Deleting vs not deleting past events: opinions please

[Sue]

After some other input on this.

Currently, I haven’t been removing past/old events but I’m wondering whether it would be better to remove them from the site. This has been prompted by confusion of users looking at the wrong version of an annual event to get information (oops).

What do other users of EO do? Do you just delete past events? Or edit “old” events so it’s clear they’re over?

I think the main reason I’ve kept them is because the only other option is deleting, which seems…so final (also stops me copying stuff).

[zwazo]

Hello,

Deleting past events will also make all the bookings done for these events flagged as orphans.

Therefore your users will lose the details of their past bookings and render the tag [booking_history] useless.

I agree that a kind of “archive” flag which would bring the events unreachable from the front end would be a good idea.

All the best.

Jef

[Sue]

Gah, I hadn’t even thought of the booking history. I think I’ll just have to leave them and edit the past ones to make it obvious that they’re…past.

Thanks Jef

[Stephen Harris]

Jef’s comments are correct. While the booking is not deleted, the reference to the deleted event means that the event title will not appear, and the event date will appear incorrectly. This would render the booking history page (if used) confusing at best.

One way to remove events from the front-end, without deleting them is to trash them and disable auto-deleting of trashed items (see this answer: http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/a/7761/9364).

But that will apply to all post types. So whether that’s viable is a question of whether you use the auto-emptying of trash or not.

I think I’ll just have to leave them and edit the past ones to make it obvious that they’re…past

How would edit them? Most shortcodes/widgest (as well as the event ‘pages’) have an option for hiding past events. The exception here are the calendars – but you could style these so that past events appear as opaque (as they do in the admin calendar).

For the event single page, by default the template says the event has finished – but you could instead / as well have a more prominent message, and/or amend the event title if it were past.

These are all ‘automated’ solutions in that once set up, you no longer need to edit the event. It really depends exactly how you want to make it obvious past events are past.

[Sue]

Thank you Stephen – you’ve given me a bit to think about.

How would edit them?

In the most basic way, sadly. In some, I’ve resorted to putting a bit red alert saying that this event is over. But I have to remember to do it. The problem events seem to be the annual biggies (annual but not always at the same time each year – so I can’t use recurring events). I think people bookmark them because…important event.

Most shortcodes/widgest (as well as the event ‘pages’) have an option for hiding past events.

Hide but not disable? Because the bookmarkers are relentless!

I think I may try the delete past event path and turn off the auto trash (thanks for that link).

In other news, I had never noticed the dimming of events in the admin calendar which is a great feature. Is there an FAQ on how to do that on “normal” calendars?

Thanks again Stephen & Jef.

[Stephen Harris]

See event-organiser/event-meta-single-event.php, it already disables a message for expired events:

<?php if ( eo_reoccurs() ) :?>
    <!-- Event reoccurs - is there a next occurrence? -->
    <?php $next = eo_get_next_occurrence( $date_format );?>

    <?php if ( $next ) : ?>
        ...
    <?php else : ?>
        <!-- event has expired -->
    <?php endif; ?>
<?php endif; ?>

For ‘dimming’ the calendar, simply use the CSS snippet:

 .eo-fullcalendar .eo-past-event {
      opacity: 0.5;
 }

[Sue]

Thanks Stephen!

Your incredibly helpful attitude is why EO is my all time favourite WP plugin.

[Stephen Harris]

You’re welcome :).

[Author]

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