Labnotes

Jan 10th, 2006
Screencast: Posting events with WordPress 2.0

Want to post events on your blog? I wrote a WordPress plug-in that does just that. Here’s the screencast showing the plugin in action. It’s 4.68MB long and runs for 3:30.

Apparently, it’s not that complicated. Most of the smarts are in the UI: making it simple and intuitive to use, with simple AJAX to make up for JavaScript’s shortcomings (date/time validation).

The event I’m posting about is the SD Forums Microformats round table taking place tonight. And here’s the blog post about it (the same one I’m screencasting).

Update: Added a link to the uPress plug-in page.

Printable PDF | Posted by Assaf Filed in Uncategorized 31 Comments »
1. Jan 10th, 2006
  WordPress Station » Blog Archive » Screencast: Posting events with WordPress 2.0
  
  [...] Labnotes Along with a plugin, the author offers the first (to my knowledge) screencast outlining the use of the plugin. Plugin itself is for using your blog to post upcoming events and details. [...]
2. Jan 10th, 2006
  microformats | weblog | Publishing Events with Wordpress 2.0
  
  [...] Assaf has just posted a screen cast demonostrating how to publish hCalendar events with his plugin and WordPress 2.0. [...]
3. Jan 11th, 2006
  Daniel Haran
  
  Very impressive; it shows how easy this can be. What did you use to create the screencast?
  
  One little bug: the google map link is to 14000 instead of 4000 (probably the room number being appended), making Google default to 1.
4. Jan 11th, 2006
  Assaf
  
  Thanks.
  
  I created the screencast with Wink.
  
  There’s indeed a bug, the 1 is picked as the street number, and 4000 as part of the street name. I’ll have to figure out how to fix it.
5. Jan 11th, 2006
  rollsroick — Weblog » Event Publishing mit Wordpress.
  
  [...] Der zugehörige Screencast demonstriert, wie einfach die Erstellung eines solchen Eventpostings ist. Besonders gut finde ich, dass automatisch ein Link zu Google Maps generiert wird, der den Veranstaltungsort des Events auf einer Karte anzeigt. [...]
6. Jan 15th, 2006
  Nathan
  
  Hi,
  
  I kept getting error installing this plugin.
  Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_CONST, expecting T_OLD_FUNCTION or T_FUNCTION or T_VAR or '}' in /home/www/wp-content/plugins/uPress/upress.php on line 31
  
  Running on WP 2.0.
7. Jan 16th, 2006
  Assaf
  
  I might be using a PHP 5 feature, so it won’t work on PHP 4 (the plug-in will definitely not work on PHP 3). Let me check it out and do a new release.
8. Jan 18th, 2006
  nate
  
  Yep, getting same issue. PHP4 here. Sorry to be redundant, and thanks for the help.
9. Jan 23rd, 2006
  Assaf
  
  The download link now points at a new version that works with PHP4.
  
  Thank you Nate for your help fixing and testing it.
10. Jan 27th, 2006
  nate
  
  My pleasure Assaf. Thanks for fixing it so quickly. :)
11. Jun 18th, 2006
  Jonathan
  
  What plugin have you used for the MAP IT function? I’d like to install this also.
  Thanks,
  Jonathan
12. Jun 18th, 2006
  Assaf
  
  The plugin itself, if it recognizes an address, creates a link to the Google map.
13. Aug 4th, 2006
  Dimiter
  
  Very useful plugin. I am intending to use it for a client’s site. However, it doesn’t seem to recognise french dates. A french translation of the whole plugin would be useful. Are you aware if such a translation exists?
14. Aug 4th, 2006
  Assaf
  
  Dimiter,
  
  I didn’t see a French translation for this one. Dates are handled by PHP code, I don’t know how well it recognizes non-US dates. If you find out, can you share it with us?
15. Aug 7th, 2006
  Dimiter
  
  I’ve translated the interface but still need to change how dates are managed. In the meantime, I have a request. What MySQL query should I write to get all the events in a certain category ordered in ascending orde?. I need something like http://codex.wordpress.org/Displaying_Posts_Using_a_Custom_Select_Query .
  Could you help about that while I’m working on the date problem?
16. Aug 7th, 2006
  Assaf
  
  Dimiter,
  
  The event data is stored in the table wp_postmeta using the attributes dtstart and dtend. It’s a generic table with name-value pairs.
  
  The values are strings, but stored as ISO date/time (yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss), so you can sort them with ORDER BY .. ASC/DESC.
17. Aug 8th, 2006
  Dimiter
  
  Why not just provide select boxes for the month and the day of the month and an input box for the year. The day of the week could be returned by a PHP function (am I right?). Time could also be separated in hours and minutes input boxes (how would we tell the difference between 12-hour and 24-hour format)
  This way the dates would be easier to input as they are language independant. And then, the date could be displayed for the defined locale.
  
  Does this make any sense?
18. Aug 8th, 2006
  Doug Bedient
  
  I love the simiplicity of your plugin. Most similar plugins that GEO stamp seem overly klunky. That said, I would like to take your plugin one step further. In my case, half of the addresses cannot be for some reason OR as maps go, the location is not quite right OR in my case there is no address as the event location only exists as a Lat/Long location (i.e a lake outing). Basically, it would be nice to preview the location and modify it if necessary.
  
  Would you have any interest in this? Or does it defeat what you’re trying to accomplish.
  
  Thanks for the great plugin.
  
  P.S. Wasn’t expecting the listing bonus.
19. Aug 10th, 2006
  Assaf
  
  Doug,
  
  Adding a location preview is a great idea. I added a map link so you can preview the location, but it’s clunky to use. If you can improve that, it would make the plugin all the more better!
20. Sep 7th, 2006
  Using Microformats in WordPress | blogHelper
  
  [...] uPress WordPress Plugin – Adds the appropriate form fields to your Write Post panel. Screencast guide for WP 2.0 available. [...]
21. Jun 20th, 2007
  Palim Palim Berlin Plemplem
  
  [...] kleine Erweiterung: FÃ¼rs BeitrÃ¤ge schreiben Screencast RSS Trackback URL Quatschkopp | 21. Juni 2007 [...]
22. Sep 22nd, 2007
  Mark Marucot
  
  I like your plugin. I want to place an upcoming events in the sidebar. How can I do it?
23. Oct 19th, 2007
  Daron
  
  I installed the plugin on my wordpress site (2.3). The Listing feature on new posts doesn’t work..the fields don’t let me type inside them…any clue as to why?
  
  Thanks!
  D
24. Nov 30th, 2007
  Assaf
  
  I’m not making an upgrade for this plugin right now, so most likely that it will not support WordPress 2.2 or later.
  
  The code is open source if anyone wants to take care of releasing new versions.
25. Dec 4th, 2007
  ?????????? ???????????? ? ????? ?????. :: #????
  
  [...] – ????????? ??????????????? ???? ?? ???? ?????? Write Post. ?????? ??? WP 2.0 – ? [...]
26. Feb 28th, 2008
  Ward Web Werks » Blog Archive » Top 30 Wordpress Plugins!
  
  [...] Simple Tags. 22. Syntax Highlighter. 23. Screencast – Posting Events with Wordpress. 24. Wordpress Reports. 25. Top 10 posts and Views per post. 26. Mobile Phone optimized WordPress. [...]
27. Mar 10th, 2008
  andr
  
  Can’t get it running under PHP4 :(
28. Mar 21st, 2008
  sevin
  
  It runs under php4 flawlessly.
29. May 5th, 2008
  Bee Real
  
  Thanks for this plugin. I currently have it running on my test server and its running under php4 without a hiccup. Not sure why others are having problems.
30. Jun 12th, 2008
  trevor – Internet Marketing
  
  To Andr, if you are sure you are using at least Php 4, upgrades to php turned off certain ( supposedly not safe features in php4 ).
  
  You can perhaps experiment with modifying this in your /etc/php.ini file or your php.ini file under windows. You will see a number of parameters with comments that say they have been turned off for safety reasons.
  
  If you are inside a Plesk web installation, the domain parameters in plesk have a check box for turning on or off safe_php variables. Try toggling those instead of messing with the php.ini files if this is your case.
  
  Good luck.
31. Jun 20th, 2008
  The Optimist
  
  Wow. Wordpress has changed quite a bit since then. I’m actually wondering how I can modify the date for the latest version. Can’t find how to and when I do.. it’s about changing the html which I don’t lnow much about.

The Daily Hi

Screencast: Posting events with WordPress 2.0