[Plugin: The Events Calendar] Feature/Help Request: Customizable Entries/Meta Data in New Event Form

OK Progress! I would love feedback on how to do this so that when the next update happens I don’t lose all this work. Currently, only the public viewable files live in my themes folder. I tried copying events-meta-box.php into my theme/events but the calendar didn’t register any changes to it.

So basically the-events-calendar.php and events-meta-box.php still reside in the plugin directory, and I’m assuming updates will wipe my changes. GRRR! I have suggestions on that, I’ll post them after this:

I’ll run through what I did:

1. Added custom meta data to the array in the-events-calendar.php at line 46:

   ///** CUSTOM!*/
   '_EventAdvCost', //advanced ticket cost
   '_EventAdvURL', // advanced ticket url
   '_EventAge', //event age (21 or over? all ages?)

2. Added functions to initialize and return the meta as strings at line 1497 (I created blank spaces):

   /** CUSTOM!
   * Returns Advanced Cost
   *
   * @return string advanced cost
   */
   function the_event_advanced_cost( $postID = null) {
   	if ( $postId === null || !is_numeric( $postId ) ) {
   		global $post;
   		$postId = $post->ID;
   	}
   	return get_post_meta( $postId, '_EventAdvCost', true );
   }
   /** CUSTOM!
   * Returns Advanced URL
   *
   * @return string advanced url
   */
   function the_event_advanced_url( $postID = null) {
   	if ( $postId === null || !is_numeric( $postId ) ) {
   		global $post;
   		$postId = $post->ID;
   	}
   	return get_post_meta( $postId, '_EventAdvURL', true );
   }
   /** CUSTOM!
   * Returns Age
   *
   * @return string Age
   */
   function the_event_age( $postID = null) {
   	if ( $postId === null || !is_numeric( $postId ) ) {
   		global $post;
   		$postId = $post->ID;
   	}
   	return get_post_meta( $postId, '_EventAge', true );
   }

3. Updated the interface in events-meta-box.php at about line 357 (created new line) to add my custom advanced cost meta (at the moment I’ve only done advanced ticket cost, as the advanced url will have all kinds of special characters, and the age is going to be a radial, so I don’t know how that is going to work yet):

   <!-- !CUSTOM -->
   <tr>
   	<td><?php _e('Advanced Ticket Cost:',$this->pluginDomain); ?></td>
   	<td><input tabindex="2029" type='text' name='EventAdvCost' size='6' value='<?php echo $_EventAdvCost; ?>' /></td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
   	<td></td>
   	<td><small><?php _e('Leave blank to hide the field. Enter a 0 for events that are free.', $this->pluginDomain); ?></small></td>
   </tr>
   <!-- /!CUSTOM -->

4. Updated /themes/[my theme directory]/events/single.php to add the advanced ticket cost information, line 26:

   <!--CUSTOM!-->
   <?php if ( the_event_advanced_cost() ) : ?>
   	<dt><?php _e('Adv. Tix:', $spEvents->pluginDomain) ?></dt>
   	<dd><?php echo the_event_advanced_cost(); ?></dd>
   <?php endif; ?>
   <!--/Custom!-->

So, again, I haven’t added in the other fields (the url for advanced ticket url, or the age restriction), and if I need to do anything weird to get them to work I’ll post back here. Otherwise, follow the example above.