vBulletin Solutions™ plan to rework the calendar as part of the 4.x generation… not in 4.0, maybe not in 4.1 or 4.2, but they have a slot for it…

That may be the moment for this product to raise his hand over the 4.x generation right now and bring new life to the calendar inside vBulletin.

Having a complete integration between the calendar, the forum, the member albums, the blogs the cms, and even the project tools, is the biggest dream of any forum admin…

The End User:

Imagine putting a date for any photo entered in your album, and seeing a note about that photo in your member’s calendar. same if you enter a blog post, it will show in the timeline of your member profile…

Actually, checking in your own userCP to see the calendar, you would see all your blog, photos, projects and events, in a single place, tagged with the proper color, with previews on hover, etc… and if you activate it, your profile would also contain the same kind of element, a calendar with viewable events, entries, photos etc. a timeline in your profile, that would be the most advanced calendar you could see on the market.

And what to add to a Event Discussion, you could simply link one of your album to that event… it is really simple, when you create/edit an album, you simply enter the eventid in a field, and tada… when you go to that event discussion, your album is linked to it *(see « linked photos » in the event description)

Personal Events:

As for the blog and photos, you can create basic events called « personal », which are usually anniversaries, birthdays etc. If tagged as public, they may show in the list of birthdays in the calendar, if indicated as a birthday… there is a list of type of events that you can customize depending on your forum type.

The Forum:

Inserting an event in a specific forum, event related to a specific calendar, and viewable by permission, discussed by permission andwhere you can add attachments of any kind… millions of forum members would like to see that.

On the fly edition of the event status, like closed, sticked or moderated, like anyother thread of your forum… because it is a thread, linked to an event. If you have access to posting in that forum but do not have permission to post in the calendar, you see the restriction instead of being blanked after posting…

Ranged or Recurring events, how great with a forum, as you can decide to stick a recurring event, or close a thread when the ranged event is finished/passed… The discussions are still present in the forum display, but are considered featured on due time only, as it is already when reading the list of events on forumhome.

Subscribed threads are also subscribed events, so you receive a notice when your event are coming …

Social Groups, when you hit us…

someone use the SG? how about a list of events for that group, each event linked to a discussion. When you create a group, you also give permission or not to the members to add new events. as a group author, you always have that right by default IF usergroup permissions say so.

Adding events and a minimalist calendar to the SG would make it much more the Yahoo Groups now, and as you can put postponed events as well, it’s good to tease the members.

The Blogs:

The blogs already contain a specific calendar, but it is minimal… what would be to have a timeline the same way the actual calendar has, with some extras… you can post postponed events and make them show the day you wish… *(forgot to say, the threads related to events can do the same, by permission)…

A real timeline for your posts, and a display of « regular » blog posts and « blog events » which are not used for the same reason…

Open a RSVP ticket please:

Based on permissions, all events could have a RSVP ticket to fill, with details like the number of invited people, moment of arrival, approval, and custom fields you can add. When viewed as a thread, the RSVP would display below the firstpost where you read the event, based on permissions.

and with the CMS, what’s up…

I don’t know for you, but the CMS is the place where to show a minimal calendar, and have a block to list the recent events… we can also have a block of the latest anniversaries… anything is possible. And if you tag one of your personal event as an anniversary, it will list as an regular anniversary, with permissions.

« The Postponed Events » in Forum are great for the CMS, as you can post postponed events that will show on due time, even if you are not online.

…

This is a partial description of what are the new capabilities of the Calendar Integration Bundle pushed inside vB 4.x…

We need some discussions around this, requests and suggestions too… let’s start today!

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