smallwheels
Active member
In my forum we do collect public events by others that are interesting for the forum topic and do have a very small number of events that are organized by forum members for the forum as well (the latter like 3-4 per year)
We do have one "events-Thread" per year where the dates are collected in the start posting and new events are added by the forum members by posting to the thread. This is manual work, but we are talking about like maybe 40 events in total per year, so while not optimal this is doable.
A while ago I installed a calendar solution on top/aside of that, Google Calendar for XenForo, which has a limited featureset, but works flawlessly so far. Is is labeled "unmaintained" but it's free and it works - so nothing to complain. It is a simple calendar, powered by a shared Google Calendar in the Background. So again manual labor, but again doable. Aside from the webpage forum members can (in theory) subscribe to the calendar and will see all upcoming events in their smartphone- or desktop calendar.
Going further there are some points that we currently lack and that would bring us forward:
• the events are widespread geographically, so not every event is interesting to everyone
• there are different kinds of events (like trade fairs, community events, etc.), again, not every event is of interest for everyone
• Only the admin can add events to the calendar as well as to the thread's start posting, which creates a bottleneck - would be good if trusted members could do that as well.
• if members want to meet at one of the events this is currently done via one thread per event but this is neither reliable nor userfriendly
• for the events organized by members of or forum an RSVP function would be even more handy as it helps to keep the overview when organizing
(• note: currently (and for foreseeable time, no change planned) we do not have event fees, so this is not a criteria for us - it is all free as in free beer)
So relatively basic needs:
An event-Calendar that is tied to a thread per event, offers RSVP function, the possibilty for an ics per event, a bit of filter options and the possibility that normal forum members can create events as well, not only the admin. I consider this a pretty basic featureset.
The addons that I found are
• XenAttendo
• Calendar
• Event Forums
• Holidays Manager
Holidays Manager was released just recently, does not seem to fit our needs and got deleted in the last days - so is ruled out already. The three remaining should, as I assume, all be able to cover the featureset needed.
But now comes the nasty part:
XenAttendo
dates from 2018 and seems to be the oldest of the bunch. Seems to work but some people seem to have issues, judging from various threads on the forum. No demo site available, just a video. Latest update was about one year ago.
There is a demo site but the latest event in there is from Dec 2020 - three years ago. So no possiblity to look at things like RSVP.
Calendar
dates from late 2019, has no demo site, no screenshots, no video - simply nothing. Absolutely unclear what I will get. People seem to like and prefer it (at least some) over XenAttendo, but there seem to be some bugs/issues as well. But the general quality seems to be good. Last update was two years ago. Which seems not too convincing given that there are maintenance fees per year.
Events Forums
dates from September this year (2023) but was labeled "unmaintained" shortly after. There are a couple of screenshots but no demo site and the developer has not answered to simple questions by users regarding the addon in the thread tied to the ressource for two months.
So I am a little bit lost - neither of the addons create too much trust in the developer or in future releases. But all could be good.
Any recommendations?
PS: In the meantime I also found Calendar by AndyB but given the reputation regarding code quality throughout the forum I am part of the cohort that rather stays away from his offerings (though others may be happy with them). Plus it does not seem to meet the needed featureset anyway.
We do have one "events-Thread" per year where the dates are collected in the start posting and new events are added by the forum members by posting to the thread. This is manual work, but we are talking about like maybe 40 events in total per year, so while not optimal this is doable.
A while ago I installed a calendar solution on top/aside of that, Google Calendar for XenForo, which has a limited featureset, but works flawlessly so far. Is is labeled "unmaintained" but it's free and it works - so nothing to complain. It is a simple calendar, powered by a shared Google Calendar in the Background. So again manual labor, but again doable. Aside from the webpage forum members can (in theory) subscribe to the calendar and will see all upcoming events in their smartphone- or desktop calendar.
Going further there are some points that we currently lack and that would bring us forward:
• the events are widespread geographically, so not every event is interesting to everyone
• there are different kinds of events (like trade fairs, community events, etc.), again, not every event is of interest for everyone
• Only the admin can add events to the calendar as well as to the thread's start posting, which creates a bottleneck - would be good if trusted members could do that as well.
• if members want to meet at one of the events this is currently done via one thread per event but this is neither reliable nor userfriendly
• for the events organized by members of or forum an RSVP function would be even more handy as it helps to keep the overview when organizing
(• note: currently (and for foreseeable time, no change planned) we do not have event fees, so this is not a criteria for us - it is all free as in free beer)
So relatively basic needs:
An event-Calendar that is tied to a thread per event, offers RSVP function, the possibilty for an ics per event, a bit of filter options and the possibility that normal forum members can create events as well, not only the admin. I consider this a pretty basic featureset.
The addons that I found are
• XenAttendo
• Calendar
• Event Forums
• Holidays Manager
Holidays Manager was released just recently, does not seem to fit our needs and got deleted in the last days - so is ruled out already. The three remaining should, as I assume, all be able to cover the featureset needed.
But now comes the nasty part:
XenAttendo
dates from 2018 and seems to be the oldest of the bunch. Seems to work but some people seem to have issues, judging from various threads on the forum. No demo site available, just a video. Latest update was about one year ago.
There is a demo site but the latest event in there is from Dec 2020 - three years ago. So no possiblity to look at things like RSVP.
Calendar
dates from late 2019, has no demo site, no screenshots, no video - simply nothing. Absolutely unclear what I will get. People seem to like and prefer it (at least some) over XenAttendo, but there seem to be some bugs/issues as well. But the general quality seems to be good. Last update was two years ago. Which seems not too convincing given that there are maintenance fees per year.
Events Forums
dates from September this year (2023) but was labeled "unmaintained" shortly after. There are a couple of screenshots but no demo site and the developer has not answered to simple questions by users regarding the addon in the thread tied to the ressource for two months.
So I am a little bit lost - neither of the addons create too much trust in the developer or in future releases. But all could be good.
Any recommendations?
PS: In the meantime I also found Calendar by AndyB but given the reputation regarding code quality throughout the forum I am part of the cohort that rather stays away from his offerings (though others may be happy with them). Plus it does not seem to meet the needed featureset anyway.
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