[EventCalendar] Custom query to sort by date, Many events per post

[Matthew Middleton]

Is there a preferred way of doing a custom query to
sort by start time?  I couldn't find any such way, so
I wrote a quick hack to set a global variable
"$ec3_temporary_hack = 1" when I want the results of a
query_posts to be sorted by event order.  I then added
a check to eventcalendar3's "posts_where" filter
function to check for my temporary hack variable.  If
it is set, it does "$ec3->order_by_start=true;
$ec3->join_ec3_sch=true;"  It's an ugly hack, but it
works until I find a better way to do it.

If there is no such way, what would be the preferred
way to implement it?  In this case, I could submit a
patch with a proper implementation to keep other
people from having to use similar hacks.

Also, there should be a clean way of doing one post
with many event instances.  For example, an event
might repeat itself every week, in which case one post
might have 52 events.  Right now, every single event
instance is listed on the post page, which is quite
ugly.  Which of these options would be preferable:

1) On the post itself, only display the next N
upcoming instances of the event.  (I am referring to
the actual post, not the calendar view)  If there are
no upcoming instances, display most recent N instances
of the event.  If there are fewer than N instances of
the event, always display all the times.

Example (N=4): Event XYZ: [November 22 @ 6:00pm,
November 29 @ 6:00pm, December 6 @ 6:00pm, December 13
@ 6:00pm]

2) Same as above, only display the first N event
instances that are either upcoming *or* from the
current month.  If there are no upcoming event
instances, display the most recent N instances.  If
there are fewer than N instances of the event, always
display all the times.

Example (N=4): Event XYZ: [November 1 @ 6:00pm,
November 8 @ 6:00pm, November 22 @ 6:00pm, November 29
@ 6:00pm]

3) Some variant of the above ideas.

4) In addition to one of the previous ideas, implement
new UI features to allow true recurring events to be
specified, with start and end dates.  For example, an
event might last from Jan 1, 2007 to Jan 1, 2009 -
repeating every Thursday at 6:00pm.  A method (such as
one I suggested above) would be used to pick which
dates to display.  If the you like this option, what
type of interface would you like to see to add these
events?  Also, how should this be stored in the
database?  (The table format would need to be changed)

Example (N=4): Event XYZ: [Weekly, Thursday at 6:00pm.

Upcoming times: November 22 @ 6:00pm, November 29 @
6:00pm, December 6 @ 6:00pm, December 13 @ 6:00pm]

This latter option would of course be the most
complex, requiring database changes, user interface
changes, display changes, and (multilingual) string
changes.  I might add a "recurrence" column to the
ec3_events table to specify how often the event should
occur.  Legacy versions of ec3 would simply interpret
the recurring event as one event lasting the entire
duration of the occurrences, ensuring backwards
compatibility. 

Let me know any implementation ideas or user interface
ideas you have.  For example what patterns besides
day-of-week might you want to match on, and how would
you want to configure it in the user interface? 
(Examples: first four Thursdays each month - with no
event on Thanksgiving, every other Thursday, first
Monday of every month, first day of every month, etc)

Also, would you want these changes separated from my
big calendar patch, or would it be easier if I keep
everything in one patch?

I am putting new non-core features ("post tags", event
registration) in a new extension, which I haven't
finished yet.  It will make no direct database calls,
instead relying on custom queries and eventcalendar3
built-in functions for everything.  The changes I have
described in this post are core changes, and thus they
wouldn't be good candidates for my add-on extension.

-Matthew