When you have a moment, please let us know.

[Jonah]

Hi Mark,

Sorry about the delay in anyone getting back to you on this. I’ve got a few questions:

1. Have you tried deactivating all other plugins and/or reverting to the Twenty Eleven/Twelve to rule out a conflict there?

2. Are you noticing this only with events submitted via our Community Events plugin or via events input on the back end too?

3. Do you have some step by step instructions that you can provide us to try and reproduce the issue? Or, a screencast documenting the issue? No one else is reporting this issue and I do not see this behavior on my end, but I may not be following the same steps as you. I need to know those steps to be able to report to a developer the issue.

Let me know on the above and I’ll do my best to help you resolve this as quick as possible.

Thanks,
Jonah

[Mark]

Since we aren’t the ones entering the events, it’s difficult to know exactly what mistakes people are making, but the main issue is that the plugin is allowing people to enter events incorrectly. In other words, if a person selects a day that an event begins like Feb. 1 and it occurs every Friday until Feb. 22, when they select February 22 as the end date it is possible (if they do not fill out the recurring fields properly) that the event will appear every day until the 22nd. I think people may be confused instead of choosing Feb. 1 as the start and end date and then selecting that it should be recurring weekly they think that the end date is the last day of the last event. The calendar then interprets the event as running continuously. My thinking is that either the plugin should be more specific in how it labels recurring events (ie. some happen Monday, Tuesday, Thursday every week and there’s no option for people to easily select only those days) or an explanation should be given above each option specifying how to enter a recurring event properly so the above described mistakes do not happen. Also, when a person creates an event being held at multiple locations (like swimming lessons at the YMCA) it should list that event and have the location details listed in the post rather than creating 10 different listings for the same event at the same time. From a user’s standpoint there’s too much clutter in the calendar. Basically, we need to find a way to cut down the amount of duplication occurring, which you can see on the February calendar. Some of the days in February have as many as 12 instances of the event “Arthritis Foundation Aquatics Program.”

[Jonah]

Hi Mark,

I feel your pain. The only thing you can do at the moment is put in some messaging either within the form or in the sidebar to guide your users along. In the future we hope to include some improvements to the form entry, required fields and stuff like that. But, I have no idea when that’s coming…

Sorry I don’t have more to offer.

– Jonah

[Mark]

Is the answer in this post (https://theeventscalendar.com/support/forums/topic/disable-recurring-events-in-community-events-plugin/) still the best way to disable the recurring events feature in the new versions of the community events plugins? If so, we might try that in the mean time.

[Jonah]

Hi Mark, yep that would be the best way to disable that.

– Jonah

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