Events Calendar on Custom Lists

[putty]

	Summary	Add Calendar functionality to Custom Lists
	Preview	See it in action here
	Repository	Event List Calendar
	Install Guide	How to install a theme or theme component
	New to Discourse Themes?	Beginner’s guide to using Discourse Themes

This utilizes (requires) both the events and the custom lists plugin.

Why use this over the upcoming events page?

• Gives the option to have a sidebar outlet instead of the full calendar
• Includes the topic list
• Ability to target multiple categories or specific tags (via the custom lists plugin)

Note: to exclude categories where a tag is used, be sure to -category:SLUG in the custom list settings. I.e, tag:webinar,livestream -category:show-tell

Calendar view:

Sidebar view:

Settings

Includes the ability to have different calendars per list/object

• Full calendar or sidebar outlet
• Include New Topic/Event button
• Only show topics in the list with events
• Hide the topic list

[nathank (Nathan Kershaw)]

This is really cool! I can see it becoming super useful, and bridging the missing overall site upcoming events list in the core functionality.

For some reason, the toggle to hide non-event containing topics isn’t working for me. This is with the Horizon theme (haven’t tested it further sorry). I wonder if what is needed is for the filter to handle Event filtering rather than hiding them via the TC. I’ll put in a feature request for that:

Add event: filter to the topic filter query language (Discourse Events plugin extension)

This would allow filtering for topics that have an Event attached via the Events plugin, using the /filter route and the Custom Topic Lists plugin. The problem The Discourse Events plugin creates rich event topics, but there’s currently no way to isolate them from non-event topics using the topic filter query language. The existing workarounds all have downsides: The /upcoming-events route shows events as a calendar, not a filterable topic list - although it perhaps sh…

Also, we really need the New Topic button to become a New Event button instead on the Event filtered list. Is it possible to add that to the TC?

[putty]

@nathank

For some reason, the toggle to hide non-event containing topics isn’t working for me. This is with the Horizon theme (haven’t tested it further sorry).

I’ll test Horizon to see what I can find. Thank you for submitting that feature request, though!

@nathank

Also, we really need the New Topic button to become a New Event button instead on the Event filtered list. Is it possible to add that to the TC?

Sure, this shouldn’t be too hard!

[putty]

@nathank

For some reason, the toggle to hide non-event containing topics isn’t working for me.

This should work in Horizon now. I’ll revisit if/when your feature request goes through.

@nathank

Is it possible to add that to the TC?

New Topic/Event button added!

I toyed with pulling the filter from the List setting, but if there are multiple tags or categories, it gets messy.

[nathank (Nathan Kershaw)]

Wow! Thank you for listening and putting that into action so promptly. I’m really looking forward to giving it a test run shortly.

@putty

I’ll revisit if/when your feature request goes through.

It is!

Add event: filter to the topic filter query language (Discourse Events plugin extension)

good idea! how about: event:any topics with an event -event:any topics without an event event:upcoming events that haven’t started yet event:ongoing events happening now event:past events that have ended, including closed events event:upcoming,ongoing a comma means “any of” -event:<state> excludes topics whose event is in that state (e.g. -event:past) event-after:YYYY-MM-DD events starting on or after a date event-before:YYYY-MM-DD events starting before a date event-attending:<username> event…

[nathank (Nathan Kershaw)]

@putty

New Topic/Event button added!

Okay, I’ve had a play now - works nicely! And the non-event topics are nicely hidden on Horizon too.

However, it really needs one more tweak for it to really fly, and it would do well with a specific adaptation for Horizon.

The key remaining issue

Currently, it opens up a topic in the site default composer category. While this is great as a proof of concept, it really needs to open up a new topic in an Event context (as in a configured Events category) or our users will get hopelessly lost.

Of note, if you change the site default composer category to an Events category, this makes an events input box that the user can’t easily remove unless they change categories or dive into Markdown. Knowing my users, they will get stuck and give up!!!

How should we approach this?

I’m guessing that the core Events plugin functionality might be a little hard to work with here. But perhaps you can find a clever way. I’d suggest aiming for having the Events input box appear (and remain there) regardless of the category chosen.

A reasonable workaround might be to get the button to open with a configured category (i.e. one with Events configured). If the user inputs some data, it will remain active even if they change categories. However, if they choose the category first they will lose the input box. This might require some signposting.

The pesky Horizon Theme

Lastly, the Horizon Theme does some lovely / weird stuff with the New Topic button (is placed high on the left sidebar on desktop), and this will need to be specifically mitigated.