Hi @kburrows,
Thanks for getting in touch, and sorry to hear you’re having a rough time with this! CSV imports can be tricky business, but I’d be happy to see if I can help you out here!
It sounds like your issue is that you’re wanting to have your race distances designated as event categories, with some races having multiple categories. This can be done by simply designating a single column for event categories and listing the categories for each event within this column–multiple categories can be assigned by simply listing them separated by commas. Our Knowledgebase article here has more information on supported fields for our CSV importer, including examples and downloadable files you can use as templates!
Does that help to address your issues? Let me know, and I’ll make sure we get you squared away here just as soon as possible!
Ugh. Wish there was an easier way. Merging is a pain.
If I go with pro / community event version – 3 questions
1. can i export the entered events to a csv file?
2. will users be able to search for races based on distance?
3. will this version solve my import issue??
Right now I’m thinking it will be faster to just add race categories and select them after import.
ugh again!
thanks!
k
I’m so sorry for the trouble here! Unfortunately, our CSV importer functionality is exactly the same on Events Calendar PRO, so it won’t import multiple columns as categories in the manner you’re describing. We also don’t support CSV export, though we do include iCal (ICS) export as a feature.
For searches based on criteria such as distance, this would depend on how you’ve assigned this information to each event. If distance is assigned as a category or a keyword within the event description, these are searchable (and categories allow for some extra functionality with category-specific views). If you need to assign distance as a custom field and have users filter within a range, this is a much more complex task and would likely require both Events Calendar PRO and Filter Bar.
Apologies again for being the bearer of mixed news this time! That said, do let me know if there’s anything else I can do to help!
Thanks for the info. I’m guessing that once exported to ical we can convert it to whatever format needed?
Can I set up a form in pro that allows users to put in their race info and image? Then export those events to ical and then convert that info?
Here is what I need to accomplish –
import this years races (cvs) to the calendar
allow users to put next years race info in on line
export those races to create a print version
what would I need to do all that? Sorry for being a pest – I got burned on a plug In that read that I could do all that – but you can’t.
again
thanks!
k
Hi again,
No worries on being a pest–please feel free to ask as many questions as you’d like! We’re here to help and happy to do it! 🙂
On doing a quick search, it does look like there are a number of iCal/ICS to CSV converters available online, so you should be all set with one of those if you should need your exports in CSV (or any other) format. We’ve also heard of customers who had success using third-party export plugins in WordPress to export their events to various formats. It might be worth trying a test export a few ways to see what fits best into your workflow!
If you’d like to open up event submissions to other users on your site, we offer a Community Events plugin that operates alongside The Events Calendar to add support for user-submitted events. I’d be glad to answer any questions you might have about it or any of our other community-related plugins!
Thanks, and let me know if you should have any other questions!
