events features for research notes: date:foo and event:rsvp

[jywarren]

date:foo would be populated from a special interface on the posting form; event:rsvp would be auto-added and create a special comment form that just adds "I'm attending!" as a comment. Maybe in the sidebar.

Ooh -- with the powertags, we might be able to generate an iCal feed to go directly into Google Calendar...?

[ebarry]

GCal integration would be awesome!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
currently it's hard to justify the effort to post future events on our website when it doesn't track RSVP or integrate with publiclab.org/events. Too many steps needed at the current state.

[btbonval]

I agree with @ebarry , I was trying not to be a detractor, but I agree that the proposed RSVP sounds obtuse :(

I like the idea of integrating an external scheduling/event system until we have one which has a look and feel that matches popular ones. In my opnion, it's a matter of learning curve for the users. The lower the learning curve, the more functional the feature will be.

[btbonval]

Btw, if we want to build in scheduling and event RSVP, we should look into adopting standards like WebDAV. There are some open source WebDAV servers, but they are lackluster based on my last survey years ago.

[jywarren]

the proposed RSVP sounds obtuse :(

which is that, bryan?

I don't know if there's a "live" way to share a calendar with Google, like an RSS feed or something. A simpler but not as nice way would be to have an "add to gcal" button that does something like this: https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/37118?hl=en&ref_topic=1672003

[jywarren]

There are a few gcal/rails possibilities out there:

• http://www.mindfiresolutions.com/Creating-an-Event-on-Google-Calendar-using-Ruby-on-Rails-2357.php
• https://github.com/francisoud/googlecalendar/
• http://googlecalendar.rubyforge.org/
• the Google Calendar API: https://developers.google.com/google-apps/calendar/v3/reference/events/insert

[btbonval]

The rsvp magic tag. It didn't sound intuitive for the end user and I didn't
understand how that'd work under the hood, even after thinking on the
possibilities really hard.

I think the simpler solution is a widget with the heavy lifting done by a
service which specializes in events and scheduling. If the widget is
generated due to magic tag presence, that seems fine.
On May 12, 2014 2:28 PM, "Jeffrey Warren" notifications@github.com wrote:

the proposed RSVP sounds obtuse :(

which is that, bryan?

I don't know if there's a "live" way to share a calendar with Google, like
an RSS feed or something. A simpler but not as nice way would be to have an
"add to gcal" button that does something like this:
https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/37118?hl=en&ref_topic=1672003

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/57#issuecomment-42869329
.

[jywarren]

The power tag would be a great way to implement this without a new table, using existing infrastructure. The user would be presented with a date selection widget in the special "event" note-posting form, but it would generate a powertag upon save. It would then trigger a bunch of other displayed stuff, perhaps including gcal export, on the displayed "event" research note.

[btbonval]

Okay, I missed that there would be a widget involved. I thought the user
was supposed to operate the tags.

I still don't understand how rsvp would work.
On May 12, 2014 2:36 PM, "Jeffrey Warren" notifications@github.com wrote:

The power tag would be a great way to implement this without a new table,
using existing infrastructure. The user would be presented with a date
selection widget in the special "event" note-posting form, but it would
generate a powertag upon save. It would then trigger a bunch of other
displayed stuff, perhaps including gcal export, on the displayed "event"
research note.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/57#issuecomment-42870410
.

[jywarren]

RSVP would be a field at the end of (or in the sidebar) of the note, triggered by the powertag, that'd present simply a button "I will attend" -- but what it actually does is post a comment that says "I'm attending!" which incidentally subscribes the user to note comments. We might tweak any part of this, but it's again a way to do RSVPs and notify the author and other participants using existing infrastructure, while looking, sounding, and quacking like an RSVP button.

[btbonval]

So effectively RSVPing is nothing but adding a comment. Like, a person
could RSVP without clicking the button.

How will the UI track when to disable or hide the button? The user might be
confused if "RSVP" button shows after the user has RSVP'd, but if it is
just a comment, do we then need to track if any comment at all has been
submit by that user in order to hide the RSVP?

These are the sort of things that confused me.

On Mon, May 12, 2014 at 11:41 AM, Jeffrey Warren
notifications@github.comwrote:

RSVP would be a field at the end of (or in the sidebar) of the note,
triggered by the powertag, that'd present simply a button "I will attend"
-- but what it actually does is post a comment that says "I'm attending!"
which incidentally subscribes the user to note comments. We might tweak any
part of this, but it's again a way to do RSVPs and notify the author and
other participants using existing infrastructure, while looking, sounding,
and quacking like an RSVP button.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/57#issuecomment-42870956
.

[ebarry]

this is a really exciting thread
!

@lizbarry http://twitter.com/lizbarry

On Mon, May 12, 2014 at 3:37 PM, Bryan Bonvallet
notifications@github.comwrote:

So effectively RSVPing is nothing but adding a comment. Like, a person
could RSVP without clicking the button.

How will the UI track when to disable or hide the button? The user might
be
confused if "RSVP" button shows after the user has RSVP'd, but if it is
just a comment, do we then need to track if any comment at all has been
submit by that user in order to hide the RSVP?

These are the sort of things that confused me.

On Mon, May 12, 2014 at 11:41 AM, Jeffrey Warren
notifications@github.comwrote:

RSVP would be a field at the end of (or in the sidebar) of the note,
triggered by the powertag, that'd present simply a button "I will
attend"
-- but what it actually does is post a comment that says "I'm
attending!"
which incidentally subscribes the user to note comments. We might tweak
any
part of this, but it's again a way to do RSVPs and notify the author and
other participants using existing infrastructure, while looking,
sounding,
and quacking like an RSVP button.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub<
https://github.com/publiclab/plots2/issues/57#issuecomment-42870956>
.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/57#issuecomment-42877738
.

[btbonval]

I'm getting closer to seeing Jeff's grand plan here. I guess I'm not sure
what the RSVP feature adds that commenting doesn't already cover for now,
besides an additional button on the UI to add those comments. I might still
be missing something though,

but I believe the appropriate response would be: Liz, your face is really
exciting!

On Mon, May 12, 2014 at 12:48 PM, Liz Barry notifications@github.comwrote:

this is a really exciting thread
!

@lizbarry http://twitter.com/lizbarry

On Mon, May 12, 2014 at 3:37 PM, Bryan Bonvallet
notifications@github.comwrote:

So effectively RSVPing is nothing but adding a comment. Like, a person
could RSVP without clicking the button.

How will the UI track when to disable or hide the button? The user might
be
confused if "RSVP" button shows after the user has RSVP'd, but if it is
just a comment, do we then need to track if any comment at all has been
submit by that user in order to hide the RSVP?

These are the sort of things that confused me.

On Mon, May 12, 2014 at 11:41 AM, Jeffrey Warren
notifications@github.comwrote:

RSVP would be a field at the end of (or in the sidebar) of the note,
triggered by the powertag, that'd present simply a button "I will
attend"
-- but what it actually does is post a comment that says "I'm
attending!"
which incidentally subscribes the user to note comments. We might
tweak
any
part of this, but it's again a way to do RSVPs and notify the author
and
other participants using existing infrastructure, while looking,
sounding,
and quacking like an RSVP button.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub<
https://github.com/publiclab/plots2/issues/57#issuecomment-42870956>
.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub<
https://github.com/publiclab/plots2/issues/57#issuecomment-42877738>
.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/57#issuecomment-42879117
.

[jywarren]

Looking further into this, i think we could expose calendars in iCal format, but it's not clear to me that google calendar will "keep checking" or if it's a one-time import which is not kept up to date.

[jywarren]

guide to saving individual or all events to someone's google cal: https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/1186917?hl=en#individual

[jywarren]

Ugh, it looks like they basically dropped the feature. Maybe we can do something with this kind of link to an ics: http://www.google.com/calendar/render?cid=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rememberthemilk.com%2Fservices%2Fmodules%2Fgooglecalendar%2Fics.rtm

However, we'll have to generate the ICS on the server side. I'm currently using javascript to do it.

[jywarren]

Ok, give it a spin! Basic RSVP, attendee count, date and ical -- we can later add things like:

• google cal integration (if possible)
• showing the event date on the sidebar calendar

[ebarry]

Great feature! How about moving the RSVP button and total # of respondents up to the top of the note?

[jywarren]

I tried the top and I felt that it tended to get lost among other header features. But if people don't scroll down, they may miss it. We could try both, or could we put it in the left sidebar?