Fantastic, Versatile Free Plugin, Not Crippled
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This calendaring and events plugin works reliably, and the developer has been extraordinarily responsive to user requests for both support and new features. (He prefers we use his own forum for the purpose.) You can fill a calendar, list events, take registrations AND payments, e-mail confirmations, and more, all without a single fee or service dependency (other than PayPal, GoogleCheckout, et al.)
It’s tremendously powerful, based in part on the code base it forked and in part on all the extra effort this developer’s put into it. This free GPL event and calendar plugin provides all the features of competitors costing hundreds of dollars.
It might require a level of comfort with shortcodes and HTML to get the most out of it, and initial configuration can be a little daunting until you figure out how it works. You reserve a blank page on your WordPress site, and EME dynamically displays event details on it. (You can also have a separate page just for a graphic calendar and event list, as well as a sidebar widget calendar.)
The developer (Franky) has been adding new features like mad in 2013, including multiple payment processor options. All of this is free donationware, with no “pro” version to pay for unless you want to contribute.
The best tip from me is that a LOT is controlled in that little “Default single event format” box on the Settings page. This is what gets used when overlaying that reserved WordPress page with the details of a particular event. Here’s one version of my settings for that box that you can use as a model if you wish:
<b><p style="float: left; width: 32%; text-align: left;">#D, #M. #j, #Y -- #_12HSTARTTIME to #_12HENDTIME</p> <p style="float: left; width: 60%; text-align: right;">#_LOCATIONNAME, #_ADDRESS, #_TOWN</p></b><div> </div> <div> </div><div> </div> <div class="sep"> </div>[events_if tag='#_IS_RSVP_ENABLED' value='1']<b>Look below for details, or register: </b>#_PRICE each #_ATT{priceinfo}#_ADDBOOKINGFORM<div class="sep"> </div> [/events_if] #_NOTES <div class="sep"> </div> #_MAP <div class="sep"> </div> <b>Directions</b> (click "Get Directions"): #_DIRECTIONS <div class="sep"> </div> <b>Event Categories:</b> #_CATEGORIES <div class="sep"> </div> [events_if tag='#_IS_LOGGED_IN' value='1'] [events_if2 tag='#_IS_RSVP_ENABLED' value='1'] <b>Attendees: (Only Visible to Staff)</b> #_ATTENDEES<div> </div><b>Availability:</b> #_BOOKEDSEATS seats booked, #_AVAILABLESEATS available<div class="sep"> </div>[/events_if2][/events_if][events_if tag='#ESC_CATEGORIES' notcontains='Non-Org']<b>Event Contact:</b> #_CONTACTNAME, #_CONTACTEMAIL, #_CONTACTPHONE<div class="sep"> </div>[/events_if]<div> Click #_ICALLINK or <a target="_blank" href="https://www.google.com/calendar/event?action=TEMPLATE&text=#URL_NAME&dates=#_{Ymd}T#H#_{i}00/#@_{Ymd}T#@H#@_{i}00&sprop=#URL_EVENTPAGEURL&location=#URL_ADDRESS,#URL_TOWN&details=#URL_LOCATION">Google Calendar</a> to add to your calendar.<div> </div></div> [events_if tag='#_IS_LOGGED_IN' value='1'] #_EDITEVENTLINK this event listing<div> </div>[/events_if]
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