Creating Cinema Shedule

with views, cck and so on...

(if that makes sense - if not, let me know)

did something similar with events on my own site - so imagine a new content type called "movies" or actually, let me back up since i'm feeling long-winded ;)

you have 3 theaters, so create a new taxonomy called theatres and add the three as 'terms'
create a content type called 'movies' and use cck date to add date fields and make them 'unlimited' (and configure accordingly, eg show minutes or get granular with seconds and so on)
when editing content type be sure to group and handle the display of fields as desired (eg. create a group for showtimes to call up in separate area/tab if desired)
create additional cck fields as desired (eg. you'll probably want a stand out field for sorting like 'Rating: R/PG/NC-17 etc)
use gimmicks like fivestar and comments on the nodes to let people rate the movies or write comments on them if desired (or not, that's your choice", or fieldgroup tabs to make nifty tabs that people click between (including 'showtimes')
add a cck select field that requires selection from the taxonomy 'theaters' and forces submission to assign movie to one (or more than one) theater
perhaps require rating as well and force from a similar drop down in a new taxonomy called ratings (and associate with movies for dynamic relationships exploration, but that's for another day...)

now create a content type movie - perhaps embed a trailer from youtube (be sure to allow img tag in input filters for this, or allow admin creating this listing to input anything desired, the default if php input filter module in core is enabled)

pick the rating
pick the theater
describe the movie (etc)

now in 'showtimes' (name of the group in content type in which dates field unlimited appears) add the first show time
*does it repeat? if so, fill out repeat variables (e.g. every monday from 5 to 7 for the next 6 weeks)
add second showtime by clicking to 'add another item'
repeat first step but with second showtime (.eg every monday from 9 to 11 for next 5 weeks)
repeat for all variations on showtimes (days of weeks, times, repeating elements included)

keep on clicking unlimited to add new times and so on

using 'calendar' for views you could create a nifty calendar page that shows all of this (you'll need to modify default date:date filter as it will show date that you created the listing by default, not the actual dates of the movies!!)

using a module like simple views you could now create a view for each theater's movies and all sorts of other stuff (like custom blocks that list movies by ratings and so on...views is very powerful stuff)

hopefully this will get you started in the right direction...but again, here are the main steps/things:

d6 (no reason you can't do this with d6, absolutely no reason ;)

contrib modules needed for this:
cck (to add fields to the content type movies)
cck date (for date fields via cck - and when adding this field to content type 'movies' be sure to pick 'unlimited' to add multiple showtimes for same flick!! this is critical for what you're trying to do)
views (if you want these calendars i describe above, or simple blocks, or simple 'newest movies' pages and so on etc)
calendar for views (if using views and you want a calendar including a calendar block)
fieldgroup tabs (if you want to do something nifty like show a page where there's a tab for stuff like 'reviews' and 'showtimes' - but in order to do this, don't forget to create a 'group' in the 'manage fields' section of the content type 'movies' into which things like showtimes fall)
imagefield cck (if you want to attach pictures, or use "image module," either will suffice)
fivestar and related api (both on project page) - if you want user ratings of movies

core modules/things:
taxonomy (create one for theatres, another for rating, perhaps another for genre and so on, you get the drift)
custom content type (just add a new one to the core, or modify a core one like story and add the new fields for date and so on)
*set workflow for this content type: eg does it go to home page? can users comment? who can create such a listing/node?

there's quite a bit more, but this should hopefully get you going - let me know which parts of it don't make sense because i'm definitely rambling!

btw, a nice side effect: using views with calendar views (instead of the simple event module) you can create a super cool calendar page where a user sees 'titles of movies' all over a calendar by week/month color coded by theater and when he/she clicks on the title, instead of loading a new page immediately you can have it also pop up a cool lightbox style box with critical data (e.g shows rating and showtimes with link to node for full movie description, ratings, reviews, etc) - that's why i suggest the views approach to doing a calendar and handling times/dates cck input - event module just is not this flexible...

btw, just came back to edit: odds are you're going to be sitting down on 'some regular schedule' to do all of this data entry for upcoming movies - but you will NOT want them to publish immediately in all cases (e.g. some may not be in theaters for two months or whatever), in which case you should use this module which replicates a popular wordpress blogging feature: http://drupal.org/project/scheduler

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