Contents:

Why?
Features
Install
Tags
Templates
Links
Multi Lingual
Permissions

Why:

Why should I take the time to learn the ins and outs of Post-Schedule when there are other feature replete calendar programs out there that are easier to use? While it is true that you could use a different calendar application, Post-Schedule gives you an unprecedented degree of user customization. Virtually every aspect of the visual display can be changed to fit your mood just by making simple changes to the relevant templates. As a matter of fact Post-Schedule does not contain any html code at all except for a few simple dropdown boxes used in the form. And even these can be done away with if desired. Even the submit form is done entirely through a template. This makes it possible to add javascript code for pre and post submit functions. In this way the calendar can be expanded without changing a single line of program code.


Features:



Install:

The install is quite easy thanks to the new module initialize function. Just follow these few easy steps. You should be all set to start adding events today!


Tags:

Access to the database of events is accomplished through the use of tags. A tag looks something like this (ie. {MONTH}/{DAY}/{YEAR} would return 03/09/1959) A tag is replaced by actual data at compile time which happens before the page is actually displayed. Following is a list of tags that are available to the various templates.


Templates:

The easiest way to get started with the Post-Schedule templates is to modify one of the existing default templates. I've tried to incorporate a little of everything from javascript to stylesheets. The default implementation is not necessarily the best possible solution. Remember the default templates are meant to be nothing more than examples. Start with the header, footer, preview, message and event templates as these tend to be the easiest. I'll give a few thoughts on the others here to get you going. At first the templates can seem overwhelming. Just remember while there are a lot of tags that can be used, you are not required to use all of them. Your templates can be as simple of complex as you want.



Links:

Knowing how to call the various functions of the calendar make it possible to generate some nice displays. Following is an explanation of the links used. Some parameters are required and some are optional. Let's start with the most basic of links:

Here are a few examples:


Multi Lingual:

In the pnlang directory you'll find language directories for each of the supported languages. Currently this is english only (eng). Post-Schedule will look in the current languages directory as defined by PostNuke or english as the default. Inside this directory will be a file called template.php. This file contains Post-Schedule's main language constructs. Feel free to add as many new strings as you might like or change the ones that are already there. The default templates use this method to create a multi lingual calendar. If you don't want to be multi lingual then feel free to hardcode these lines right into your templates.


Permissions:

A quick guide to Post-Schedules implementation of permissions

As you can see this gives you lots of options over who can do what on your site. Experiment with different settings and if you come up with some cool scenarios let me know so we can share them with all our users. And now a few of my own scenarios.

There are of course several ways you could accomplish these scenarios but these should start you thinking.

Note:As of this writing postnuke's permission system is still under development. I find that sometimes I'm better off setting a user permission rather than a group permission. Most of the same settings can be found under user permissions. After you set a permission make sure you thoroughly test your system as the wrong permissions could open up your site to attack.