Recurring events bugs: Can’t be changed to non-recurring; fields can be blank

[sean]

I am running TEC, TEC PRO, Community Events, and Filter Bar.

Recurrence fields can be left blank
When an event is submitted by a user via Community Events, if “Every Year” is selected as the recurrence and it is set to “End ON”, the user can submit the event with the end date blank (by default the start date is in the date field as the placeholder, but it is grayed out and is not submitted as a value). The user can also submit an event with the field blank when setting it to “End AFTER” ___ days/weeks/months. Those are not as big of an issue as the “End ON” problem, since the latter has a “1” in the field by default and the user would need to delete it from the field in order for it to be blank. Still, no error message is thrown in that case either.

When an admin is reviewing the event, the admin cannot publish the event unless an end date is entered (the notification “You must select a recurrence end date” is shown when the admin attempts to “publish” the recurring event without an end date).

Recurring events cannot be changed to non-recurring
Additionally, if the admin (or user/author) changes the recurrence to “None” the event still remains a “recurring” event (on the pending events list, in search results, on the single event page, etc) even though “None” is shown as its recurrence when editing the event. The url of the event also retains the “/all” at the end of the permalink.

I understand that a permanent fix might not be available in the near-term, but would it be possible to provide a temporary fix so it is possible to change a recurring event to non-recurring? That would also be a workaround for “fixing” the blank recurrence field issue.

Thanks,
Sean

[Barry]

Hi Sean,

Thanks for reporting this: there are definitely some kinks in the system here and I’ll log them for further attention – our apologies for any inconvenience in the meantime.

I understand that a permanent fix might not be available in the near-term, but would it be possible to provide a temporary fix so it is possible to change a recurring event to non-recurring? That would also be a workaround for “fixing” the blank recurrence field issue.

I can’t guarantee anything here, I’m afraid – if there’s a clear path to providing such a fix then it is of course more likely we will be able to do so.

These problems are undoubtedly going to be a nuisance when they crop up: I’m curious though if it is throwing up challenges you need to solve on daily basis – or if it is a problem that surfaces less frequently?

(Naturally we’re going to do out best to fix this as quickly as we can, but getting a “real world” perspective from a user such as yourself on how much impact this is having would be appreciated.)

[sean]

Thanks for logging these issues Barry. Much appreciated.

With regards to how often we are dealing with this, it actually is an issue that’s coming up on a a near-daily basis for us. Our event calendar is for endurance events, so a large amount of the races we have submitted by our clients are annual events. Unfortunately, some clients are selecting “every year” from the dropdown and are not catching that they need to enter an end date. Or in many cases, the client should NOT have set it as a recurring event if they’ve entered event details that are specific to the current year (since they wouldn’t apply to the following year). Both of these obviously lead to extra work on our end, especially when we are unable to remove the recurrence for an event.

Thus far we’ve been recreating the event with our account and changing the author to the client, and then deleting the original listing which was incorrectly set as a recurring event. So you can see how just a dozen of those per week would quickly add up in lost time.

I hope this helps give you a better understanding of how these are impacting us. Thanks again for your assistance.

Sean

[Barry]

Definitely – I appreciate the feedback and will update our internal issue tracker accordingly (and we’ll keep you posted here in this thread as things progress).

Thanks again!

[sean]

Thanks Barry.

I was thinking…perhaps a workaround in the meantime would be to hide the “On” option from the 2nd dropdown in the recurrence section (the dropdown that includes On, After, and Never). That would force our users to choose “After”, which by default has a “1” in the input field, or “Never”, which has no input option. It would thus eliminate the possibility of them leaving the date input blank, which as we know is what’s happening when they go with the End “On” option.

Would it be possible for you guys to provide a function/filter that accomplishes this? It’d be appreciated, as my gut tells me that it would provide a useful workaround for these two issues until a permanent fix can be released further down the line.

Thanks,
Sean

[Barry]

Hi Sean,

That might work. The easiest way to do it would be to set up a template override for community/modules/recurrence.php. Within your custom version of that file, find and remove this line:

<option value="On" <?php selected( $recEndType, 'None' ); ?>><?php _e( 'On', 'tribe-events-community' ); ?></option>

Once this issue is resolved you can simply restore it or just remove your template override.

Does that work for you?

[sean]

Thanks Barry. That does work for hiding the “On” dropdown, but the input field after that remains the date field when “After” is the new default value for the dropdown (should be the numeric field with “1” as the placeholder). Changing the dropdown to “never” and then back to “after” does have the correct input displayed. How can I get that showing when the dropdown initially shows “After”?

[Barry]

Apologies Sean, I somehow missed that. A slightly wider change is probably going to be needed then. Assuming an unmodified version of the same template the idea would be to change this section:

<select name="recurrence[end-type]">
	<option value="On" <?php selected( $recEndType, 'None' ); ?>><?php _e( 'On', 'tribe-events-community' ); ?></option>
	<option value="After" <?php selected( $recEndType, 'After' ); ?>><?php _e( 'After', 'tribe-events-community' ); ?></option>
	<option value="Never" <?php selected($recEndType, "Never") ?>><?php _e('Never','tribe-events-community'); ?></option>
</select>

<input autocomplete="off" placeholder="<?php echo TribeDateUtils::dateOnly( date( TribeDateUtils::DBDATEFORMAT ) ); ?>" type="text" id="recurrence_end" class="tribe-datepicker" name="recurrence[end]" value="<?php esc_attr_e($recEnd); ?>" style="display:<?php echo !$recEndType || $recEndType == 'On' ? 'inline' : 'none'; ?>"/>

<span id="rec-count" style="display:<?php echo $recEndType == 'After' ? 'inline' : 'none'; ?>">
	<input autocomplete="off" type="text" name="recurrence[end-count]" id="recurrence_end_count"  value="<?php echo $recEndCount ? intval($recEndCount) : 1 ?>" style="width: 40px;"/>
	<span id="occurence-count-text">
		<?php echo isset( $recOccurrenceCountText ) ? esc_html($recOccurrenceCountText) : ''; ?>
	</span><!-- #occurence-count-text -->
</span><!-- #rec-count -->

To:

<select name="recurrence[end-type]">
	<option value="After" <?php selected( $recEndType, 'After' ); ?>><?php _e( 'After', 'tribe-events-community' ); ?></option>
	<option value="Never" <?php selected($recEndType, "Never") ?>><?php _e('Never','tribe-events-community'); ?></option>
</select>

<span id="rec-count" style="display:inline">
	<input autocomplete="off" type="text" name="recurrence[end-count]" id="recurrence_end_count"  value="<?php echo $recEndCount ? intval($recEndCount) : 1 ?>" style="width: 40px;"/>
	<span id="occurence-count-text">
		<?php echo isset( $recOccurrenceCountText ) ? esc_html($recOccurrenceCountText) : ''; ?>
	</span><!-- #occurence-count-text -->
</span><!-- #rec-count -->

It’s not perfect but it may suffice until we release a substantive fix.

[sean]

Thank you very much Barry. This looks like it will act as a usable workaround until a permanent fix is released. I appreciate your help with this!

[Barry]

Our pleasure 🙂

I’ll go ahead and close this thread – but we’ll do our best to re-open and post an update as work on the bug progresses.

Thanks again!

[Leah]

Hi there,

I wanted to post here and update you. Although we weren’t able to get a fix for the issue your reported into our upcoming 3.9 release, it is still on our list to get corrected. Thank you for reporting the problem, and for your patience and support while we get a solid fix in place. We’ll update you when a solution is ready to go.

Best,
Leah

[Leah]

Hi there,

Thank you for your support and patience while we worked on this issue. We are happy announce that we have incorporated a fix into our upcoming 3.10 release. Keep an eye out for a release announcement on our site and for updates available on your WordPress dashboard.

While we have thoroughly tested this release and are confident of its quality, it is impossible to account for every edge case in the wide world of WordPress. If you run into trouble with the new version or you don’t see your reported issue corrected, please start a new thread and we will be happy to work with you.

Thanks again for your patience here. We’re excited to get this version out the door and into your hands!

Best,
The Events Calendar Team

[Author]

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