The default RSVP event registration form that comes with RSVPMaker was designed for in-person events, with space for registrants to provide a phone number and add the names of guests. When you are instead registering people for online events (the most common case in 2020), collecting a phone number may not be appropriate, and guest registration is probably irrelevant.
The latest RSVPMaker release makes it easier to switch between alternate RSVP Forms. I’ve provided one for webinars, which you can modify as needed, and you can create more.
Switch between RSVP Forms
When working with an event or event template, you can either switch to using one of the alternate forms (shared between all events that use it) or create a copy that you can customize.
This is similar to how you can either edit the default RSVP Form or create a customized copy of it.
There’s now an option to choose either the default form or one of the alternatives when you create a new event or event template.
You can edit the available forms, or create new ones, on the RSVP Forms tab of the RSVPMaker Settings screen.
RSVP Forms tab in Settings Screen
You can modify the webinar form I’ve provided, which by default asks for first name, last name, and email, with a prompt to allow you to add the registrant to your email list (which can be automatic if you’re using RSVPMaker’s MailChimp integration).
Or you can create a new reusable form from scratch.
At the bottom of the RSVP Forms tab, you’ll see a listing of custom forms previously created for specific events. To make any of these forms reusable, you assign it a name that should be displayed on the menu.
RSVPMaker users can also manage forms by associating them with an event template for a given type of event, which can also include customized confirmation messages and settings shared across events based on that template. However, allowing RSVP Forms to be managed independently should help with scenarios where you want to collect a similar set of data for multiple types of events.
RSVPMaker now offers a countdown timer block. You can embed it in an event, and it will show the countdown to the start time for that event. Or add it to a post or page (for example, a blog post highlighting how quickly the event is approaching) and specify which event you’re targeting.
You can see an example of how it works when embedded in an event below.
Styling the Countdown Timer
RSVPMaker provides some basic styling for the countdown timer, which you can modify to fit your preferences using, for example, the WordPress Customize tool. Here’s an example.
CSS classes you can target include:
countdowndigits: the digits included in the display
countdowndigits-line: the whole line of content
countdowndays, countdownhours, countdownminutes, countdownseconds: the components of the time
countdownspacer: wraps around the colon between hour, minutes, and seconds
countdowndayslabel: the label “days” that appears between the days and hours
You can also specify what should be displayed after the countdown has expired (the scheduled start time of the event is past). The choices are a “stopped clock” like 00:00:00, the stopped clock plus a message, or just the message you provide. If you don’t want anything displayed, select “none.”
If a message is displayed, it will be a paragraph with the class “countdown_expiration_message” as a target for any CSS.
This is a demo of how to do event marketing in RSVPMaker for WordPress, showing an updated user interface for setting event dates and times.
https://youtu.be/NmwN1T9s44E
Demo of RSVPMaker, WordPress plugin for event marketing
The drop-down lists for year, month, day, and time are gone, replaced with simple text entry blanks. You can type in “January 1, 2021 7 PM” or “6 March 2021 8:30 am” or any other clear date and time. If you prefer, use the numeric format “2021-02-28 09:30:00.” That’s what actually gets recorded to the database.
If you enter the date as text, you will see the numeric equivalent and vice versa.
This change is based on usability research I’ve been reading that argues against excessive use of drop-downs. I personally found it to be inefficient when creating multiple events.
Setting the date and time in RSVPMaker
A simpler user interface lets you focus on event marketing, like copy and images that tell people why they should attend.
I’ve added the ability to change dates and times using the Quick Edit feature of WordPress post listings.
RSVPMaker Quick Edit (date and time settings magnified)
In addition, a new multi-event setup screen is handy for things like creating RSVPMaker event posts representing all the sessions and activities in a conference program.
RSVPMaker Schedule example
The demo covers the use of the RSVPMaker Schedule block, which was intended for applications like conference schedules. Used in combination with the Show in my timezone button, it allows people to convert times to their own local timezone — particularly handy for online events. See the sample conference schedule example from the demo.
When you hold a seminar or conference online, you make it available to the world — and even if you were compelled to take it online by COVID-19, you ought to take advantage of that fact. That means attracting people from many timezones, not just the timezone the organizers happen to be located in. Yet even many professional events, fail to make this easy — expecting people to be able to do the mental math to calculate the difference from EST to PST to GMT and beyond.
With RSVPMaker’s Show in my timezone button, the computer can do the math for them. Recent enhancements allow you to use it in a broader variety of situations.
This event is advertised in U.S. Eastern time, but viewers can see the entire schedule translated into their own local timezone.
The example here is from VTM CON on Dec. 5, 2020, a conference for speakers and leaders I’m helping publicize. I was a founder of Online Presenters Toastmasters, one of the sponsors, which has been using the Show in my timezone button on its event notices for years, but in this case we wanted to show the entire schedule of events for the conference in a table. The times for EST, PST, and UTC were entered by hand, but we wanted to make the listing equally accessible to people in other timezones.
You can see it liveand register for the event. If you attend, be sure to say hello.
For the VTM CON example, I’ve added the CSS class tz-table2 to the an HTML table created with the WordPress block editor. This tells my script the data to be converted is in the second column of the table. The available classes are tz-table1, tz-table2, and tz-table3 for the first second and third columns of a table.
You can also apply tz-convert to a table or another container block such as a paragraph, heading, div, or span element. When tz-convert is applied to a table, the script searches for any content formatted like a time (either 1:00 PM or 13:00). The data to be converted should be the only content in the table cell or other container targeted.
In the WordPress editor, you can add a class to any block of content by selecting Advanced in the sidebar panel for that block type.
Adding a class to a table
Using tz-convert for my table would be fine if it only contained times in EST, but in my example it would also mess with the times given for PST and UTC. Using tz-table2 avoids that issue.
For those interested in the technical details, I’ve provided an HTML / JavaScript example at the end of this post that could be used outside of WordPress or RSVPMaker.
Timezone Conversion for the RSVPMaker Schedule Block
Timezone conversion for the RSVPMaker Schedule block
The timezone conversion feature also works with the RSVPMaker Schedule listing, which was introduced several versions ago as an alternative to the RSVPMaker Upcoming schedule listing.
Here, the idea is that each session of the conference has been modeled as its own RSVPMaker event. The RSVPMaker Schedule block includes options that allow you to limit the listing by start and end date and by the RSVPMaker Event Type (similar to a category for a blog post).
Rather than showing the full date and time at the start of each post, RSVPMaker shows the date just once for each event falling on that date, followed by the start time, the event title, and the content of the event. Within each event post, you can use the more tag to specify content that should only be displayed if the user clicks Read More — making the schedule easier for the viewer to scan quickly.
RSVPMaker Schedule block settings
The tz-convert tag is automatically added to the times in an RSVPMaker Schedule display, so that’s a detail you don’t have to worry about. Just toggle on Display “Show in my timezone” in the block settings to activate this feature.
If you’re a user of the software, but not a programmer, you can stop reading now. The next section is just for other coders.
HTML/JavaScript Code Example
Here is a working example of my timezone table example with some of the complexities specific to my plugin stripped away. JavaScript knows the viewer’s timezone as long as that person’s computer clock is set correctly, so there is no need to ask for it.
The script takes advantage of the fact that JavaScript can also parse a datetime string that includes a timezone into a universal timestamp, representing it in memory as in integer. When you then as the script to display the time, it shows it relative to the user’s own timezone.
Most of the necessary information, such as the original datetime and timezone, is included as attributes on the Show in my timezone button. The rest of the script uses JQuery selectors to target the HTML classes I’ve designated for data that can be converted.
The code sample is not identical to the code used in RSVPMaker, which includes PHP to pull dates, times, and other data from the the WordPress database. Complete code is on Github at https://github.com/davidfcarr/rsvpmaker
This is an example of an online event where the organizers are in Sydney, Australia, but people from around the world are invited to attend. When you click the Show in my timezone button, the equivalent times are shown in the header of the event and also in the table below.
The JavaScript timezone conversion routine searches the body of the post for any content tagged with the tz_convert class. In the case of a table, you can apply the class to the entire table, and each cell of the table will be searched. You just specify the time all by itself in a format like 3:00 PM or 15:00.
RSVPMaker is back online in the WordPress repository, following a fix to one potentially serious security issues and the implementation of other updates required by the wordpress.org plugins review team. Please update ASAP if you are running a version earlier than 7.8.5.
RSVPMaker has been temporarily removed from the wordpress.org repository because of a SQL Injection vulnerability in some old code. I have provided a patch, which the powers that be are reviewing. Meanwhile, I’ve made it available here [link removed].
I apologize for this potentially serious error.
Updates should be available through the plugin repository again soon.
If you’re running WordPress 5.5, it’s now possible to update a plugin using a ZIP file. The system will tell you there is already an existing plugin directory for RSVPMaker then prompt you to confirm that you want to update to the uploaded version.
