Theatre events proving complex to schedule as recurring events.

[Abby]

Hi,
I am building a website for a not for profit theatre and gallery, using TEC with Total WordPress theme. The more I do the more I realise that they really need a custom events build, however as a not for profit that’s totally out of the question.

One of the areas I’m finding isn’t a good fit is the recurring events. I’m wondering if I am perhaps approaching this incorrectly though, as I’ve found only praise for this feature elsewhere.

A basic theatre season would run for about two weeks, usually Tuesday – Sunday, with one time for Tuesday – Saturday and another for Sunday.

I’ve attached screenshots of how I have entered recurring information (image 1) for a simple two week season like this. It’s fairly time consuming and would be difficult in a longer season. Also, the information a front end user would see when hovering over the event in Photo view is fairly offputting (image 2) – I have actually hidden this information but included the screenshot to give you more information about how I’m entering events. Lastly, it doesn’t seem to show in the single events ‘details’ field (image 3). Given all this, I’m wondering if I’m totally misunderstanding the system and making it a lot more complicated than it need be?

View post on imgur.com

Many thanks in advance,
Abby

[Josh]

Hey Abby,

Thanks for reaching out to us!

This definitely does sound like a more complicated schedule to build. Looking at it, this is the way that I would approach something like this https://cloudup.com/cHeyukAFrUU.

I’ve set the main event date for the first date of the event. I’ve then created two custom weekly recurrences where I’m able to select Tuesday – Saturday as the same time for the recurrence. I then create a second for Sunday that can be set to it’s own time different from the main event time.

As for the recurrence descriptions that you reference, you can override the default by adding a custom description there in that last field within the screenshot.

Let me know if this helps.

Thanks!

[Abby]

Thank you! I knew I was misunderstanding the interface somehow. You have clarified it wonderfully for me and your approach will work for this purpose.

I have tried entering alternative data into the ‘Recurrence Description’ field but it just disappears when I save? Would this be to do with my theme?

Lastly, is there perhaps an easy way I can have the date range showing in the photo and list view, and in the single event details rather than the first date and time? (Does this question need to be a separate support request?)

Many thanks,
Abby

[Josh]

Hey Abby,

No problem! Happy to help.

I looked into the recurrence description issue and it found that this was an existing bug already reported. I’ve added this thread to our internal bug ticket for tracking this issue. You’ll be notified here as we make progress on this one.

For this, you should be able to use the “tribe_events_event_schedule_details_formatting” filter and set the “$settings[‘show_end_time’]” to true and that should allow the end time to show anywhere the event time details are output.

Let me know if this helps.

Thanks!

 

[Abby]

Thanks Josh, that should do it.
I look forward to hearing when the recurrence description issue bug is fixed.

Many thanks for your help.

[Nico]

Hey Abby,

Josh is out today, that why I’m getting back to you. I’ll leave this thread as ‘Pending Fix’ so we can notify you when this is sorted out.

Thanks for your patience while we work on this 🙂

Best,
Nico

[Abby]

Hi, I’m not sure if it’s okay to jump back on here or if I should start another support ticket?

I wondered if you could point me in the right direction to find out more about the “tribe_events_event_schedule_details_formatting” filter? I have read this page https://theeventscalendar.com/function/tribe_events_event_schedule_details/ but as I’m relatively new to this I’m unsure how to create/access the filter?

[Keith]

Hi,

Nothing to add, but I want to keep track of this thread and be notified of replies.

As an aside, it would be good if the forum software had a “subscribe to this thread” function. I often find myself wanting to follow threads raised by other people, although I don’t have any specific input of my own.

Keith

[Josh]

Hey Abby,

No problem, you could do something like:

add_filter( 'tribe_events_event_schedule_details_formatting', 'custom_show_end_time' );
function custom_show_end_time( $settings ) {
$settings['show_end_time'] = true;
return $settings;
}

to utilize that filter. This snippet would get added to your theme’s functions.php file.

Let me know if this helps.

Thanks!

[Abby]

This reply is private.

[Josh]

This reply is private.

[Abby]

Hi Josh,
I think I’ve figured out where perhaps I haven’t been clear in my request. My events are recurring events, some happening every day for two weeks, some Tuesday-Sunday evenings for 1 – 3 weeks.. So the list and photo views are showing the start and end of the first occurance, which is a single date with a time span. So I guess my question should actually be, how can I show the date of the first occurance to the date of the last occurance? Is that possible? Or is that in fact only possible with the entering of the recurrance description, bringing us full circle to the original issue?

Apologies for my lack of clarity in the original description of this request!

[Abby]

Hi Josh,
Further to my last comment, I notice there is built in support for getting the first date of a series:

class Tribe__Events__Pro__Recurrence_Meta {…

private static function get_series_start_date( $post_id ) {
if ( method_exists( ‘Tribe__Events__Main’, ‘get_series_start_date’ ) ) {
return Tribe__Events__Main::get_series_start_date( $post_id );
}
$start_dates = tribe_get_recurrence_start_dates( $post_id );

return reset( $start_dates );
}

…}

But there is no equivalent for the last date in the series. Would the following work? And if so how would I best utilise it?

private static function get_series_last_date( $post_id ) {
if ( method_exists( ‘Tribe__Events__Main’, ‘get_series_last_date’ ) ) {
return Tribe__Events__Main::get_series_last_date( $post_id );
}
$start_dates = tribe_get_recurrence_start_dates( $post_id );

return end( $start_dates );
}

[Josh]

Hey Abby,

Thanks for following up! This definitely helps to clarify things here!

One note, I did update the previous snippet (although it isn’t too helpful for what you’re trying to accomplish) in case anyone else came across this thread for that particular feature.

It looks like we could potentially grab the end date information from the “_EventRecurrence” meta for the primary event id for the recurring series. Will need to do a little bit of testing to pull together a snippet for you here.

Thanks!

[Josh]

Hey Abby,

I apologize for the delay here.

Try the following for getting the last date within a recurring series:

<script src=”https://gist.github.com/BeardedGinger/2f5213ee262c043cfa49.js”></script&gt;

This could get a little tricky depending on how the recurrence is set, however if there are any issues it will give us a better idea for how to address the snippet for your particular events.

Let me know if this helps.

Thanks!

[Author]

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