Today I would like to show you
how Cevento operates within WordPress.
We will go through the plugin step by step.
We’ll start with the installation and then take a look
at how to edit events and how to display them on the website’s frontend.
At the very end, we’ll see how the system
manages registrations and cancellations.
To install the plugin, we first click on “Plugins”
then “Add New” and under “Upload” we select the file
that we downloaded from the online shop.
With a click on “Install Now” the plugin will be installed.
This takes just a moment.
Afterward, we can activate the plugin
and we will get an additional menu item on the left side.
It’s called Cevento.
With one click, we land in the plugin’s backend,
where we will manage all events in the future.
We still need to activate the license.
For that, we use the quick link in the top right corner.
With one click we get to the settings and can
enter the license key there,
which you received in your confirmation email.
With a
click on “Activate License”, the plugin will be activated, and from now on
you will receive all future updates and feature improvements.
Next, we’ll take a look at editing individual events.
To do this, we navigate to Cevento, “All Events,” and we’ll see
that a demo event has already been included during installation.
We’ll take advantage of that and click “Edit Event”.
We can now see that each event has a title and a short description.
There is also the option to highlight featured events in the list view.
We now enter a title
and the short description, and then we switch to the “Date & Time” tab.
Each event must have at least a start date, may have an end date,
and can run all day or be defined by specific times.
In our case, it’s a festival.
We’ll let it run all day over several days.
Then we switch to the “iCal” tab.
iCal is a file that users can download
to import the event directly into their calendar.
Here we can again define a description.
We can also add an address name, a complete address,
and we have the option to enter precise address coordinates.
Each event can also be categorized.
So far, we haven’t created any categories.
That’s the next step we’re going to take.
We add a category.
In this case, it would be helpful if users
could search for all dates of the band performing at a festival.
So, we create the category “Festival”, and we also add an image
to it.
This will then be displayed on the website’s frontend.
If we are satisfied
with all our changes, we can now publish the event.
Now we’ll take a look at how the events are displayed.
For this, we first need to set a few basic settings.
To do this, we click
on Cevento “Settings” and then on the “Display” tab.
In the general tab
we can now define what the archive layout should look like.
We can choose between: list view, grid view, or summary view.
We choose the list view.
We also choose to display the images.
But I don’t want to display the event excerpt.
This results in a more compact and bold visual layout.
We leave the option enabled to display the available places,
as this will be important later when booking events,
and we leave the pagination, meaning the maximum events per page, set to five,
which means beginning with the sixth event, page 2 appears.
We now save our changes
and switch to the “Styling” tab.
Here we can now define a highlight color,
which will be relevant, for example, when highlighting events.
I’m choosing a bold pink, which suits the template well.
I’ll leave the container max. width and container padding
at their default settings,
but of course, these can be adjusted if desired.
We save again and switch to the date formatting.
For the date formatting
the correct format for German-speaking regions is already set.
Here, I would
also have the option to choose entirely different date formats,
depending on what fits best for my target audience and website.
Under the “Advanced” tab, I can also see
which slug my archive view uses.
By default, it’s /events, and we’ll take a look at this page now.
As you can see, the highlight color is being used,
because I highlighted this event. Also, there are five events
displayed on one page, and at the bottom you can see the pagination.
If I click on one of these events, I get to the event detail view.
Here I can also download
the iCal format mentioned earlier to import the event into my calendar.
I see a short description text that we previously set,
as well as the date and time.
And now we will convert this event into a bookable event.
We now turn our attention to booking events.
To do this, we first need to configure a form that users
will have to fill out on the website when registering for an event.
To do that, we click on “Forms”
and we can see there’s already a default form
that was included when the plugin was installed.
We click on it and are taken directly to the form configurator.
Here we can now customize the default form according to our needs.
For example, we don’t need a message field,
but what I would like to have for this registration is that people
attending the concert can state what type of music they would like to hear.
So I take a text field, drag it to the appropriate position,
and enter a label for it.
I also set it to required,
so that every participant,
really has to provide an answer,
because fields like these usually get skipped.
I save the form, and from now on it’s ready to use.
Then I click again on
“All Events” and select the event that I want to make bookable.
Under the “Bookings” section, I can now enable bookings.
Here I would also have the option to provide an external booking link.
That would make sense
if a third-party vendor sells these tickets for me on their website.
In this case, we’ll handle it ourselves.
For the booking form, I select the default form.
Then I can choose whether the booking needs to be confirmed
or not.
In other words, does an administrator have to approve each new booking first,
or is it approved automatically?
In this case, I choose first come, first served.
We also have 50 places available in our garage.
Bookings are now available, but only until one week before the gig.
We don’t want last-minute bookings.
Afterwards, I can update the event,
and we’ll now take a look in the frontend to see what the event looks like.
Now we can see that the button here
has changed to “Book now,” and that 50 spots are available.
I click “Book now.”
This opens the form we created, and I can fill it out.
With “Submit,” I register for the event.
In the backend
of the website, we can now see that there is a confirmed booking.
To view it, we click “Edit” on the event
and in the bookings panel at the top right we can view the booking via the
“Manage Bookings” button.
We also have the option
to export all bookings as a CSV using “Export all.”
Now we click “Manage bookings” and select the first entry.
A popup opens, and we can see
the data
that the participant entered when filling out the form.
We also have the option, using the bulk actions
or the quick links below, to delete bookings, edit them,
trigger emails again, or cancel bookings.
That was a brief overview of Cevento’s features.
But the plugin can do much more.
Repeatable events, complex shortcodes, and also design customization
or even extending it through programming are possible.
If you’d like more information, visit us on our website
cevento-plugin.com and scroll through the documentation.
We hope you enjoy our plugin.