Event Espresso 4 provides one-way integration with iCal compatible calendars, including Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, etc. Using the Event Espresso 4 iCal feature, event attendees can quickly add events they have registered for to their personal calendar. The iCal download link includes details such the date and time of the event, venue name, and venue location, etc. That information is then added to the customer’s personal calendar.

What is iCal?

iCalendar, or iCal for short, is a standard method of transferring calendar information between computer systems. The standard allows products from many vendors to transfer calendar information between each other.  iCalendar files typically have the file extension “.ical” “.ics” “.ifb”  or “.icalendar” with a MIME type of “text/calendar”. The iCalendar open standard should not be confused with iCal, the former name for the commercial product “Calendar” developed by Apple Computer.

iCalendar is designed to be independent of the transport protocol. For example, individual events can be sent by traditional email. Web servers (using just the HTTP protocol) are often used to distribute iCalendar data about an event and to publish busy times of an individual.

How is iCal Implemented in Event Espresso 4?

There are three different ways we’ve applied iCal download links in Event Espresso 4. I’ll cover them below.

Event Listings Page

The first place your customers will notice the iCal download links is in the event listings. Your customers can click the iCal download link/button to add the event details to their personal calendar. Here’s how it might look on your site:

iCal Download Button Example in Event List

Event Details Page

Similar to the event listings page, the second place your attendees will be introduced to the iCal download link/button is when viewing the details about individual events, as seen in this example;

iCal Download Button Example below ticket selector

[Optional] Registration Confirmation Messages

The final place your customers might see an iCal download text link is directly after registering for an event on your site, via the “Registration Confirmation” email. I say they might see the link because this location is optional and can be activated by adding a shortcode to your message templates, as seen in the “How to Add iCal Download Links to Messages” documentation.

Registration Confirmation Email Message

Event Schema Markup is code that you put on your website to help the search engines return more informative results for users. By adding event schema markup, search engines (Google, Bing, Yandex, and Yahoo!) can read important details about the event, then generate what is known as a “rich snippet” in the organic search engine results pages.

For example, here is an search specific to “events in chicago”. The result are specific to the events happening now in Chicago, and the format is special for events.

Event Schema shown in Google search results

Event Espresso Supports Schema.org Structured Data Markup for Events

The event schema markup includes details such as when an event is happening, venue, time and location. Without this type of structured data, a web page is essentially all information with no context; adding structured data gives it that context.

WordPress developers familiar with the WordPress Roles and Capabilities system know that it provides a really powerful system for user management. You can grant you staff access to certain areas or functions of Event Espresso based on a capability or user role.

• No UI for user management. The system is entirely hidden to the average user, but it can be managed via a third-party roles and capability plugin (see below).
  
• Over 100+ granular capabilities added. A number of capabilities follow the capability mapping system WordPress provides for not only restricting access to general views but also restricting access based on whether a user “owns” the item being viewed or not (i.e. Event Authors only being able to edit their own events, or a user being able to edit only their own custom message templates).
  
• Easy to use plugin API for extending functionality. In EE4 we’ve provided a handy API for developers to quickly integrate add-ons with different core components of Event Espresso.
• Takes care of initializing new roles and adding capabilities to existing roles. When you hook in your new capabilities using this system you are automatically integrated with all the stuff the EE Capabilities system does.
• Areas of EE4 admin can also be restricted to certain capabilities. This Google Spreadsheet gives you a high level overview and description of all roles and capabilities as of Event Espresso 4.6. We’ve listed all of the EE4 admin routes in the left column and the capabilities across the top. Along the bottom, each sheet represents a different area of Event Espresso.
• Use any third-party roles and capabilities plugin to manage access to Event Espresso 4 features. Capabilities can now managed using any number of third party role and capability management systems, such as Members by Justin Tadlock, to grant users (by role) access to attendee data, events, registrations, and WordPress pages and post content.

If you have technical questions, please feel free to post in our support forums. Developers with access to Event Espresso on Github can post questions there.

Event Espresso 4 allows you to create and showcase new events without requiring attendees to select a pricing option (e.g. a ticket).

This means you can use Event Espresso to add events to a calendar or list of events for any type of event, not only the ones when tickets are for sale. All you have to do is set the “Display Ticket Selector” setting to “No” for the individual events.

If the event details are available on a different website, you can easily link there by adding the URL in the “Alternative Registration Page” field.

We went to a lot of work to make sure that the new Event Espresso 4 user interface follows the WordPress guidelines and can inherit the beautiful enhancements that are available in WordPress 3.8+. We’ve also created custom icons to make the Event Espresso pages easier to use and more mobile-friendly.

Content below source: http://wordpress.org/news/2013/12/parker/

Version 3.8 of WordPress, named “Parker” in honor of Charlie Parker, bebop innovator, is available for download or update in your WordPress dashboard. We hope you’ll think this is the most beautiful update yet.

Introducing a modern new design

WordPress has gotten a facelift. 3.8 brings a fresh new look to the entire admin dashboard. Gone are overbearing gradients and dozens of shades of grey — bring on a bigger, bolder, more colorful design!

Modern aesthetic

The new WordPress dashboard has a fresh, uncluttered design that embraces clarity and simplicity.

Clean typography

The Open Sans typeface provides simple, friendly text that is optimized for both desktop and mobile viewing. It’s even open source, just like WordPress.

Refined contrast

We think beautiful design should never sacrifice legibility. With superior contrast and large, comfortable type, the new design is easy to read and a pleasure to navigate.

WordPress on every device

We all access the internet in different ways. Smartphone, tablet, notebook, desktop — no matter what you use, WordPress will adapt and you’ll feel right at home.

High definition at high speed

WordPress is sharper than ever with new vector-based icons that scale to your screen. By ditching pixels, pages load significantly faster, too.

Admin color schemes to match your personality

WordPress just got a colorful new update. We’ve included eight new admin color schemes so you can pick the one that suits you best.

Color schemes can be previewed and changed from your Profile page.

Refined theme management

The new themes screen lets you survey your themes at a glance. Or want more information? Click to discover more. Then sit back and use your keyboard’s navigation arrows to flip through every theme you’ve got.

Smoother widget experience

Drag-drag-drag. Scroll-scroll-scroll. Widget management can be complicated. With the new design, we’ve worked to streamline the widgets screen.

Have a large monitor? Multiple widget areas stack side-by-side to use the available space. Using a tablet? Just tap a widget to add it.

Twenty Fourteen, a sleek new magazine theme

Turn your blog into a magazine

Create a beautiful magazine-style site with WordPress and Twenty Fourteen. Choose a grid or a slider to display featured content on your homepage. Customize your site with three widget areas or change your layout with two page templates.

With a striking design that does not compromise our trademark simplicity, Twenty Fourteen is our most intrepid default theme yet.

Beginning of a new era

This release was led by Matt Mullenweg. This is our second release using the new plugin-first development process, with a much shorter timeframe than in the past. We think it’s been going great. You can check out the features currently in production on the make/core blog.

Event Espresso 4 gives you more control in understanding your customers and business. We’ve made it easier to know who your customers are and how they’ve done business with you over time.

Contact Profiles

The Contact Profile page stores the name, biography, contact information, event registration history, private comments, and more about each registrant. This is like a journal for each registrant who you have done business with in the past.

Each time this person registers for a new event, their contact information is updated so that you always have the best way to reach them.

Contact List

The Contact List organizes everyone who has ever been registered as an attendee in your Event Espresso system. You can filter, search, etc. to find the right customer.

This is one of the first steps we’re taking to help you offer a better experience to your attendees and help you become more successful.

The Event Espresso Check-in feature allows event managers to:

• Generate an Attendance List and export the list to a report in .CSV format
• Check-in Attendees for Record Keeping

Attendance List

The Check-in list of attendees are of two registration status types: Approved or Pending Payment.

• Approved – are registrations where a payment has been made (or is not required), or it has been manually approved by the admin.
• Pending Payment – registrations that are still awaiting payment.

These are the logical list of attendees. We include registrations that are still pending payment in the case that you allow registrants to pay at the door.

Check-in List

The check-in feature can be accessed online to record attendance. There are three statuses per registration: checked-in, checked-out, or no check-in record available.

Global Tax Administration

Event administrators can manage taxes globally via the default price types and default prices. Tax fees are also reported to the admin in several ways, and to the attendee during and after checkout.

Default Price Types

Basic tax types can be named and configured as flat amounts or percentages of the ticket price. Federal and State sales tax types are made available as default price types which can be modified to be renamed (if necessary) and to set the proper tax rate.

Default Prices

Administrators can enable taxes to be applied to individual taxes that were previously configured as a default price.

Per-ticket Tax Administration

Once the Tax Default Price Type has been configured, specific taxes can be made available to be applied on individual tickets (see Per-ticket Tax Administration).

Reporting Taxes to Administrators

Taxes are reported to event managers in the transaction details and registration report.

Transaction Details Record

The transaction record details the taxes that were charged for the entire transaction.

Registrations Report

The registration report details the taxes that were charged for each registration.

Reporting Taxes to Registrants

Taxes are reported to registrants in the ticket details ticket selector, during registration checkout, and in their order confirmation (PDF). The PDF order confirmation also reports the VAT/Tax Number configured in Your Organization Settings.

Ticket Selector – Ticket Details

Ticket buyers can read more about a specific ticket which includes the taxes that will be applied to that particular ticket.

Registration Checkout

The checkout confirmation (before payment) details the amount and type of taxes that will be applied during payment.

Order Confirmation (PDF)

The Order Confirmation PDF provides a section that lists the amount of taxes paid for individual types of taxes configured as a default price (above).

Configure your organization’s profile to be used throughout Event Espresso and your front-end templates/theme (may require customization for individual themes).

The organization fields include:

• Organization Name
• Street Address
• City
• State
• Country
• Zip/Postal Code
• Primary Contact Email Address
• Phone Number
• VAT/Tax Number
• Company Logo
• Facebook Profile URL
• Twitter Profile URL
• LinkedIn Profile URL
• Pinterest Profile URL
• Google+ Profile URL
• Instagram Profile URL

The enhanced single page checkout allows registrants to:

• Skip making payments for “free” or  no-cost tickets
• Use the “Primary Registrant” details to auto-fill the registration form for additional registrants with the same answers to your registration questions
• Update the personal information in their contact record by registering for subsequent events

No Payment Required for Free Tickets

When a registrant ONLY purchases a free ($0 or no-cost) ticket(s), they are not required to make a payment. “Step 2 – Payment Options” is skipped to make the registration process faster and more simple.

Registrations that are free (as in no cost) are automatically approved and given their registration and order confirmation.

Copying Primary Registrant Form Data to Additional Attendees

In order to make purchasing tickets faster, we’ve enabled the option for registrants to copy the information they entered for the primary attendee and automatically fill the registration form for any additional attendees. The data copied from the Primary Registrant form to the additional registrants form can still be edited for each additional attendee.

A notice is given to the person filling out the forms that even though the Primary Registrant data had been copied to the additional registrant forms, there may be questions specific for additional registrants that was not asked to the Primary Registrant and the Primary Registrant will still need to check each form to ensure that there are no other questions that need to be completed.

Updating a Contact’s Personal Information

When a registrant’s first name, last name and email address perfectly match that of an existing contact profile, that existing contact address information is also updated to remain as accurate and up-to-date as possible.