Features / Usability

Posted by Rick Sapir / Tiki for Smarties 30 Jan 2007 04:45 GMT-0000 posts: 3665

I'll answer what I can....

HTH,

-Rick

> I've posted this at TW Dev but wanted to see who else has ideas about the calendar. Some items, I'll admit, maybe I don't know how to do (I'd appreciate any hints), otherwise I love the many features and would like to see these changes/additions.
>
> Needs, Bug fixes:
> -Ability to change the word "Calendar" at the top of the page to something else.
>
> -Ability to add text of my own at the top of the calendar for description and instructions (the calendar is confusing and quirky for casual users and needs some explaining)

For these, you simply need to edit the tiki-calendar.tpl template file. You can add any text you want.

>
> -Fix the event time bug that shows 24hr time in the calendar view popups even though you have chosen 12hr time in admin and entered 12hr time with PM or PM in "add item" manual entry fields.
>
> -Add ability to use 12hr time in the drop down date/time fields in "add item"
>

This has been discussed previously here. You can see how I made the calendar use 12-hour notation one one of my Tiki sites, although the mouseover still doesn't work correctly.

> -Ability to add text of my own for instructions in "add item" to explain the quirks there.
>

You can add your own text in the tiki-calendar_add_event.tpl file. You might also consider a video. Here is one I created to help my users.

> -Add ability to choose (on admin page) a default value for confirmed/tentative/cancelled in "add item" (In every day use, most items are confirmed, not tentative so it's annoying to have to change this almost every time.)

You can simply change the default in the tiki-calendar_add_event.tpl file.

>
> -Manually entered times in "add item" do not always show up in the calendar as entered (often an hour off). Simply editing the item and re-entering the time fixes this.
>
> -There seems to be a limit on the number of calendar items. I can free up space by deleting events that have passed and then events I entered "over the limit" show up again. This happens in any view including the entire year. Any way to increase the limit?

What limitations are you seeing? On this Tiki calendar, I have over 500 events (and still adding).

>
> -If I mistakenly created a calendar, I could not delete it until it had at least one event entered.
>
> You cannot add an item until you have first chosen to view a single calendar (for multiple calendar instances) though this is not apparent in the add item screen. If you try to choose a calendar there it just pops you back into the Calendar screen with no explanation.
>
> Nice to haves:
> -Some way of differentiating calendar entires from different calendars when they are combined. Ex:one calendar shows events people can go to volunteer to actually do something , one shows speaking engagements people can go and listen to. I now simply use HTML bold tags in the description of one of the calendars. This works but maybe some other way? Colors, different font perhaps?
>
> -Ability to easily add link for a Google Map. Perhaps fields to enter address info and then auto generate a map link. Google Maps has this and can be put into a Tiki page but Google Maps lacks important features, like a list view and multiple calendars, that Tiki Calendar has.
>
> I hope I put this list in the right forum. Thanks!
>

Posted by Jack 03 Feb 2007 04:14 GMT-0000 posts: 80

> I've posted this at TW Dev but wanted to see who else has ideas about the calendar. Some items, I'll admit, maybe I don't know how to do (I'd appreciate any hints), otherwise I love the many features and would like to see these changes/additions.
>
> Needs, Bug fixes:
> -Ability to change the word "Calendar" at the top of the page to something else.
>
> -Ability to add text of my own at the top of the calendar for description and instructions (the calendar is confusing and quirky for casual users and needs some explaining)
>
> -Fix the event time bug that shows 24hr time in the calendar view popups even though you have chosen 12hr time in admin and entered 12hr time with PM or PM in "add item" manual entry fields.
>
> -Add ability to use 12hr time in the drop down date/time fields in "add item"
>
> -Ability to add text of my own for instructions in "add item" to explain the quirks there.
>
> -Add ability to choose (on admin page) a default value for confirmed/tentative/cancelled in "add item" (In every day use, most items are confirmed, not tentative so it's annoying to have to change this almost every time.)
>
> -Manually entered times in "add item" do not always show up in the calendar as entered (often an hour off). Simply editing the item and re-entering the time fixes this.

This one bug renders the calendar unusable for my purposes. I had wanted to post it for a general membership to use, but few people who are not computer mavens are going to take the time to correct the event time. They just see that it is wrong, get frustrated and delete the event and blame me for putting up a faulty calendar. And the whole purpose of the calendar was to present events having the correct time with minimal hassle. So I just deleted the calendar feature and will look for an alternative.

>
> -There seems to be a limit on the number of calendar items. I can free up space by deleting events that have passed and then events I entered "over the limit" show up again. This happens in any view including the entire year. Any way to increase the limit?
>
> -If I mistakenly created a calendar, I could not delete it until it had at least one event entered.
>
> You cannot add an item until you have first chosen to view a single calendar (for multiple calendar instances) though this is not apparent in the add item screen. If you try to choose a calendar there it just pops you back into the Calendar screen with no explanation.
>
> Nice to haves:
> -Some way of differentiating calendar entires from different calendars when they are combined. Ex:one calendar shows events people can go to volunteer to actually do something , one shows speaking engagements people can go and listen to. I now simply use HTML bold tags in the description of one of the calendars. This works but maybe some other way? Colors, different font perhaps?
>
> -Ability to easily add link for a Google Map. Perhaps fields to enter address info and then auto generate a map link. Google Maps has this and can be put into a Tiki page but Google Maps lacks important features, like a list view and multiple calendars, that Tiki Calendar has.
>
> I hope I put this list in the right forum. Thanks!
>

Posted by Jack 11 Feb 2007 21:30 GMT-0000 posts: 80

Rick's comment confused me but on viewing the calendar he linked to, it makes sense:
>
> -Manually entered times in "add item" do not always show up in the calendar as entered (often an hour off). Simply editing the item and re-entering the time fixes this.
>
> -There seems to be a limit on the number of calendar items. I can free up space by deleting events that have passed and then events I entered "over the limit" show up again. This happens in any view including the entire year. Any way to increase the limit?

What limitations are you seeing? On this Tiki calendarexternal link, I have over 500 events (and still adding).

On the calendar I put up, the hour of the event was crucial. On the calendar Rick linked to there are no hours listed, so no problem.