Very Simple Event List

About

This is a lightweight plugin to create a customized event list.

Add the shortcode on a page or use the widget to display your events.

You can personalize your event list via the settingspage or by adding attributes to the shortcode or the widget.

How to use

After installation go to menu item “Events” and start adding your events.

Create a page and:

• Add shortcode [vsel] to display upcoming events (including today)
• Add shortcode [vsel-future-events] to display future events (without today)
• Add shortcode [vsel-current-events] to display current events
• Add shortcode [vsel-past-events] to display past events
• Add shortcode [vsel-all-events] to display all events

Or go to Appearance > Widgets and use the widget to display your events.

Settingspage

You can personalize your event list via the settingspage. This page can be found via Settings > VSEL.

Several settings can be overridden when using the relevant (shortcode) attributes below.

This can be useful when having multiple event lists on your website.

Shortcode attributes

You can also personalize your event list by adding attributes to the shortcodes mentioned above. Attributes will override the settingspage.

• Change the number of events per page: posts_per_page="5"
• Pass over one or multiple events: offset="1"
• Change date format: date_format="j F Y"
• Display events from a certain category: event_cat="your-category-slug"
• Display events from multiple categories: event_cat="your-category-slug-1, your-category-slug-2"
• Change order of the upcoming and current events list: order="DESC"
• Change order of the past and all events list: order="ASC"
• Change text if there are no events: no_events_text="your text here"
• Add custom CSS class to event list: class="your-class-here"
• Disable event title link: title_link="false"
• Disable featured image link: featured_image_link="false"
• Disable featured image: featured_image="false"
• Disable pagination: pagination="false"
• Show summary: summary="true"

About the offset attribute: pagination is being disabled when using offset.

Examples:

• One attribute: [vsel posts_per_page="5"]
• Multiple attributes: [vsel posts_per_page="5" event_cat="your-category-slug" summary="true"]

Widget attributes

The widget supports the same attributes. Don’t add the main shortcode tag or the brackets.

Examples:

• One attribute: posts_per_page="5"
• Multiple attributes: posts_per_page="5" event_cat="your-category-slug" summary="true"

Featured image

The featured image will be used as primary image for every event.

By default the “Post thumbnail” is being used as source for the featured image. The size of the Post thumbnail may vary by theme.

WordPress creates duplicate images in different sizes upon upload. These sizes can be set via Settings > Media. In case the Post thumbnail doesn’t look nice you can choose a different size via Settings > VSEL.

Besides this you can also change the maximum width of the featured image.

The featured image on native archive pages and the single event page is handled by your theme.

Native support

Plugin has basic support for theme template files that are being used for the single event page, the event category page, the post type (event) archive page and the search results page.

Support for the single event page is needed, but support for the other 3 pages is added to make VSEL compatible with page builder plugins. These 3 pages are not generated by VSEL. Events are not ordered by event date.

Plugin activates the post attributes box in the editor. In the post attributes box you can set a custom order for events with the same date. Custom order is not needed when event has start time and end time.

Plugin makes it possible to add events and event categories to your menu via the menu page. This support is added to make VSEL compatible with page builder plugins.

Advanced Custom Fields

You can add extra fields to the event details section by using the Advanced Custom Fields plugin. The most commonly used fields are supported.

Create a field group for post type “event” and add fields to this group. This field group will be added to the single event page in dashboard.

iCal feed

You can share your most recent events with an external calendar via an iCal feed.

You can activate the iCal feed via via Settings > VSEL.

Uninstall

If you uninstall plugin via dashboard all events and settings will be removed from database.

All posts of the (custom) post type “event” will be removed.

You can avoid this via Settings > VSEL.

Question?

Please take a look at the FAQ section.

Translation

Not included but plugin supports WordPress language packs.

More translations are very welcome!

Credits

Without the WordPress codex and help from the WordPress community I was not able to develop this plugin, so: thank you!

Enjoy!

Please check Description section for installation info.

About the FAQ

The FAQ are updated regularly to include support for newly added or changed plugin features.

How to set date format and time format?

By default plugin uses date format and time format from Settings > General.

The datepicker and date input field only support 2 numeric date formats: “day-month-year” (30-01-2016) and “year-month-day” (2016-01-30).

If date format does not match, it will be changed into 1 of the 2 above.

You can change date format and time format for the frontend of your website via Settings > VSEL. You can also change date format by using an attribute.

The date icon only supports 2 date formats: “day-month-year” (30 Jan 2016) and “year-month-day” (2016 Jan 30).

If date format does not match, it will be changed into 1 of the 2 above.

How do I set plugin language?

Plugin will use the website language, set in Settings > General.

If plugin isn’t translated into this language, language fallback will be English.

What’s the difference between upcoming and future events?

Upcoming events are including today and future events are starting tomorrow or later.

What do you mean with current events?

Current events are events you can visit today. So this can be an one-day or multi-day event.

Can I change the colors of the date icon?

You should use custom CSS for that.

Examples:

Change background and text color of whole icon: .vsel-start-icon, .vsel-end-icon {background:#eee; color:#f26535;}

Change background and text color of top part: .vsel-day-top, .vsel-month-top {background:#f26535; color:#eee;}

Can I override plugin template via my (child) theme?

You can only override the single event page via your (child) theme.

In most cases PHP file “single” is being used for the single event page. This file is located in your theme folder.

Create a duplicate of file “single” and rename it “single-event”, add this file to your (child) theme folder and customize it to your needs.

What does “Link to more info” mean?

While adding an event you can add a link (an URL) to a post, page or website.

This can be useful in case additional info is available elsewhere.

You can also redirect the event title to this link.

What does “Link to all events” mean?

While adding a widget you can add a link (an URL) to a page with all events.

This can be useful because in most cases you only list a few events in a widget area.

Why no pagination in widget?

Pagination is not working properly in a widget.

But you can set a link to a page with all events.

Why no pagination when using the offset attribute?

Offset breaks pagination, so that’s why pagination is being disabled when using offset.

Why does the offset attribute have no effect?

Offset is being ignored when attribute “posts_per_page” has value “-1” (show all events).

Why is the page with all events not displayed properly?

This applies to pages where you have added the shortcode.

When using the block editor, go to the page in your dashboard and check the shortcode in “Edit as HTML” mode.

When using the classic editor, go to the page in your dashboard and check the shortcode in “Text” mode.

It might be accidentally wrapped in HTML tags, such as: <script>[vsel]</script>

Please remove the HTML tags and resave the page.

Can I have a page with title “Event” or a slug called “event”?

A page (or post) with title “Event” is no problem, but a slug called “event” will cause a conflict with the post type (event) archive page.

You should change this slug into something else. This can be done by changing the permalink of this page (or post).

Why a 404 (nothing found) when I click the title link?

This is mostly caused by the permalink settings. Please resave the permalinks via Settings > Permalinks.

Why a 404 (nothing found) when I click the event category link?

This is mostly caused by the permalink settings. Please resave the permalinks via Settings > Permalinks.

Can I add multiple shortcodes on the same page?

This is possible but to avoid a conflict I recommend to disable the pagination. This can be done via Settings > VSEL or by using an attribute.

Why no event details or event categories box in the editor?

When using the block editor, click the options icon and select “Preferences”.

When using the classic editor, click the “Screen Options” tab.

Probably the checkbox to display the relevant box in the editor is not checked.

Why no featured image box in the editor?

When using the block editor, click the options icon and select “Preferences”.

When using the classic editor, click the “Screen Options” tab.

Probably the checkbox to display the relevant box in the editor is not checked.

But sometimes your theme does not support featured images. Or only for the native posts and pages. In that case you must manually add this support for events.

Why no Advanced Custom Fields field group in the editor?

When using the block editor, click the options icon and select “Preferences”.

When using the classic editor, click the “Screen Options” tab.

Probably the checkbox to display the relevant box in the editor is not checked.

How does plugin hook into theme template files?

Plugin only hooks into the native the_content() and the_excerpt() function. It has no control over anything outside this section.

In some cases there’s a conflict with your theme or page builder plugin. That’s why you can disable support for theme template files via Settings > VSEL.

Does this plugin have its own block?

No, plugin doesn’t have its own block in the editor and there are no plans to add this anytime soon.

No Semantic versioning?

Version number doesn’t give you info about the type of update (major, minor, patch). You should check changelog for that.

How can I make a donation?

You like my plugin and you’re willing to make a donation? Thanks, I really appreciate that! There’s a PayPal donate link at my website.

Other question or comment?

Please open a topic in plugin forum.

Version 15.0

• Fix: the more info link was not hidden everywhere in case of a custom redirect
• New: attribute to disable featured image link per event list
• This attribute will override the settingspage
• Minor changes in code

Version 14.9

• New: redirect featured image to the more info link
• Featured image now has the same linking behavior as event title
• This only applies to events on pages where you have added the shortcode and to the widget
• Minor changes in code

Version 14.8

• New: event status is added to single event body class

Version 14.7

• Fix: date and time error label in editor
• New: event categories are added to single event body class

Version 14.6

• Fix: custom CSS class

Version 14.5

• Better validating, sanitizing and escaping

Version 14.4

• Fix: supported field types of the ACF plugin

Version 14.3

• Better validating, sanitizing and escaping

Version 14.2

• Re-added attribute for adding custom CSS class to container for all events
• New: setting for hiding equal start time and end time in the frontend of your website
• This can be useful for users who switched to new time format recently
• Because this will hide the midnight time of all events that were added with old time format

Version 14.1

• Fix: future and current events query
• Fix: event summary in theme template file
• New: attribute to show the summary per event list
• This attribute will override the settingspage
• Changed time structure
• End time does no longer need to be equal to or greater than start time
• This can be useful in case of multi-day events
• Updated event fields in editor
• If datepicker doesn’t work anymore, please clear your browser cache
• Minor changes in code

For all versions please check file changelog.