Irregular Recurring Events

[Paul]

Hello!

I am posting on behalf of my client who arranges course events for junior doctors.

Some of their events are recurring but they are not regular. One example is below in DD/MM/YY format:

03/03/2016
07/06/2016
13/10/2016
01/11/2016
15/12/2016

I see a few users have posted with similar queries before but I noticed that Brook posted here:

Managing irregularly recurring events

with reference to version 3.12, which, “should have a feature ready to fully support random recurring events”.

We are running version 4.0.5 and am wondering if random recurring events is now a feature which I have overlooked?

If ‘random recurring events’ is still in the pipeline, could you possibly tell me what would be the most efficient way of entering the above recurring dates into Events Calendar?

Or, is it possible to just copy events to future dates?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Paul.

[Cliff]

Hi Paul.

The Events Calendar is currently in the “version 4” major version and definitely supports custom recurrence patterns via The Events Calendar PRO add-on.

Please reference https://theeventscalendar.com/knowledgebase/pro-recurring-events/

Although I don’t know if it’s compatible, a plugin like Duplicate Post might be a way to copy an event, which you would then probably modify before publishing, if you decide that’s a method you’d like to pursue. However, it’d probably be best if you do not duplicate recurring events, since that functionality is based on post parent/child relationships and could have conflicts if duplicated via a third party plugin.

Please let me know if you have any follow-up questions.

Thanks!

[Paul]

Hi Cliff,

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I agree the Duplicate Post plugin does not seem an ideal solution and in order to keep things simple, using events within posts is something I would like to avoid.

You said that version 4 supports custom recurring events. However, Brook refereed to version 3.12, which, “should have a feature ready to fully support random recurring events”, so I was assuming that since we were running v4.0.5, random recurring events would be fully supported by now.

You point me to page:
https://theeventscalendar.com/knowledgebase/pro-recurring-events/
but there is no mention of ‘random’ or ‘irregular’ anywhere, so am I right in assuming random/irregular events are currently not supported?

If we assume the following events are random, what would be the most efficient way you would personally enter them into The Events Calendar PRO?

DD/MM/YY
03/03/2016
07/06/2016
13/10/2016
01/11/2016
15/12/2016

Kind regards,

Paul.

[Cliff]

I understand your request better now and have confirmed that the ability to have specific dates for your recurrence pattern is not currently available in any version of our PRO add-on. Sorry to disappoint.

The only way to technically string these together as a recurring event is to enter a recurrence pattern (e.g. daily) and then enter a bunch of exclusions (way too many in this case), so I’d say our recurrence pattern functionality doesn’t work for that scenario at this time, although it is an open feature request in our bug tracker.

I’d suggest creating the March 3, 2016, event (non-recurring) and trying Duplicate Post. Then edit the copy to be July 6. Then repeat 3 more times.

They won’t be tied to each other in any way as far as a recurring series of events goes, but it’d make initial data entry easier.

I hope this works for you for now. I’ve added your request to our bug tracker to try to get more momentum toward it.

Please report back your experience with Duplicate Post if you do try it out.

Thanks for your understanding and patience.

[Morten]

I have the same issue. Events throughout the year, but not regular. Sometimes 3 events in march on (2-16-18) Then none in april and then again i may on (5-8-19). How should i do this? Please advise, thank you.

[Cliff]

Morten, I think my previous reply would apply to you as well.

If your events are more regular (e.g. monthly) with a few exceptions, you could create an event that recurs monthly and then click “Add Exception” to make April’s event not happen.

If you have follow-up questions, please open up a new topic of your own, detailing in your own words exactly what your problem is (instead of just linking here). We have just found it serves our users best to keep threads to one user’s issue.

Thanks!

===

Paul, please let me know how things go for you.

[Paul]

At this stage I don’t want to further complicate what is already quite a complicated website by also introducing posts to create events, and then using a duplicate post plugin to work around the problem.

I think it will just be better to bite the bullet and enter all courses as separate events at this time, until some other solution can be found.

Thank you for your replies.

Paul.

[Cliff]

Thanks for the update, Paul. I think you’re taking the right route for this specific scenario. Best to you and your client!

[Leah]

Hi there,

I wanted to drop in here and let you know that this feature will be included in our upcoming release! We are putting the finishing touches on The Events Calendar 4.1 and are excited to make it available. Keep an eye on your Updates page for the new version and watch our blog for the release notes post.

Thank you for supporting this feature and for your patience while we added it to the plugin.

Best,
Leah

[Author]

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