EventOn Events Lists Extended Add-on

Your events page also has to tell what already happened

A sponsor asks to see what you organized last season. You open the calendar and only what is coming appears; to answer, you end up copying dates into a document. The same happens the other way around: a newsletter or a front page needs only the next three events, and a full-month calendar takes too much room for that.

A program has two audiences: people who want to attend tomorrow and people who want to know whether you have a track record. The first look for what is next. The second look for what came before, and those events already exist in your database: they only need showing.

Event Lists: Ext is the EventON addon that creates those lists. It shows upcoming events, past events, events in a date range or a specific number of them, with your own cut-off between past and future. It requires the main EventON plugin to work.

Three list types and two ways to arrange them

• Upcoming events: as many as you choose, useful for summaries such as the next three.
• Past events: also as many as you choose.
• Date range: the events between a start and an end you define.
• Separated by months: groups events under each month.
• Continuous: shows one running list, regardless of month.

When a list spans several months, each event shows the month name in three letters at its top by default, so it is clear which month it belongs to. The addon also supports visitor sorting and filtering, and styling through the block-based calendar generator.

The cut-off that decides when an event is past

EventON has a general setting that separates past and present events. This addon lets you override it on each list with the pec option, which takes three values:

• ct: the current time.
• cd: the current date.
• ft: a fixed time, which you define with a day, month and year. 12:00 am of that day marks the cut-off.

The fixed date suits closed archives. If your season ended on a specific date, the past list can stop there even while you keep adding new events.

Why the event limit also asks for a number of months

Two options look the same and are not. event_count sets a cap per month, while event_count_list sets the total for the whole list.

The number of months also defines the stretch of time where events are searched. If you do not set it, 1 is used: the past or future month plus the current one.

An example: to show the last 5 events when the first one happened 2 months ago, set at least 3 months. A larger value does not guarantee that every event from those months appears either, as long as a count limit exists.

Building the first list with the shortcode generator

With EventON already active, the route is this:

1. Install and activate the addon.
2. Open the shortcode generator and choose a value in Event list type.
3. Set the number of months, also if you are going to limit the count.
4. Choose the cut-off time option.
5. Insert the shortcode in the page and review the result.

The shortcode is add_eventon_el, and el_type takes ue for upcoming, pe for past and dr for range. With a range, start_range and end_range accept dates in yyyy/mm/dd format or relative ones, such as today, tomorrow or yesterday.

Calendars and pieces that fit these lists

The base is EventON, with month, agenda and tile views, plus repeats and online events. Event Lists: Ext changes how events are listed, without adding creation or sales: the full-month grid belongs to the Full Cal addon, frontend event submission to Action User and ticket sales to Event Tickets.

If you are still choosing a calendar, the catalog includes The Events Calendar Pro and Modern Events Calendar. For showing events in widgets, there is Events Widgets Pro.

Questions when putting your lists together

Does it work without EventON?

No. It requires the main plugin.

Can I show past events only?

Yes, with the past events list type, regardless of the month.

What count do I set for the next three events?

Set 3 with event_count_list and a number of months that covers those dates.

Can a range use relative dates?

Yes. Besides fixed dates, it accepts today, tomorrow, yesterday, rightnow and offsets such as +2 days.

Can it sell tickets?

No. Sales belong to the Event Tickets addon.

Can visitors filter the list?

Yes, it supports visitor sorting and filtering.