Thread

I’m trying to setup a slightly different kind of calendar, and wondered if EE could handle this.

Instead of a Monthly display, and one blog entry per calendar entry, instead I’m looking for a Weekly display, and one blog entry to show up multiple times on the Weekly view.

It’s a group fitness schedule for my local gym - they do 7 or 8 types of Group Fitness class, sometimes multiple times a day, but at least multiple times a week.

I would like to create one blog entry for the different classes, and somehow tell EE that they should show up at certain times in the day / week.

I only need a Mon - Sun view, not monthly or yearly, or archives - but we need to keep the ability to edit which classes show on the fly.

Thoughts?

Hmm…that’s an interesting setup.  It’s certainly a common one but not one I’ve thought much about.  My initial thoughts are to utilize categories here.  The categories would be days of the week.  Then, I’d post a weblog entry for each class and categorize them accordingly.  This wouldn’t be able to handle multiple sessions of the class on one day, though.  So, you would need to post the 8:00AM session and the 3:00PM sessions as separate entries.  Also, if someone needed to change the time of a class, they would need to delete the entry and post a new one.

The other option I’m thinking is to use relationships (with Playa as an interface).  You could create a weblog (call it “time slots” for example) and create an entry for each potential time slot.  Then, you would post a entry per class and relate it each of the time slots.  This would only work if a) the number of time slots were fairly static and b) the number of time slots were small.  The benefit here is that you could easily change the time/frequency of a class (just go edit the entry and select/deselect relations from the Playa field).

These are just some initial thoughts.  Hopefully it gives you some ideas.

Hmm…that’s an interesting setup.  It’s certainly a common one but not one I’ve thought much about.  My initial thoughts are to utilize categories here.  The categories would be days of the week.  Then, I’d post a weblog entry for each class and categorize them accordingly.  This wouldn’t be able to handle multiple sessions of the class on one day, though.  So, you would need to post the 8:00AM session and the 3:00PM sessions as separate entries.  Also, if someone needed to change the time of a class, they would need to delete the entry and post a new one.

The other option I’m thinking is to use relationships (with Playa as an interface).  You could create a weblog (call it “time slots” for example) and create an entry for each potential time slot.  Then, you would post a entry per class and relate it each of the time slots.  This would only work if a) the number of time slots were fairly static and b) the number of time slots were small.  The benefit here is that you could easily change the time/frequency of a class (just go edit the entry and select/deselect relations from the Playa field).

These are just some initial thoughts.  Hopefully it gives you some ideas.

I’ve not come across Playa - do you have a link for more info?

The first option is interesting - a category for each day, the only drawback would be that the entries do change - I’d need to set it up, let them try it and see if it works.

I’d love some simple way to do this for them though - their complaint on their current option is how complex it is - they need to give the trainers and teachers access to change their own classes, and it’s too complex right now - I’m thinking even the first option is going to be too difficult for them.

You can find more information about Playa here: http://brandon-kelly.com/apps/playa.  I’ve used it on almost all of my EE sites since I found out about it.  It’s truly one of the best add-ons.  It makes using relationships so much more user friendly.

As far as difficulty, it’s really up to you.  If there are going to be several people that are going to use it, I’d probably set up a stand alone entry/edit form (using Solspace’s Form Helper plugin).  With a hearty dose of JavaScript and design, you can make it quite usable.