Low Search + Solspace Calendar ... A winning combination?
Hello Low
I just bought Solspace Calendar for an events site for a city and I would like to combine it with Low Search (I know you have already made a specific addon for that). My first concern is not about code but if and how I can combine them. I have not bought Low Search for this site yet.
The procedure goes as follows
A user submits an event by filling a channel form. There are some fields (title, description, etc) and then there is a solspace calendar for dates and options and then the user enters the address of event.
The address values (street, street number, zip code, city, administrative area, latitude and longitude) are extracted to Expressionengine text fields through a javascript. This part is already working.
Many events can be repeated in various dates (called occurrences in solspace Calendar). For example a concert is scheduled for every Tuesday and another concert every Tuesday and Wednesday in the same place.
What I want is when a user searches for concerts for some next Tuesday (by choosing a date from the calendar in a search form) in a specific place then a list will present results with concert A and B and if the user searches for some next Wednesday in the same place the list will present only concert B.
So, I have (graphically) designed a search form with
1. A calendar (solspace preferably) where a user can choose a date (or maybe a date range)
2. A dropdown with list of sections (administrative area) of the city (centre, eastern suburbs, western suburbs, northern suburbs, southern suburbs) taken from a specific text field
3. A dropdown with activities e.g. music, sports, theatre, etc. (taken from category event_type)
4. A submit button
What I want to know is if Low Search can search inside all the occurrences of all the entries that correspond to a specific date and to a specific category and to present to appropriate results.
I was thinking to ask these questions before I proceed to any implementation of a solution.
What do you think? Will the above question be possible to implement with Low Seach + Solspace Calendar?
Thanks in advance for your time
Replies
Low 1 Dec 2016 10:35
First question to ask back is, were you looking at EE2 or EE3? As Low Search Calendar (which you would need) is not available for EE3 at the moment.
KostasRomporas 1 Dec 2016 13:08
Hi again and thanks for the direct response
Right now i'm working on EE2 but i consider upgrading to EE3 since Solspace told me that Calendar for EE2 version has some limitations (for channel form) with JQuery (working only with 1.3 version) while i'm working my project with Jquery 2+
So right now, yes, i work with EE2 and i'm considering my options
KostasRomporas 1 Dec 2016 13:58
it will also be ok if you intend to upgrade Low Search Calendar for EE3 the next 4-6 months
Low 1 Dec 2016 14:09
So, currently, Low Search Calendar will allow you to output events like the Cal, Events or Occurrences tags do in Solspace Calendar. Because of that, all parameters that are available on those tags become dynamic, allowing you to select a custom date (range).
Apart from that, all other Low Search filters are available, so you can use keywords, numeric ranges, categories, relationships and whatnot to further drill down the entries (ie. events/occurrences).
I think it's a fairly safe bet that the combination of add-ons can do what you're after.
I currently have no concrete plans to migrate LSC to EE3, mainly because the demand hasn't been there (yet), and I have yet to see if anything has changed on Solspace's side. This, of course, can change.
KostasRomporas 24 Jan 2017 13:47
Hello again
i have now migrate to EE3 and have installed Solspace Calendar for EE3. Now, based on the above, i would like to ask if Low Search (not Low Search Calendar, if this is not compatible with EE3) can work together with Calendar so i can implement my solution?
Thanks in advance for your time
Low 24 Jan 2017 15:30
Low Search Calendar is currently not compatible with EE3, so using Low Search and Calendar together on EE3 is currently limited to standard out-of-the-box compatibility. So you won't be able to use the options made available by LSC to use the Low Search form to filter Calendar events/occurrences.
KostasRomporas 9 Apr 2017 17:52
Hello again
i would like to ask a question ... would you be able to migrate LSC to EE3 as a custom solution and how much would the cost be? What if i buy multiple licences? Please answer me at isthmos@gmail.com if it can be done
The problem with Solspace Calendar is that someone cannot make any searches that include custom fields (dropdown fields, longitude and latitude as text fields, etc.) and i realise that LSC can help me solve this.
Thanks
Low 10 Apr 2017 07:11
Took some time to look into it, but it seems Solspace Calendar for EE3 is not compatible with Low Search for EE3, even with Low Search Calendar, nor can it be.
The current version of Calendar doesn't support an 'entry_id' or 'event_id' parameter to limit the events/entries by any given ID. This is what Low Search uses to filter and will try to pass on to the Calendar tags. But since those tags don't support that anymore, there's not much LS can do.
KostasRomporas 13 Apr 2017 19:48
Well i found a solution with Stash variables see here https://expressionengine.stackexchang... .. i don't know if this can be also done with Low variables ... thanks for your time
Low 13 Apr 2017 20:34
Not sure how you'd do that with LV, no. LV gives you template snippets or user defined global vars. Stash lets you define vars on the fly, which seems what you need here.