How to use Recurring Events feature with imported XML feed?

[alexwg85]

I’m using WP All import to translate a box office software xml feed (Patron Base) into events for a mixed arts venue.<br /><br />
The feed for each event has its individual dates in a child node of the event’s feed. I would like to be able to set up the import to use that data to create the recurring dates settings automatically. Unfortunately the recurring data will always vary.<br /><br />
The WP All Import plugin recognises that there is a custom field called ‘_EventRecurrence’, but I can’t work out what would need to be entered in the ‘value’ field to automatically generate the recurring data for each event.<br /><br />
Any chance you would be able to help? <br /><br />
Below is a simplified part of the XML feed (not sure it will show up – can I email it instead?):<br />

<!-- SIMPLIFIED EXTRACT OF XML FEED FOR EACH EVENT-->

<production id="38Y3" linked="false">
<name>TEST - Pottery Madness!</name>
<type/>
<category id="WORK">Courses & Workshops</category>
<dates>
<from year="2014" month="07" day="11" hour="08" minute="00" second="00" iso8601="2014-07-11T08:00:00+01:00">11 Jul, 2014</from>
<to year="2014" month="08" day="01" hour="08" minute="00" second="00" iso8601="2014-08-01T08:00:00+01:00">01 Aug, 2014</to>
<formatted>
<![CDATA[ 11 Jul to 01 Aug, 2014 ]]>
</formatted>
</dates>
<pricing min="13.00" max="13.00" formatted="£13.00">
<price plan="10" name="Term £56 / £51 / Session £13" booktype="Session" memberprice="0" min="13.00" max="13.00" min_including_fees="13.00" max_including_fees="13.00"/>
</pricing>

<!-- NEED EACH OF THESE PERFORMANCES TO BECOME INDIVIDUAL POSTS (EVENTS) FOR EACH DATE -->
<performances total="4">
<performance id="1" year="2014" month="07" day="11" hour="08" minute="00" second="00" iso8601="2014-07-11T08:00:00+01:00" bookonlineurl="https://uk.patronbase.com/_QuayArts/Sections/Choose?prod_id=38Y3&perf_id=1" seatcount="12" seatsleft="12" statuscode="A" statusdesc="Available" pricingplan="10" venue="Jubilee Stores"/>
<performance id="2" year="2014" month="07" day="18" hour="08" minute="00" second="00" iso8601="2014-07-18T08:00:00+01:00" bookonlineurl="https://uk.patronbase.com/_QuayArts/Sections/Choose?prod_id=38Y3&perf_id=2" seatcount="12" seatsleft="12" statuscode="A" statusdesc="Available" pricingplan="10" venue="Jubilee Stores"/>
<performance id="3" year="2014" month="07" day="25" hour="08" minute="00" second="00" iso8601="2014-07-25T08:00:00+01:00" bookonlineurl="https://uk.patronbase.com/_QuayArts/Sections/Choose?prod_id=38Y3&perf_id=3" seatcount="12" seatsleft="12" statuscode="A" statusdesc="Available" pricingplan="10" venue="Jubilee Stores"/>
<performance id="4" year="2014" month="08" day="01" hour="08" minute="00" second="00" iso8601="2014-08-01T08:00:00+01:00" bookonlineurl="https://uk.patronbase.com/_QuayArts/Sections/Choose?prod_id=38Y3&perf_id=4" seatcount="12" seatsleft="12" statuscode="A" statusdesc="Available" pricingplan="10" venue="Jubilee Stores"/>
</performances>
</production>

[Barry]

Hi!

That’s an interesting question. We’re pretty limited in how much support we can provide for customization/integration tasks like this one – but what I’d recommend here is creating a recurring event (through the event editor) and then looking at the database to get a sense of how the resulting posts (and post meta for each) are structured – it’s not quite as simple as populating a single meta field, actually a number of posts must be generated.

I hope that helps, but if you have any further more specific questions about this definitely let me know and again if I can point you in the right direction I’d be happy to do so 🙂

[Barry]

Hi! It’s been a while so I’m going to go ahead and close this thread. If we can help with anything else, though, please don’t hesitate to create new threads as needed. Thanks!

[Author]

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