I would like to thank you for your review and feedback, all feedback is useful.
Taking the issue of the cache, the cache is set by default to 24 hours to protect your website in a couple of ways, each time data is fetched from Eventbrite it makes multiple API calls which is naturally slow, in addition Eventbrite has an hourly and daily API call limit.
Even on the paid for version, the recommended cache time is 1 day.
In most cases, apart from initial set up a 1 day cache is fine, events are not the sort of thing that happen in real time, they take organisation / promotion etc.
Even with the free version there is a filter than means that developer can adjust the cache duration themselves. And for testing, deactivating and reactivating the plugin clears the cache without losing settings so is a quick thing to do.
As for wanting more free things, yes I’m sure every one would love to have more for free. The free plugin is built with the same template capability as the paid plugin, so developer can build their own custom layouts, and instructions on how to do that are documented on the website. Some developers have created some very nice layouts using just the free product.
Just in January the mighty Automattic ( owners of JetPack, Akismet and WooCommerce and the commercial WordPress.com) closed their free ‘Eventbrite API’ plugin, after not supporting it for 18 months – they had no commercial version – and keeping up with Eventbrite changes means constant unpaid work.
For the longevity of a WordPress plugin it is important to have commercial options to keep the plugin viable.
Alan
