A more Powerfull Event Module

With the new feature offered by Facebook(purchase events) is an other kick back for smaller site owners.

I think we need to offer more options and reasons to bring artist and encourage them to use our sites. Otherwise it might be the beginning of end for small music focus site owners. I have already seen many sites that were powered by Jamroom had closed their domains or had changed to a different platform.
I think on of the reasons for that might be that there is not much options available to chose from with Jamroom 5 compared with jamroom 4. I'm aware that Jamroom 5 is very powerful, but a the same time many site owners like me don't have the time or the required skills of a developer.

Suggestion:

I will like to suggest if the Jamroom team or any developer would create or improvise the current event module to a more powerfully one by adding functions such as Venues, organizer information, ticket purchase shopping cart or URLS to reference to purchase tickets, mapps and, auto adding to social networks such as twitter.

To make more clear, I created a couple of images to see if it is possible to achieve this.

I'm aware that Jamroom is now more general use focus, but It will be nice to bring all the musician features as modules that you guys had with Jamroom 4. I will be the first one in the list to purchase them
updated by @luis456: 03/17/16 02:34:20PM

I can't actually see in your attachments what your suggested improvements are - they are too blurred, but a lot of what you suggest in writing is doable now by using Jamroom's Form Designer tool and additional modules. For instance, I use the UltraJam Google Maps module to add venue mapping to events. Then there are the OneAll and ShareThis modules for adding things to social media. Also, don't forget the Recurring Events feature that is also built into the module and just needs enabling.
The only thing I'm not sure about at the moment is how the Jamroom FoxyCart or PayPal modules could be utilised to sell tickets - its not something I've tried before.


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Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist

Okay.. I reloaded the images.
Paul, I understand that I can be done but for a person like me with limited skills of coding is a little bit harder. I'm wondering if it can be made as an Advance Event module with this extra features. Maybe I can hire somebody to do this for me, but I think a lot of music site member will love this features.

If I may add one additional suggestion for improving the Events function in JR:

This has already been complained about several times on my site- Events are only for 1 day span of time, after which they become 'past events'...and on my site they then disappear.
In music communities, there are so many weekend long festivals, and whole week-long music camps and band tours. It's frustrating for an event poster to have their week long event disappear as soon as the first day is over...folks are discussing camp classes or travel plans from the event, their experiences.
Can we get a setting to punch in the event duration to be X number of days so it stays in the current list of events until it's actually over?- Start date and end date...please?
Thanks for listening!


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

@Strumelia - Have you got the recurring event fields enabled in the module? - https://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/documentation/modules/276/profile-events - That will allow for multi-day events.

@Luis456 - Have looked at the new images. What you want is doable by using the Form Designer and the UltraJam Google Maps module, as mentioned above. Jamroom modules are designed to be initially simple so as to allow users to use the Form Designer to add the features they want. For example, another user might not want promoter detail fields as you do, so if they were there by default, it would make the module unsuitable for other users. You also say that the event page layout is too simple. Again, this is by design as the template(s) controlling the layout are available for you to modify however you want.

Hope that helps


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Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist

While I agree alot of that can be done via the form designer selling tickets isn't as straight forward. You could manually link to a product in the merchandise store but that only works if the user can use the merchandise store.

That is what I referring too, I'm sorry but I think you guys are more development focus than customers. You need to give customer options and make it as simple as possible. Just think that not all your customers are developers.
Your team need to provide options for your client. For example, you want a simple module here it is it cost this much. You want a more advance module with features here it is and its cost this much. You need a module or template that is more social news, or entertainment related, here it is.
Just think how word press works and how they are so successfully and growing rapidly. More and more people are using that platfomr. They have a solid platform, but thousands of plugins, templates, available to chose from. As a matter fact I have a site that runs on work press and until now I did not had to type a single code to modify the templates or modules. All I had to do is look for the plugins and templates that fits what I need and ready. I can have the site running in less than a day. For example if I need a better calendar, they have about 10+ event calendars options and the users picks the one that fits their need.

Here Jamroom, there is not much to pick from. I don't think your customers will mind paying for a tools available to fit their needs.

With Jamroom, if I need to change the layout of the template or add and additional feature, I had to be digging for information, looking on forum, looking for codes, trying this and that, and hoping that it will work. Sometimes I spend days or week to achieve that I'm looking for. That is lot of work.

If you remember, okiba developers of projam and media pro were able to provide on their templates mostly every single advance feature available(video wall, related videos, news, artist profile status, artist widgets, embedded players,artist press, events with google map embeded, Song lyrics, DJs page, Artists page, venues page, event ticketing,etc) and had most of the features music focus. Yes their templates were expensive, but it was worth the investment. At least for me.
Now you guys have the same template with lower price, but a great amount of the features has being removed.

After I had upgraded to Jamroom 5, Im getting a lot of complains from users asking to have the features back as I had in the old version.

I don't know how big your company it is, but I thinks you need to have a resource focus on developing modules, templates in order to provide more options to your clients.

I love Jamroom, and I'll continue to stay with you guys as long as I can because I think yous guys provide a great service fixing issues. Just need to focus a little more providing more options to your customers.

Oh my gosh Paul- Somehow I didn't realize this had been added. AWESOME!!!!! Now I can remove this from my To Do list!! :D

Oh, but one question: if an event is a 3 day event for example...I'm hoping the event will not be moved to the "past event" category until AFTER its end date....riiiiight?... =8-*



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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015
updated by @strumelia: 12/05/15 02:03:37PM

@luis456 - Thanks for the feedback. We'll take it onboard. In fact, I've opened a private ticket for it so that we can discuss it between ourselves.

@strumelia - What actually happens when invoking recurring events is that multiple events are created with all the same information except for the event date, so creating a weekend event, say would mean that three actual event items are created, one each for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This of course means that when Saturday comes, the Friday one will not be shown (if JR set up to only show coming events). Might this be acceptable? The alternative might be to add an 'event_duration' field to the module (in days, default 1) then do some template code modification to keep showing the event whilst its duration is valid.


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Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist

This is exactly how we do things. JR5 is designed to be easy to use for the common use case. What you have to realize however is that NO two sites want the same thing. This feature (ticket selling) is obviously important to you, but it's not important to the other 99% of our users - literally, no one asks for this. I created a ticket selling module for JR4 and almost no one used it.

So in this case if this feature is something you would like, it would be something we would do as a sponsored "feature" upgrade for this module - i.e. you would pay for the custom development work done on it. It would be cheaper than normal custom development because it's something that would be available to ALL users after it was done (we don't do any "exclusive" development).


We are a small 4 man team that also tries to lead lives offline, so we do our best.

Sorry if I sound frustrated - we just get these types of posts form time to time from users who are upset that Jamroom does not meet their needs 100% "out of the box".

I think it is important to think of Jamroom as a site development platform - it will get you 90% of the way there, but that last 10% is stuff that is unique to YOUR site - and that is going to take work on your part (or hiring someone to do it for you) to get it to 100%.

Paul has opened a ticket on this, so after we research the type of work that would be needed to add this feature in I believe he will be in contact with you.

Thanks!


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Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

Paul, I'm trying to test a few things with this so I can see the different options when creating events. Please bear with me for a sec:

You say "...then do some template code modification to keep showing the event whilst its duration is valid." Well I know this has been brought up previously in various threads, but ...why on earth would anyone NOT want an event to keep showing while it's still going on?...especially in a social network setting where one expects members will be commenting on the event or exchanging information on it? This has never made any sense to me. Only 'some' events are of 1 day duration. For a week long music camp, class schedules might change, ride arrangements can be made, pix posted of the camp events going on during the week, all kinds of stuff concerning the event continues while the event is in progress. And i'd love it if my members could continue being able to 'use' the Event until the event is over.

The 'recurring event' solution you bring up sounds problematic to me. First of all, why would members select the 'recurring event' option at all if they were only posting one event- it would be very confusing and non-intuitive. I'd have to be posting weird explanations for members all the time about 'recurring' not really meaning recurring.. Second of all- i can currently choose "start date" and "end date", without even having to check 'recurring event'? Does my entering an 'end date' of a few days later prevent the event from disappearing after its first day? If not, shouldn't it?? If my members create a new event with an end date of several days later, they are going to be surprised and dismayed when it disappears completely after the first day. I have to say I'd be really bummed if my own event did this.

A related question that might help this-
If I re-set my Events module to "Show past events"... maybe I could simply delete past events manually, myself? This would only be a handful of events per month at most. Would this work? And if so- where is the most efficient place to delete past events from- is there a location i could delete several expired events at a time?

Thanks for any thoughts on this.


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

To be honest, the recurring events feature was really designed as an aid for bands/artists that might have a 'residency', say, so that, as an example, they could enter all their Friday night gigs at the local club for the rest of the year in one go. I suggested it to you as a possible solution for what you wanted.

How about using the Form Designer to add an 'event_until' date/time field to the create and update forms and then adding a search field to the appropriate event listing call(s) in the template(s) -

{jrCore_list module="jrEvent" order_by="event_date asc" search="event_until >= `$smarty.now`" pagebreak=10 page=$_post.p pager=true}

(You would need to uncheck the 'show past events' box in the event config settings so that doesn't affect anything)


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Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist

Ok, sounds good Paul. But...
I created a new "event_until"datetime field,....but then I noticed that there had been two previous cretions of similar 'event end' date fields already created at some point in time. I don't remember creating those, but they may have been prior attempts to do this same thing, maybe after I had asked one of the JR Team to help tweak something.
See screenshot: should I delete the other two older ones?- and if so, where/how do I find any template references to them that might then need deleting as well?

Which brings me to ... I would have no idea WHERE to: "add a search field to the appropriate event listing call(s) in the template(s)". In what template(s), and where in the template(s)? Sorry to be such a code dunce.


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

'event_recurring' and 'event_end_date' are pre-configured by the Event module and are part of the Recurring Events feature. Not sure where 'event_end_day' came from but whilst all three are inactive they'll do no harm.

I see you have an events panel on your homepage, so you may want to implement this in your skin index.tpl template. Also on the 'All Events' page which is the module's index.tpl template, then also possible in the module's item_index.tpl template which controls the event listing on profile pages.

Get in touch if you need help with this (I'll need your admin login).


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Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist

Paul, yes I'd sure appreciate some help with this bit with the multiple templates. Sure would be nice to put this longtime issue to rest. I'll send you an email- tanks, you da man!


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

Paul was able to create a custom module that very nicely allows for multi-day events that won't disappear off my Events list until after their LAST day (providing you have 'show past events' unchecked). I imagine he could apply the same for others if they ask. Thanks so much Paul, I love it!


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

Thank You Brian I'm really looking for it.