Calendar 2.0 brings images, tool tips, themes, a sidebar widget and more!

The new calendar add-on is now available to download in the forums for registered users of the Personal license and above.  Some of the new features include:

• New calendar sidebar widget
• Tool tip short descriptions (which support images in event descriptions)
• Easy to use custom event category colors
• Support for jQuery UI’s Themeroller
• Custom color options
• calendar thumbnail images

Update to the latest version of Event Espresso (3.1.24 or above) and the latest version of the Calendar add-on (2.0 or above). After activating, navigate over to the calendar settings page. You’ll be greeted with a brand new set of options to play with.

Some of the new features work with features you may have already been using. For example, the tooltips use the “display short descriptions” feature set in Event Espresso ? Template settings to display the full event description or just an excerpt. Be sure to use the <!--more--> tag in your event descriptions if you don’t want the full description to display in the tooltip.

You can also enable or disable thumbnail images in the calendar events.*

*Note: In some cases, images may appear cut off or overflow into the next row of dates.  We are aware of the issues and are working on a new version that will resolve these issues. Please report any issues you have in the Calendar forums.

Another new feature is the ability to easily add colors to categories of events using a new color picker on the Categories page.  In this way, you can easily change the event background and text colors in your calendar.

Calendar 2.0 also brings jQuery Themeroller to the calendar.  If you’re unfamiliar with Themeroller, you can read up on the project page on the jQuery site.  In short, it’s a framework for building (and using) themes that can be easily swapped in and out or changed and provides a much wider range of design possibilities than the default styles of the calendar or your theme.  You can use one of the default themeroller themes (included with Event Espresso), create your own theme, or build one from the Themeroller site.

The Espresso Calendar is set for a rewrite later this year.  We hope these new features will provide some exciting new features for your event site.  Let us know how your using the new features on your site in the comments below!  If you have any problems or questions, we encourage you to ask in the support forums and we’ll respond as quickly as possible.