RSVPMaker as an alternative to #newmeetup

Posted on January 31, 2011 by David F. Carr

Meetup organizers who are frustrated at the changes in the service may want to consider RSVPMaker as an alternative. With a WordPress website running RSVPMaker, you can  be more in control of your own destiny by managing events on a website where you set the rules. By combining RSVPMaker with plugins and enhancements such as BuddyPress or discussion boards, you can round out the experience.

Version 1.2 will automatically retrieve profile details for a logged in user, and you can customize this function (see Changing the RSVP Form, Other Customizations).

If you try this approach, let me know how it works for you and what still needs to work better.

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Test Drive RSVPMaker

Posted on January 30, 2011 by David F. Carr

As an experiment, I’m allowing website visitors to self-register as “contributors” to this website, a security level that will allow you to create your own test events and preview them. Your events will be saved in ‘draft’ mode, so you will be able to preview them or even RSVP to test events, but the events will not be publicly visible. If you submit a particularly creative example event, I may publish it here, but most test events will be deleted after a day or two.

You will also be able to view the RSVP Report. Some other functions are disabled, but this will let you see the basics.

If you don’t want to bother with registering an account, you can log in as

user: rsvpdemo
password: rsvpdemo

Posted in Announcement | 8 Comments

RSVPMaker 1.0 Released (Make that 1.1)

Posted on January 29, 2011 by David F. Carr

Update: After a couple of small bug fixes, RSVPMaker is actually at 1.1 already.

I finally worked up the nerve to call RSVPMaker a version 1.0 quality product. The latest release includes a number of things people have been asking for, as well as a few things that are considered best practices, such as providing an uninstall script to remove custom tables and plugin-specific database entries.

Here’s the rundown:

1.0

  • Added a basic_form function that you can override to change the basic fields of the RSVP form. For example, you can change it to omit the section that asks for the names of guests. This is in addition to the rsvp_profile function, which is used to collect additional contact details such as phone # or mailing address. See the instructions for adding custom functions.
  • You have the option of allowing the names of attendees and the contents of the notes field to be displayed publicly. To avoid encouraging spam entries, this content is loaded via AJAX and only when the user clicks the Show Attendees button
  • Moved most of the default formatting into a CSS file that is queued up on pages that show event content. There is in option on the settings page for specifying your own css file to use instead. Most inline styles have been replaced by class selectors. However, the styling of the RSVP Now button is still set on the RSVPMaker settings screen. Works better for email distribution of events.
  • RSVP Report now lists timestamp on reply and lets you sort by either alphabetical order or most recent.
  • If you’re signing up employees or workers for specific timeslots, you can now set that to half-hour increments
  • Tweaked redirection code to handle confirmation and error messages on sites that don’t have permalinks enabled
  • Changed label for RSVPMaker widget as it shows up on the administrator’s screen under Appearance.
  • Added an uninstall script for removing custom tables and database entries.
Posted in Announcement, Release | 7 Comments

Troubleshooting RSVPMaker

Posted on January 19, 2011 by David F. Carr

I’m happy to hear that RSVPMaker is working well for some people, but I also get a few reports from people who are having problems. Here are some guidelines for resolving any issues you may encounter.

One known (but not completely understood) issue is that some WordPress users report getting “page not found” messages when trying to view an RSVPMaker event or click on the RSVP button. This appears to be a problem with either specific WordPress configurations (multisite?) or interference with other plugins that also manipulate the permalinks setup.

If you run into this issue, there is now a “Tweak Permalinks” checkbox you can click on the options / settings page for RSVPMaker. This should clear up the issue (by making WordPress refresh the permalinks more frequently), but let me know if it does not.

I’ve also added a “Debug” mode checkbox on the settings page. You should only turn this on if you’re having trouble.  It adds a “Debug” screen to the RSVP Events menu where you can check system variables or share them with me, relaying them to me by email.

I hope very few people will have to visit this page, but at least if you are having some sort of trouble it gives me a better chance of figuring out why it is occurring.

Debug screen, showing a readout of RSVP responses

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Mystery Glitch with RSVP Reports

Posted on January 16, 2011 by David F. Carr

A couple of people who have tried RSVPMaker have reported problems with the RSVP Reports page not working properly. They get just a headline with no results listed, and I’m trying to figure out why. Please contact me if you experience this issue, so I can try to track down the cause. Continue reading →

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Version 0.9, Better Editing of Dates

Posted on January 15, 2011 by David F. Carr

I’m getting ready to declare RSVPMaker polished enough that it deserves version 1.0 status.

Today, I put out version 0.9, with these changes:

  • Made it easier to edit dates for events previously entered in system.
  • Widget and headlines listing shortcode output now include a link to your event listing page.
  • Cleanup on options handling.

Previously, if you entered an event and wanted to change the date or time, you had to delete the existing date and enter a new one. Embarrassingly awkward, I know, but it was a detail I hadn’t gotten around to doing anything about until now. First, I had to solve a few programming challenges related to the way dates are calculated.

Now the date editing panel looks like this:

Download it here:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/rsvpmaker/

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RSVPMaker 0.8 Released

Posted on January 12, 2011 by David F. Carr

Here are a few improvements early users of RSVPMaker have been asking for:

Version 0.8

  • Added type parameter for shortcode so you can display only events tagged with “featured” or another event type using [rsvpmaker_upcoming type="featured"] (see the featured events on the home page of this site)
  • Added ability to set RSVP start date as well as deadline for RSVPs
  • If signing up workers or volunteers for specific timeslots, you can now specify the duration of the timeslots in one-hour increments
  • Cleaned up “Event Dates, RSVP Options” box in editor, moving less commonly used parameters to the bottom.
  • Added a Tweak Permalinks setting (a hack for a few users who have reported “page not found” errors, possibly because some other plugin is overwriting the RSVPmaker url rewrite rules).
  • Tested with WP 3.1 release candidate

Download from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/rsvpmaker/

Shortcodes used on home page for event headlines, featured events

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Tested with WordPress 3.1 Release Candidate 2

Posted on January 2, 2011 by David F. Carr

RSVPMaker appears to work just fine with the forthcoming update to WordPress, based on the current release candidate code. The new release should be official very soon, and I’ll be posting and RSVPMaker update with some of the additional features people have been asking for.

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To-Do List for Improvements

Posted on January 1, 2011 by David F. Carr

These are mostly things I got as requests from other people who have tried RSVPMaker and are looking for some extra features. Let me know if these are on your list, or if you see other areas for improvement, so I will know what to prioritize.

  • Ability to set both a start date and a deadline for accepting RSVPs. Currently, I only provide a start date.
  • When soliciting signups for specific timeslots (for example, volunteers at an event), allow variable lengths for the timeslots (currently fixed at one hour).
  • For multi-day events with RSVPs, the option of letting people sign up for one or more days but not necessarily all. So for a 3-day event, we might provide checkbox for those who only want to sign up for two days out of three.
  • Some system for approving RSVPs, where there is some criteria for acceptance. I got this request a few weeks ago but am unsure how it should work, so not giving it a high priority.
  • A way to specify different RSVP forms for different event types. Might offer this as a set of cookbook guidelines for people who want to do special customizations, rather than as a core part of the plugin.

The trick with addressing some of these requests will be doing so without cluttering things up too much for those whose needs are more basic.

I’m planning to move some of the more complicated options that only apply in special cases to a separate section of the control panel for setting RSVP parameters.

The event type category I provide isn’t really being used for anything now. I’m thinking that the shortcodes for displaying listings should have a way of designating that you only want to list the events in the featured category or some other category.

Also want to revise the recurring event editor to let you specify how far ahead you want to project the dates for the events you are setting up.

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How to Add Events with RSVPMaker

Posted on January 1, 2011 by David F. Carr

This is a brief illustrated tutorial on the RSVPMaker event editor and the primary options it provides.

Here’s how you set up a basic event, with just a headline, event description and date and time set.

A basic event - headline, description, date and time

And here’s what it gets you:

A basic event

Here, we’re specifying both a start time and a duration, so that the system will display both a start time and an end time.

Setting the duration

Event showing end time

You can also set up a multi-day event with a common headline and description for a weekend camping trip or week-long conference.

Setting up a multi-day event. Setting it to hide the display of the time for these all-day events.

Multi-day event

If you want to collect RSVPs, you need to check the Collect RSVPs checkbox and specify an email address for whoever needs to receive notifications when someone completes the form. You can also view a report of everyone who has RSVP’ed.

There are also options you can use to:

  • Set a deadline for RSVPs (leave this blank otherwise)
  • Set a maximum number of participants (leave it at zero for no limit)
  • Prompt users to sign up for one-hour timeslots, an option intended for use staffing volunteer events. A future release may allow you to set the time interval for the volunteer timeslots, but right now it’s fixed at one hour.
screenshot

Setting RSVP Parameters

If you view an event listing, you will now see an RSVP Now button at the end of the listing. You can also send out email invitations that include this button to prompt a response (See How to Post and Email an Event, which explains the related ChimpBlast plugin for use with MailChimp email broadcast accounts).

Event listings include an RSVP Now! Button

Click the button or the headline, and you’ll be taken to a view of the single event with the RSVP Form displayed.

screenshot

Clicking button or other link to single event display brings up the RSVP Form

The RSVP editor will also display options for setting prices for online payments if you have PayPal enabled. See How to Set Up PayPal with RSVPMaker for details.

Posted in Announcement | 24 Comments