Any news on recurring events?

I'm not sure how Method 1 would work when you should allow RSVP to individual events.

I would think Method 2 should work fine...   just create 1 year's worth of events ..   actually could allow that to be a configurable option.

However, what if someone wants to modify the full series of events...  so that would have to be tracked ..  that it is a recurring event.

Also, still allow (like Outlook), edit series or just that occurrence.

I'm afraid not. Although I now have a very good idea of how to do it I don't have the time to schedule it in, so it's a few months away still. I think more important than this is the Event Templating (like UserProfile Templating) so people can chose how instances of their event detais look (and then I want to abstract it so Event Creators can chose Templates to "skin" their event in  (like ebay does on their auctions).

The problem with Recurring Events is that it is going to take at least a week of dev and I can't justify this in time/money. It is near the top of the Events roadmap though.

Brian,

I am open to discussion on this matter. The UserProfile templating (the key component in all Smart-Thinker modules now that shows the user lists with tempates) was a requested enhancement paid for by a customer.

My requirements for such features is that they must benefit all ST customers, be generic (or I have to make them generic with settings etc.) and be worth the time doing. The way it works is that the customer and I draft and agree upon a spec and a delivery date (this becomes my top priority). My time is paid hourly with a cap (I find DNN development so time consuming and hard to estimate) so this safeguards the costs running away.

Send me a mail rod * smart-thinker.com if you would like to discuss this further.

Hi Mitch,

Unfortunately since going full time on Smart-Thinker module request priorities are now scheduled according to cost/benefit as opposed to nice to have (like they were when I was working on Smart-Thinker parttime with my full time programmer job).

This means that an enhancement like this (a weeks work at least) mean that it would have to generate a lot of sales to make it worthwhile doing - unfortunately the bare reality is that there's no money in module development which means that big changes like this get pushed back a lot.

The other option (I go into detail on it in another thread) is a paid-for enhancement. For example, the profile-templating was paid for by a customer - in this scenario I work with the client to draft and agree upon a spec, and it becomes my top priority until it is signed off.

It's a real pity as I have hundreds of good ideas but they are just not worth the time they will take to do, and unfortunately as this is a very large enhancement it has not yet been scheduled.

also curious... you say there is no money in this yet you are doing it full-time...    so are you not working on these modules at all?

It's going on two months and those two releases are small enhancements...

brian wrote also curious... you say there is no money in this yet you are doing it full-time...    so are you not working on these modules at all? It's going on two months and those two releases are small enhancements...

Yes, I can confirm that there is very little money to be made in module development unless you make a generic engine product like XMOD. I sell between 10-15 suites a month, and most people buy the $70 package. Occasionally people pay for enhancements for the modules or premium support but otherwise I repeat - DNN module development is NOT the way to make money.

I work full time on Smart-Thinker AND PokerDIY. I spend most of my time working on a custom league module on PokerDIY and PR/SEO to ensure I stay at the top of Google.

Please note that I cannot commit to enhancing the product suite - when you purchase the suite you buy it as-is and can enhance the source to match your requirements. I do believe this is standard for DNN modules and all software. It is important that you download the free trials to see if it matches your requirements before purchasing. I have tried to make the modules as generic as possible but there is no ways they can meet everyone's requirements and scenarios.

Please don't get me wrong - I am not complaining - you asked if DNN dev made me money and I am trying to answer as honestly as possible.

Thanks for your kind words! I really do appreciate feedback from customers and it's nice to hear compliments.

Was King Solomon richer than Bill Gates? ;)

To make money out of DNN dev you either need to design a product from scratch that functions as an engine and is constantly enhancable (like XMOD) or you need to make your money on services and customisations. My requirements were for specific social networking-orientated modules, so I chose the later. Unfortunately the average DNN user is not willing to pay more that a few bucks for a module - bear in mind that most DNN users are hobbyists. So it is almost a catch-22. There's no real point in module developers making modules as you spend months on development for a few hundred dollars, and yet the market demand advanced modules.

There's another point that I don't think I have mentioned counting against DNN dev. It is PAINFULLY slow. I made a little custom module on PokerDIY to release a password for a game - it checks your forum posts/profile and a couple of other criteria (all cached) - it was really simple and I thought it would take 2 days after I designed it on paper. It took me a whole week due to the annoying speed of Visual Studio and ASP.NET. So the plain and simple truth is that DNN module dev is NOT fun, and very time consuming. And no one is willing to pay for this time.

I think the only thing that can solve this problem is time. The modules need to mature over time to match the functionality offered in other CMSs like PHPNuke and Joomla. The problem is that there are thousands of people hacking together PHP script, but a lot fewer .NET programmers.

Hi Liz,

I'm afraid that your requirements (time-orientated scheduler) are quite different from the Event module's original purpose - I don't want to get your hopes up, but currently it only works as a day-scheduler. I did see a web-planner type module on Snow, but that was a while ago. Could you raise your requests as Feature Requests please so I can see how much it is demand...

I would suggest option 2.   Another advantage of that is you can create a series of "template" events to be tweaked individually.   e.g. you might have basically the same event with the same people but the location might change from week to week.