It looks like my attempts to construct a "My Calendar" for each of my users is slowly making some progress.
So I'm gonna keep this topic as my "progress diary" and a "how to" as I go along. I think this will be VERY useful for the drupal community in the future. So if you have any thoughts or suggestions, please write them here.
So.... here is what I'm trying to achieve, and here are my Functional Requirements:
In the navigation menu the user will have a link "My Calendar".
When he clicks it he will see a month Calendar view of all the events/nodes that:
A) he Authored/created
AND/OR
B) he accepted RSVP for
AND/OR
C) he signed up for
AND/OR
D) I think this should also include other content types that use Date API to indicate Deadlines
I think given that Drupal already has a whole series of "My Stuff" (My Groups, My Inbox, My Subscriptions, My Site, My Buddies etc), I think having My Calendar is VERY important.
(hopefully, when I figure all this out I will write a handbook page on how to get this done)
Problems/Solutions:
I use the following modules: Event, Event Repeat, RSVP, Signup, Calendar, Date API and Views
I took the default Calendar month view which is called “calendar” and cloned it and created “my_calendar”
A) The point (A) is easily tackled by adding in Views an Argument "User: Username is Author". Like this My Calendar will display the event nodes that that user created/authored.
B) The point (B) regarding RSVP module, I still don’t have any working solutions for!!! This is my priority right now. I want all the events for which a given user accepts an RSVP for to show up in his own “My Calendar” (among all other events that he created, signed up for or added to his deadlines. As of now I don’t have a solution for this because RSVP module does not export any Arguments to the Views. Any help or suggestions highly appreciated.
C) The point (C) pertaining to the Signup module has just got a solution! I posted this issue in almost all modules that I used. Luckily, KarenS from the Calendar module was kind enough to write a patch and post it in the issue queue of Signup module here http://drupal.org/node/180154 . After that dww (Derek) committed a slightly modified version to HEAD here http://drupal.org/node/95695 . I tested it – It works!!! I don't know when this will make it into any dev or stable version of the Signup module In "my_calendar" view I added an Argument “Signup: User: UID Signup for Node”. In effect, those users who signup for an event immediately have that event displayed in their “My Calendar”.
What is even cooler is that like this a user sees both the events that he Authored as well as the Events that he Signed-up for in the same “My Calendar”.
BUT… the problem right now is that in the calendar month view the events are displayed by the date that they were last updated, rather then the dates when they are taking place This could be a minor Views choice. If you know how to sort this out, please write it here.
D) What I also want is for my website users to be able to see their Deadlines from node types that are not events also inside their “My Calendar”. My idea about how to tackle this is to use Views Bookmarks module, and to create a special “Deadline” bookmark type. In effect, I hope, those node types that use Date API to indicate deadlines will also have a link “Add to my Deadlines”. In theory, this should work. I will write more as I go along. Any suggestions/advices really appreciated.
What I need to do next?
1) Wait until RSVP module maintainers will come back with a similar implemented patch solution like the one that was achieved through collaboration between KarenS (from Calendar module) and dww ( from Signup module)
2) Figure out how to display the events and nodes in the Calendar view by the date that they are actually taking place (right now they are showing as on the date that they were last updated).
3) Try my luck with the Views bookmarks module to see if those node types that have deadlines can also be displayed in My Calendar
4) Find a way to display in different colours the events/nodes that the users Authored, accepted RSVP, signed up and added to his Deadlines.
I will keep writing here as I discover new things. In the meanwile, any suggestion/advices/pointers really appreciated!!!
Comments
progress?
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tried creating the date view as mentioned but did not work?
i might suscribe again.