Title: [plugin: Event Calendar 3] custom templating function
Last modified: August 19, 2016

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# [plugin: Event Calendar 3] custom templating function

 *  [Garbo](https://wordpress.org/support/users/garbokaas/)
 * (@garbokaas)
 * [17 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-event-calendar-3-custom-templating-function/)
 * Hi,
 * I wanted to share a little experience with the Event Calendar 3 plugin. I was
   disappointed that this plugin doesn’t provide much theming possibilities. For
   instance it doesn’t provide the possibility to display the contents of custom
   fields belonging to events-posts.
 * So I created my own version of the `ec3_get_events()` function as found in the
   plugin’s `template-functions.php`. This function was saved in my theme’s `functions.
   php` file and now I can list all my custom fields within the calendar sidebar
   widget.
 * My new function is allmost similar to the oiginal but it the difference is that
   it retrieves more content and instead of a unordered list the output is themed
   in a table (a personal need).
 * So here’s my custom function:
 *     ```
       function ec3_get_events2(
         $limit,
         $template_event=EC3_DEFAULT_TEMPLATE_EVENT,
         $template_day  =EC3_DEFAULT_TEMPLATE_DAY,
         $date_format   =EC3_DEFAULT_DATE_FORMAT,
         $template_month=EC3_DEFAULT_TEMPLATE_MONTH,
         $month_format  =EC3_DEFAULT_MONTH_FORMAT)
       {
         if(!ec3_check_installed(__('Upcoming Events','ec3')))
           return;
         global $ec3,$wpdb,$wp_version;
   
         // Parse $limit:
         //  NUMBER      - limits number of posts
         //  NUMBER days - next NUMBER of days
         if(empty($limit))
         {
           $limit_numposts='LIMIT 5';
         }
         elseif(preg_match('/^ *([0-9]+) *d(ays?)?/',$limit,$matches))
         {
           $secs=intval($matches[1])*24*3600;
           $and_before="AND start<='".ec3_strftime('%Y-%m-%d',time()+$secs)."'";
         }
         elseif(intval($limit)<1)
         {
           $limit_numposts='LIMIT 5';
         }
         else
         {
           $limit_numposts='LIMIT '.intval($limit);
         }
   
         if(!$date_format)
             $date_format=get_option('date_format');
   
         // Find the upcoming events.
         $calendar_entries = $wpdb->get_results(
           "SELECT DISTINCT
              p.id AS id,
              post_title,
              start,
              u.$ec3->wp_user_nicename AS author,
              allday
            FROM $ec3->schedule s
            LEFT JOIN $wpdb->posts p ON s.post_id=p.id
            LEFT JOIN $wpdb->users u ON p.post_author = u.id
            WHERE p.post_status='publish'
              AND end>='$ec3->today' $and_before
            ORDER BY start $limit_numposts"
         );
   
         echo "<table id=\"calendar_table\">
       		<tr><td>datum:</td><td>organisator:</td><td>bijeenkomst:</td><td>locatie:</td><td>wat:</td><td>inschrijving?</td></tr>";
         echo "<!-- Generated by Event Calendar v$ec3->version -->\n";
         if($calendar_entries)
         {
           $time_format=get_option('time_format');
           $current_month=false;
           $current_date=false;
           $data=array();
           foreach($calendar_entries as $entry)
           {
             // To use %SINCE%, you need Dunstan's 'Time Since' plugin.
             if(function_exists('time_since'))
                 $data['SINCE']=time_since( time(), ec3_to_time($entry->start) );
   
             // Month changed?
             $data['MONTH']=mysql2date($month_format,$entry->start);
             if((!$current_month || $current_month!=$data['MONTH']) && $template_month)
             {
               if($current_date)
                   echo "</ul></li>\n";
               if($current_month)
                   echo "</ul></li>\n";
               echo "<li class='ec3_list ec3_list_month'>"
               .    ec3_format_str($template_month,$data)."\n<ul>\n";
               $current_month=$data['MONTH'];
               $current_date=false;
             }
   
             // Date changed?
             $data['DATE'] =mysql2date($date_format, $entry->start);
             if((!$current_date || $current_date!=$data['DATE']) && $template_day)
             {
               if($current_date)
                   echo "</ul></li>\n";
               echo "<li class='ec3_list ec3_list_day'>"
               .    ec3_format_str($template_day,$data)."\n<ul>\n";
               $current_date=$data['DATE'];
             }
   
             if($entry->allday)
                 $data['TIME']=__('all day','ec3');
             else
                 $data['TIME']=mysql2date($time_format,$entry->start);
   
             $data['TITLE'] =
               htmlentities(
                 stripslashes(strip_tags($entry->post_title)),
                 ENT_QUOTES,get_option('blog_charset')
               );
             $data['LINK']  =get_permalink($entry->id);
       	  $data['WAAR'] =get_post_meta($entry->id, 'event_plaats', true);
       	  $data['ORGANISATIE'] =get_post_meta($entry->id, 'event_organisatie', true);
       	  $data['INSCHRIJVEN'] =get_post_meta($entry->id, 'event_inschrijven', true);
       	  $data['SOORT'] =get_post_meta($entry->id, 'event_soort', true);
             $data['AUTHOR']=
               htmlentities($entry->author,ENT_QUOTES,get_option('blog_charset'));
             echo " <tr>".ec3_format_str($template_event,$data)."</tr>\n";
           }
           if($current_date)
               echo "</ul></li>\n";
           if($current_month)
               echo "</ul></li>\n";
         }
         else
         {
           echo "<tr>".__('No events.','ec3')."</tr>\n";
         }
         echo "</table>\n";
       }
       ```
   
 * And here’s how i call it from my template:
 *     ```
       ec3_get_events2(
       	'100',                 // limit
       	'<td>%DATE%</td><td>%ORGANISATIE%</td><td><a href="%LINK%">%TITLE%</a></td><td>%WAAR%</td><td>%SOORT%</td><td>%INSCHRIJVEN%</td>',                       // template_event
       	''                    // template_day
       );
       ```
   
 * I hope it is usefull for others as well

The topic ‘[plugin: Event Calendar 3] custom templating function’ is closed to new
replies.

## Tags

 * [custom fields](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/custom-fields/)
 * [custom-template](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/custom-template/)
 * [ec3](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/ec3/)
 * [Event Calendar 3](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/event-calendar-3/)

 * 0 replies
 * 1 participant
 * Last reply from: [Garbo](https://wordpress.org/support/users/garbokaas/)
 * Last activity: [17 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-event-calendar-3-custom-templating-function/)
 * Status: not a support question

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