EVENTS Recurring events feature

[mauteri]

Add a feature where an event can be recurring. Basic features include frequency of recurrence and ability to override contents of recurrence or do one-off updates on a recurring events content. WP Cron will create events (maybe default to X number out (maybe default to 4) that can be configured in global settings and overwritten in event recurrence settings.

[patriciabt]

In a conversation on Mastodon, people are asking for recurring events and @carstingaxion replied
"Unfortunately, it doesn’t support recurring events, yet. But it’s on their list already !"

It was also asked in some conversations I had with people.
Maybe time to move out of the icebox and implement recurring events

[carstingaxion]

I would love if this could allow for recurring dates and or times as well.

Many of the existing calendar apps, within WordPress and outside of it, define recurrences only in terms of dates, not times.

A user should be able to define an event that e.g. occurs today at 10am, at 3pm and tomorrow at 11am. This would be perfect!

[carstingaxion]

Another request suggestion from https://dewp.space/@SketchnotesAG@norden.social/112604269765044690

ORIGINAL:

Für eine „meiner“ Sites wichtig: wiederholbare Termine. Und da geht z. B. entweder nach Wochentag oder nach Datum, und es gehen auch 2-wöchentliche Wiederholungen etc. pp. Jemand, di:er ein Plugin baut, das kann was T.E.C. kann und nix zerschießt, kann damit Geld drucken, imho!

TRANSLATED*:

Important for one of "my" sites: repeatable dates. And there is, for example, either by day of the week or by date, and there are also 2-weekly repetitions etc. pp. Someone who builds a plugin can do what T.E.C. can do and doesn't shoot anything, can print money with it, imho!

[stephenerdelyi]

Hey all! Was putting some thoughts into recurring events and overall, these are thr functional requirements we may want to hit on for this feature:

Recurrence Patterns:

• Daily Recurrence: Users can set events to recur daily, with options to repeat every 'n' days.
• Weekly Recurrence: Users can set events to recur on specific days of the week, with options to repeat every 'n' weeks.
• Monthly Recurrence: Users can set events to recur on a specific date (e.g., the 15th of every month) or a specific day pattern (e.g., the third Thursday of every month).
• Yearly Recurrence: Users can set events to recur annually on a specific date.

End Conditions:

• No End Date: The event continues to recur indefinitely - this might be hard to make work without some physical limit in the backend
• End After 'n' Occurrences: The event ends after a specified number of occurrences.
• End By Date: The event ends on a specific date.

Exceptions and Modifications:

• Skipping Occurrences: Users can skip specific instances of a recurring event.
• Modifying Specific Occurrences: Users can make changes to specific instances without affecting the entire series.
• Cancelling Specific Occurrences: Users can cancel specific instances.

I think the best plugin example for this functionality is The Events Calendar.

[Xafari]

Regarding recurring events, the following would be nice:

• Events that repeat weekly, for example, every Tuesday and Sunday.
• Events that repeat bi-weekly, for example, every other Thursday.
• Events that run from a specific start date to an end date (e.g., July 2nd to August 31st) but only occur on select days of the week (e.g., Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday).

I know it is on the roadmap, but any idea when this will be available?

[carstingaxion]

@Xafari: I know it is on the roadmap, but any idea when this will be available?

We talked about that today, haven’t figured out who and how to do it, but the GatherPress team is aware of its importance and planned to tackle this with the release after the next release. This will probably be 0.31.0

[carstingaxion]

This seems to be highly relevant (& complicated).

https://icalevents.com/2447-need-to-know-the-possible-combinations-for-repeating-dates-an-ical-cheatsheet/

[arthurmougin]

Is there a way to add nth [day] of month and nth last [day] of month as recurrence ?

For example, I host a meetup on the last wednesday of the month, and it's a pain to have it automatically taken care of, the number vary month to month, and some month have 5 wednesdays while others have 4, messing up the recurrence every time.

[mauteri]

Notes and Considerations for Recurring Events

If not handled carefully, recurring events can bloat the database, which we need to avoid. We also have to address edge cases, like recurring events with no end date. Here are some thoughts and considerations:
1. Definition of a Recurring Event:
A recurring event repeats relative to its event date and time. Instead of creating multiple separate instances in the database, we want a single event record. Event queries (e.g., calendar or list views) should dynamically calculate and display the recurrence based on the event’s defined rules (or its end date, if applicable).
2. Mechanisms for Editing Recurring Events:
We need a way to handle updates to recurring events with flexibility:
• a. Update all instances: Changes apply to every occurrence of the event.
• b. Update future instances: Splits the recurrence, creating a new recurring series from the change point forward while ending the previous series.
• c. Modify a single instance: Breaks one occurrence out of the recurrence to make it a standalone “one-off” event.
To keep everything tied together, we can use a taxonomy term to associate all related instances with their parent recurring event.
3. Handling RSVPs for Recurring Events:
RSVPs, as a comment type, will result in multiple entries for each recurrence. We’ll also need logic for:
• Persistent RSVPs: For attendees who RSVP “yes” to all instances of the event.
• One-off RSVPs: For scenarios like an attendee having a general “yes” RSVP but a “no” for a specific occurrence.
Persistent RSVPs may not need to be solved immediately, but we should account for them as we design and rework the architecture to support recurring events.

The URL structure will follow a format like domain.com/event-slug/time-string, where time-string represents the start and end times of the current instance of the recurring event. Additionally, we can provide an option in the settings to customize the format of the time-string to suit specific needs.