=== Beacon Events – Events Calendar with Recurring Events & Google Calendar Sync ===
Contributors: beaconevents
Tags: events calendar, recurring events, event calendar, google calendar, ical
Requires at least: 6.4
Tested up to: 7.1
Requires PHP: 7.4
Stable tag: 0.6.1
License: GPLv2 or later
License URI: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html

A light, honest events calendar. Recurring events, Google Calendar and ICS import that stays in sync, and views that look like your site — all free.

== Description ==

Beacon Events is an events calendar that does the basics properly and doesn't charge you for them. **[See it running](https://store-safety.duckdns.org/demo/)** on a stock Twenty Twenty-Five site: month grid with the filter bar, day view, event pages, venue pages.

* **Recurring events are free.** Daily, weekly, monthly ("second Tuesday", "last Friday"), yearly — with an end date or a count, dates you can skip, and single dates you can cancel or move.
* **Import from Google Calendar or any ICS feed, and stay in sync.** Feeds are checked hourly. Every sync is logged — created, updated, removed — so nothing drifts silently. Events that disappear from a feed are set to draft, never deleted behind your back.
* **Views that look like your site.** List, month and day views as blocks, shortcodes or an Elementor widget, with an optional filter bar (category, venue, search). Our stylesheet does layout only — colours and fonts come from your theme, and every element has a class you can target. Give a category a colour and its events get a dot or a bar.
* **No bloat.** Styles load only on pages that show events. No add-on store, no upsell screens, no nag notices.
* **Online events.** Flip "Online event", paste the meeting link, and visitors get a Join button; calendar apps get the link too.
* **Search engines understand your events.** schema.org Event markup on every event page, one entry per upcoming date.
* **Venues with addresses.** Each venue has a street address, shown on the event with a map link — no API key, no embedded map slowing the page down.
* **Export.** Every event has "Add to calendar (.ics)" and "Add to Google Calendar" links, and your whole calendar has a subscribable feed.
* **Moving from The Events Calendar or Events Manager?** Events → Import / Export copies events, venues, organizers, categories, images and recurring rules in one click, without touching the old plugin. Deactivate it when you are happy; old links are redirected. Anything else comes in through a CSV file, and every event can go out as one.
* **Uninstalls clean.** Turn on "delete all data on uninstall" and the plugin removes everything it created — events, venues, categories, settings, its table.

= External services =

Beacon Events does not phone home, track anything, or load scripts from third parties. Two things touch the outside world, both under your control:

* **Calendar feeds you add.** If you enter an ICS URL under Events → Settings (for example your Google Calendar's public iCal address), the plugin fetches that URL from your server once an hour to keep events in sync. Nothing is fetched unless you add a feed.
* **Plain links.** The "Map" and "Add to Google Calendar" links on an event are ordinary hyperlinks to google.com/maps and calendar.google.com. They open in the visitor's browser; the plugin sends nothing itself. Google's terms: https://policies.google.com/terms

= Data the plugin stores =

One database table, `{prefix}beacon_occurrences`, holding the expanded dates of each event. It is removed on uninstall only if you turn on "delete all data on uninstall" under Events → Settings.

= Shortcode =

`[beacon_events view="list" days="60" limit="20" category="workshops"]` — `category` takes one slug or several, comma-separated (`category="workshops,talks"` shows events in either).
`[beacon_events view="month"]`
`[beacon_events view="list" filters="1"]` — adds the category / venue / search / list-month bar.
`[beacon_events layout="compact" limit="5"]` — one line per event, for sidebars.
`[beacon_events view="day"]` — today, with previous/next links.
`venue="slug"` and `organizer="slug"` work like `category`.

= Block =

Add the **Events** block and choose list, month or day in the sidebar, or the **Upcoming events** variation for a short one-line list. Elementor users: the **Beacon Events** widget has the same options.

= Tickets and RSVP =

Free covers the calendar. If you need people to sign up or pay — RSVP with capacity per date, paid tickets through Stripe or your WooCommerce checkout, a waitlist when a date is full, reminder emails the day before, attendee lists with CSV export, visitor-submitted events — there is a paid add-on, Beacon Events Pro. Nothing in the free plugin is time-limited, crippled or nagged.

= Setup in five minutes =

1. Events → Add New Event. Set Starts and Ends in the When panel; pick Repeats if it recurs (weekly on Tuesday, second Tuesday of the month, last Friday…). Add a venue and a category from the sidebar.
2. Put the **Events** block on a page (or the shortcode below). Choose list, month or day, and switch on the filter bar if you have several categories or venues.
3. Moving from another plugin? Events → Import / Export. Have a Google Calendar? Events → Settings → paste its iCal address.

That is the whole setup. Everything else — colours, venues with maps, online events, per-date changes — is optional.

= Roadmap =

Next, in this order: a CSV import for attendees, Modern Events Calendar import, per-event reminder settings, and translations. Requests and bug reports on the support forum get answered; the plugin is small enough that most fixes ship within days.

== Frequently Asked Questions ==

= Are recurring events really free? =
Yes. That's the point.

= How do I connect Google Calendar? =
In Google Calendar, open the calendar's settings and copy the "Public address in iCal format". Paste it under Events → Settings → Calendar feeds. It syncs hourly, and you can press "Sync feeds now" any time.

= What happens if an event is removed from my Google Calendar? =
It's set to draft on your site and the removal is written to the sync log. You decide whether to delete it.

= Will it change how my site looks? =
No. The stylesheet only does layout. Colours, fonts and spacing inherit from your theme.

= Can I move my events from The Events Calendar or Events Manager? =
Yes. Events → Import / Export finds what either plugin stored in your database (it works even if that plugin is already deactivated) and copies events, venues with addresses, organizers, categories, featured images, timezones and recurring rules across. Nothing is deleted. Run it again later and it updates what it imported instead of making duplicates. Old event, venue and category links are redirected to the imported items.

= Can I import from a spreadsheet? =
Yes. Save it as CSV with a header row (title and start are the only required columns; venue, address, organizer, categories, repeat rule, skip dates, online link and image URL are optional) and upload it on Events → Import / Export. Export gives you every event in the same format, and an edited export comes back as updates.

= Can I cancel or move just one date of a recurring event? =
Yes. Under the rule in the editor sidebar (or the When box in the classic editor) the next few dates are listed; mark one cancelled and it stays on the calendar as cancelled, or move it to another time. Skipped dates, by contrast, disappear entirely.

= What's in the paid version? =
Tickets and RSVPs with card payments, attendee export, and priority support. Nothing in the free version moves behind a paywall.

== Screenshots ==

1. The month view, inheriting the theme.
2. The list view, grouped by day.
3. Editing an event: when, how often, where — in one box.
4. Feeds and the sync log.
5. Import from The Events Calendar or Events Manager, or a CSV file: one click, nothing deleted.

== Changelog ==

= 0.6.1 =
* Readme: a five-minute setup section, the full block and shortcode reference, and the roadmap. The Tickets & RSVP page describes the current add-on (Stripe or WooCommerce, waitlist, reminders).

= 0.6.0 =
* Import from Events Manager (events, locations with addresses, categories, repeating events with their rule and excluded dates; generated occurrence posts are skipped). Old /events/… and /locations/… links are redirected once Events Manager is deactivated.
* CSV import and export (Events → Import / Export): one event per row, with venue, address, organizers, categories, repeat rule, skip dates, online link and image URL. Export first and the file comes back as updates, not duplicates.

= 0.5.0 =
* Elementor widget ("Beacon Events"): list, month or day view with the same options as the block.
* Filter bar on any list or month view: category, venue, search, and a list/month switch. Plain links, works without JavaScript.
* Day view (`view="day"`), and the month grid's day numbers open that day.
* Compact layout (`layout="compact"`) and an "Upcoming events" block variation: one line per event for sidebars and footers.
* Category colours: pick one on Events → Event Categories; events show a dot in lists and a bar in the month grid.

= 0.4.0 =
* Change one date of a recurring event: cancel it (it stays listed as cancelled) or move it to another time, from the editor sidebar or the classic When box. Calendar feeds and the RSVP form follow.
* Online events: an "Online event" switch with a meeting link; a Join button on the event page, "Online" in the views, the link in calendar files.
* schema.org Event markup on event pages (one entry per upcoming date) so search engines can show your events. Filter `beacon_schema` to change or disable it.
* Venue, organizer and category pages on block themes: address and map link, description, a subscribe link and that term's upcoming events. Per-venue, per-organizer and per-category .ics feeds.
* "Duplicate" on the events list.
* Block and shortcode: `venue` and `organizer` filters next to `category`.

= 0.3.0 =
* Import from The Events Calendar (Events → Import): events, venues with addresses, organizers, categories with their hierarchy, featured images, timezones and recurring rules (both the current rule-set format and the older serialized one) in one click. Nothing in The Events Calendar is changed or deleted; running it again updates instead of duplicating. Old category and view links are redirected once The Events Calendar is deactivated; event, venue and organizer links keep their addresses.

= 0.2.4 =
* Block editor: the monthly "On" field (e.g. 2TU for the second Tuesday) can be typed letter by letter again; it was being cleared after every keystroke.

= 0.2.3 =
* The `category` attribute (block and shortcode) accepts several slugs separated by commas; an event in any of them is shown.

= 0.2.2 =
* A small review link in the footer of Beacon's own admin screens. Still no admin notices anywhere.

= 0.2.1 =
* Event and archive URLs now work immediately after activation, instead of 404ing until permalinks were re-saved.
* Admin styles are enqueued properly and load only on the event editor.
* Calendar export hardened: carriage returns and control characters in a site name or venue can no longer break the .ics file.

= 0.2.0 =
* Events archive and single-event pages now use proper event templates on block themes (no more "Written by" on an event).
* Venues have a street address, shown with a map link and sent to calendar apps.
* "Add to Google Calendar" link alongside the .ics download.
* The "When" panel opens by default in the editor and fills in an end time for you.
* One "Tickets & RSVP" page describing the optional paid add-on. No banners anywhere else.



= 0.1.0 =
* First release: events, venues, organizers, categories; recurring rules; list and month views as blocks and shortcodes; ICS and Google Calendar import with hourly sync and a log; iCal export; clean uninstall.
