New Calendar Features

[beerinator]

You can now add yourself as attending an event on the Beer Mapping Calendar.

Basically if someone ties an event post to a date on the calendar, you can read about it and then add yourself as someone who plans to attend.



As you can see from the image above, if you are not already attending an event, you will see a "add me" link and image that you can click to add your name to the list of attendees.

If you are already attending an event and something comes up or you can't actually make the event, you should be presented with a "remove me" link and image that you can click to remove your name from the list. 



Similarly to many other functions on the site, these two links will kick up a pop up window that will remove you and then they will refresh the main page so your name will appear or disappear from the list.

Adding Events

If you have never added an event to the calendar, it is very simple and there are two different ways to do it.

1. The easiest, is to find the date on the calendar (using the calendar link above).  Clicking on the date number will bring up a page where you can post a thread that is also linked to the calendar.  When adding an event this way, you have to choose which forum you would like the event to be posted to.  Usually you should select the regional forum where the event is occurring, but if you forget, the event will be posted in the general beer events forum and it can be moved if you wish.

2. The other way to add an event to the calendar is to create a post as usual and when you have posted it, you should be able to see a link at the bottom where you can "link to calendar".  This will pull up a page that allows you to select a date and name the event.



Future Expansions

There is already a way for me to attach a Beer Mapping location to an event.  Eventually this function will also be extended to the event creator (when I write the code).  The long term future goal is to have a map generated that will display all events that are listed on the map in the future and tied to a location (or an address is listed for a non-beermapping location).

As always, let me know if there are any bugs or if you can think of any suggestions!

[BahHumBrew]

Great feature!      Links to locations and maps will make it better.

It might also help to indicate region the event is in on the calendar.  Maybe just color code them to match the regional map colors.

[beerinator]

Great feature!      Links to locations and maps will make it better.

It might also help to indicate region the event is in on the calendar.  Maybe just color code them to match the regional map colors.

That would be helpful.  It would also be nice if people could subscribe via rss or email to events in regions or perhaps in states.  But this all requires that we get the location system working so that people can attach locations to the event.

[beerinator]

click to see the map

[BahHumBrew]

That's nice.  Including the links back to the on-site info makes it really useful. 
The google search nearby feature should also be useful for attendees if they are looking for lodging, etc. 
Will this work something like the pub crawl feature only using events selected from the calendar page?

[beerinator]

That's nice.  Including the links back to the on-site info makes it really useful. 
The google search nearby feature should also be useful for attendees if they are looking for lodging, etc. 
Will this work something like the pub crawl feature only using events selected from the calendar page?

It would be nice to include the event information right there on the maps, but because the forums use bbcode and that page only recognizes html, it would end up being a fairly complicated program to convert it back.  I'm pretty sure someone else out there has written scripts that I can use, but for now this is what we have.

Also, I have written the system to attach a location to an event.  The feature is only available for the person who adds the event.  Basically it is another popup that works as a series of dropdown selections (country,state/province,city,location).  Since a lot of events occur at non-beer places (convention centers, etc.) we will eventually have the ability to put in a location name and address to add it to the maps.

Right now, the map is displaying all future events that are tied to a location.  In the future, we may limit it to the next three months or something depending on the number of events in the queue.

[BahHumBrew]

How would you like multi-day events to be entered?  I was going to enter a couple of events late this month that are 2-3 days long.  I guess making separate entries for each day would allow attendees to indicate which days they are planning to attend but it may create unnecessary clutter on the calendar.  It might be better if there were a way to link them or create a single multi-day event.

[beerinator]

How would you like multi-day events to be entered?  I was going to enter a couple of events late this month that are 2-3 days long.  I guess making separate entries for each day would allow attendees to indicate which days they are planning to attend but it may create unnecessary clutter on the calendar.  It might be better if there were a way to link them or create a single multi-day event.

The way the system is set up currently, the best way to do it would be to start one event (by either way as described above) and then keep linking that thread to the calendar for a different day (using the link to calendar button underneath the post you just made).

The database is set up like this:
Each thread can be tied to multiple days in the calendar.
Each link to the calendar is a separate event, but since they are all tied to the same thread, the thread views them as the same event.
This means that people at the moment could not sign up for different days of a multiday event thread unless there were separate threads for each day.

I will look into the option of allowing people to sign up for one day out of a multiday event, but at the moment this is the way the system would work.  I personally don't like the idea of three identical threads for a three day festival, so I would potentially prefer to change the way the system works if people thought that it was a big enough issue.

[beerinator]

We are now displaying events added in your review list/profile page (on the far right side under "uploaded images").
http://beermapping.com/maps/reviews/reviewlist.php?uid=1

This is just another number for you to use to compare your worth with other humans.  I know you are all excited!

By the way, if an admin (like me) comes along behind you and attaches your event to the calendar, you will not get credit for adding an event.  The reasons are complicated, but those are the breaks.

[beerinator]

I changed the way the listings are sent to that map.  Now they should be sorting on the left by date.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://beermapping.com/calendar/calmap.php

There is also a link to the map at the top of the calendar page if you forget where it is.

[BahHumBrew]

Also, I have written the system to attach a location to an event.  The feature is only available for the person who adds the event.  Basically it is another popup that works as a series of dropdown selections (country,state/province,city,location).  Since a lot of events occur at non-beer places (convention centers, etc.) we will eventually have the ability to put in a location name and address to add it to the maps.

Having entered a few events that are at non-beer places, I was thinking about how this might work.  Would there be a benefit to creating something like an event location category so that locations would be remembered for use with future events?  It seems like many events return to the same venue year after year and it would be nice to be able to select from a list rather than re-entering the location data each time (for example, Tom McCall park in Portland).  Perhaps these could be submitted in the same manner as beer locations and stored as their own category.  It might even be nice to let attendees "review" the facility wrt location, ambience, public transit, etc.  Just a thought.

[beerinator]

There is a slight issue with the calendar stuff that I didn't notice until yesterday.  You can add events and you can add yourself to events and it will appear that the changes are not being accepted.

But they are.

This is a caching error that I am working on and hopefully I'll have it fixed tonight or tomorrow.

[BahHumBrew]

There is a slight issue with the calendar stuff that I didn't notice until yesterday.  You can add events and you can add yourself to events and it will appear that the changes are not being accepted.

But they are.

This is a caching error that I am working on and hopefully I'll have it fixed tonight or tomorrow.

Hadn't noticed this before but it just happened when I added myself to the Double IPA fest on 2/9.

[beerinator]

Hadn't noticed this before but it just happened when I added myself to the Double IPA fest on 2/9.

Yeah, it just started when I made caching changes earlier this week.  I still haven't gotten it repaired, but I should today.

[beerinator]

I believe it is repaired now.  I have only slightly tested it but I will keep an eye on it for the next few days to see if it is working properly now or not.