MyListing 2.4: Events!
Events 2.0
The main focus of this update has been taking event-related features to the next level. We’ve added a number of new components — giving more control to listing owners, a better experience to visitors when searching for and viewing Event listings, and maintaining a high level of performance throughout.
New “Recurring Date” field type
This field type allows users to set a start+end date for their event, and define recurring dates with both regular and irregular intervals.
To start using it, in the listing type editor go to the “Fields” tab, and select the “Event Date” preset field (or you can add a custom recurring-date field instead).
Clicking on the field will reveal it’s configuration settings.
Enable Recurrence: When checked, this allows users to enter a regular repeat interval for the event date. For example, if the start date is set to April 18th — April 20th, and we want to repeat this event every week for the next year, it will look like this:
Enable multiple dates: When checked, this allows users to enter multiple dates that don’t repeat at regular intervals. So, if the event dates are April 18th — April 20th, June 12th— June 14th, and October 21st— October 23rd, the user can enter them like this:
When combined, these settings will offer maximum flexibility, by handling both regular repeat intervals and multiple dates. If, however, a start+end date is enough for your use case, you can easily disable the extra functionality.
Displaying upcoming dates
A new “Upcoming Dates” content block is available, which will show a configurable amount of upcoming dates (5 by default), including the ongoing date, and an optional “Add to Google Calendar” button for each specific date.
This content block works best with recurring-date fields, but it can also be used to display regular date fields.
You can also use the Countdown content block to show the time left until the next occurrence of the recurring-date field.
Elsewhere, you can display the upcoming date in the following ways:
- As a cover detail (Listing Type Editor > Single Page > Cover Details)
- In the listing preview card, either as a head button, or below the listing title (Listing Type Editor > Preview Card)
New “Recurring Date” filter
We’ve added a new Explore page filter that works specifically with Recurring Date fields. The filter will display all upcoming and ongoing events within the selected time frame.
You can display any of these preset date ranges in the filter: Today, Tomorrow, This Week, This Weekend, Next Week, This Month, Next Month, Any Day, and Any Day (including past days).
In addition, you can also display “Pick a Date” for custom date ranges, which can be optionally configured to have minute precision through the “Show timepicker?” setting.
Refreshed layout for mobile Explore page
The main difference is the new placement of the “Filters” toggle, and the inclusion of a primary filter, which is visible at all times. The primary filter can be configured in the listing type editor; it defaults to the “WP Search Box” filter, but it can be changed to the Order or Location filters.
Other notable changes in Explore page:
- Scroll position is now restored when viewing a listing then going back to Explore search results.
- Filter values stored in the URL are now more readable and compact.
Refreshed layout for mobile Single Listing page
If you use cover images in the single listing page, you can now set the aspect ratio of the cover image area. That aspect ratio is used across all devices, which makes it possible to upload images which will not be cut on any screen. The setting can be found in WP Admin > Theme Tools > Single Listing > Cover Image Height.
Expiration rules in the listing type editor
Apart from the expiry date, you can now have a listing expire when other conditions are met. For example, you may want to expire event listings when the final occurrence of an event is over.
To do this, in the listing type editor, go to General > Other > Expiration Rules, and select the date and recurring-date fields that you want to use as expiry rules.
Before updating: please make a full backup of your site so you can quickly restore if something goes wrong. If your site is live, try updating first on a staging site to test the new features.
