JCal Pro 
Version
3.2.4 (last update on Apr 30, 2013)
Rating
Compatibility
Reviews
130
License
GPLv2 or later
Commercial
Type
Date Added
23 November 2006
Editor's Note
- Access to this GNU GPL-licensed archive requires a subscription fee
Images
JCal Pro has become an important part of our district's school website. After some "get to know you" time, it's been a real pleasure to work with. The aesthetic appeal fit in nicely with our site and the functionality has proven very effective. It's really easy to use and any problems I've had in configuring, anything-digital's support/forums have gotten me through it.
I highly recommend this extension as the best event management tool out there. Thanks for the great tool!
I highly recommend this extension as the best event management tool out there. Thanks for the great tool!
I needed a calendar tool for a site with multiple calendars. Installation was a snap and it did what was advertised. I had a question and the support team answered in a prompt and efficient manner. I'll use JCal Pro again in any other projects that need calendar support.
I purchased this calendar because it looked the best of all the demos I tried and fits in nicely with the layout of my site as it is CSS based. I have only one problem with this extension however it is a major issue - there is no Location field and this is an issue which has been reported on their support forums for several years and never implemented - most of the questions relating to this have been ignored on the forum (e.g. http://dev.anything-digital.com/Forum/Feature-Requests/2855-HOW-to-add-new-fields-/) and the most recent response I could find from the developers (which was way down the search results) said that there are no plans to release any updates until the next version which will be for Joomla 1.6.
Considering this is such a simple thing to fix - (seriously - how hard can it be to add a text field to a database???) it is amazing that this has never been corrected, especially as this is a commercial extension.
Until this is resolved I am unable to use this on my site and have wasted my money.
Considering this is such a simple thing to fix - (seriously - how hard can it be to add a text field to a database???) it is amazing that this has never been corrected, especially as this is a commercial extension.
Until this is resolved I am unable to use this on my site and have wasted my money.
I needed the very best Joomla calendar extension available for a project. There's about 3-4 full calendar components out there, some are free, I went with the most expensive available, JcalPro which starts at about $70. Since it was the nicest looking & had the Flex module.
For the most part it is a nice looking & functioning extension. However I ran into a very serious bug with the flex module that makes JCalPro just about useless to me. I've done a lot of trouble shooting to try to figure this out. I also put in a ticket on the developers forum for help, the developers took a long time to respond & I believe are just ignoring my problem at this point. At this point I don't see much choice other than to dispute the the charges for the extension with paypal & find another calendar extension.
I'm rating it two stars for the nice looking & functioning calendar. In my opinion, Joomla extension developers should charge whatever they need to for they extensions to cover the costs of providing excellent support to their customers.
For the most part it is a nice looking & functioning extension. However I ran into a very serious bug with the flex module that makes JCalPro just about useless to me. I've done a lot of trouble shooting to try to figure this out. I also put in a ticket on the developers forum for help, the developers took a long time to respond & I believe are just ignoring my problem at this point. At this point I don't see much choice other than to dispute the the charges for the extension with paypal & find another calendar extension.
I'm rating it two stars for the nice looking & functioning calendar. In my opinion, Joomla extension developers should charge whatever they need to for they extensions to cover the costs of providing excellent support to their customers.
I was yet another casualty of the disappearance of the Thyme calendar product. After downloading and testing, I settled on JCal & purchased a matching subscription. Installation and set-up was easy, adding repeating events, exceptions, and maintaining the calendar was very straight-forward, and overall the tool worked flawlessly. Support was good, almost all of the needed answers could be found on the free forum.
The one limitation I hit was RSS support. I need to be able to syndicate upcoming events (i.e., have a feed where subscribers would see a summary of all upcoming events for the next X number of days.) Sadly, there's no way to accomplish this with JCal without hacking some of your own code.
Apart from the one caveat above, I recommend the product.
The one limitation I hit was RSS support. I need to be able to syndicate upcoming events (i.e., have a feed where subscribers would see a summary of all upcoming events for the next X number of days.) Sadly, there's no way to accomplish this with JCal without hacking some of your own code.
Apart from the one caveat above, I recommend the product.
I have used this calendar on 2 commercial websites. One of which has a calendar for each department. There are 9 different departments that have their own calendar. Very handy with the drop-down sort by calendar option. If only the category color could be applied to the font for the event. Also an email event option would be a nice enhancement. Overall this is the most professional calendar extension out there. Thanks!
JCal Pro is probably one of the best calendars out there except for the fact that they forgot something that is extremely important, in fact so important that it might make this worthless to a lot of businesses. While they have provided a nice interface to add repeating events and now the ability to repeat them on specific days of the month like 2nd Saturday, there is no way to edit just one of those events in the string. For a dance studio client of mine, periodically their Monday classes might be canceled because of a holiday for example. To get around the problem, you have to delete the event and then reenter it.
Owner's reply
Thanks for the review katandmouse. However, JCal Pro definitely supports recurring event exceptions. Its very simple. Once your recurring event is created, just delete/unpublish the date that is the exception. All the other occurrences remain intact. You can do this from either the admin interface or the frontend. The documentation on this is found here (login required): http://dev.anything-digital.com/Documentation/JCal-Pro/Recurring-Events-and-Exceptions.html
I thought this component was quite well designed, especially with the community builder plugins and such. One thing that it lacks is the ability for users to register for the calendar (although I suppose that is more of an events deal), but besides that, this componet was very nice.
this is an amazinf free calender and events component..only thing paid is themes and flex module..and even without them its complete in itself
integration with jomsocial and cb is a plus..
only expectation is jomsocial user point becuase my site is point driven..
thanx a lot dev
integration with jomsocial and cb is a plus..
only expectation is jomsocial user point becuase my site is point driven..
thanx a lot dev
Great product, but not quite complete yet. What I really want is the functionality of the old calendar at eventkeeper.com. See the demos of how this is used at many libraries to list events with lengthy descriptions. Ideally, I would like to support about 6 venues with an easy ability to see each of them individually with events that have lengthy descriptions.
Was happy with the installation of the component, and working on adding events. Missing the possibility to create venues, and link the event to those, though. However, I am most disappointed in not being able to install the themes. Support responded that it is a permissions issue, but the service provider assured me it is not. So asked for additional support on installing the themes, but none is forthcoming. So basically I choose a subscription with 3 themes, but can only use the default. This is important for other potential customers to know.
Owner's reply
Thanks for the note. Unfortunately we cannot troubleshoot issues with hosts. I will say that on 99% of sites, this works fine.
If you PM 'vdrover' on our forum I can give you a tip on how to over-write the default theme with the premium theme of your choosing.
In JCal Pro 3, themes will become joomla plugins, and will be even more reliable.
JCalPro is an excellent calendar module.
I have installed installed JEvents and find it clumsy and laborious when entering events, not to mention the un-professional presentation.
JCalPro looks great and is much easier to use.
GCalendar doesn't allow a print option, and lacks a lot of features. If you want a basic calendar, then it will probably fit your needs.
The RSVP module that is bundled with JCalPro does not integrate with JCalPro, and is almost identical to Attend Events in functionality.
I have installed installed JEvents and find it clumsy and laborious when entering events, not to mention the un-professional presentation.
JCalPro looks great and is much easier to use.
GCalendar doesn't allow a print option, and lacks a lot of features. If you want a basic calendar, then it will probably fit your needs.
The RSVP module that is bundled with JCalPro does not integrate with JCalPro, and is almost identical to Attend Events in functionality.
I've been trying JCal for a bit now. It functions very well and does everything I need it to do.
I started using JCalPro with Joomla 1.0 and found it far superior to anything that was available. The price is totally reasonable, too, and I really want a SIMPLE calendar to display because even full width, it's hard to read events on the calendar in monthly view. So I didn't want it cluttered with template stuff.
But since switching to Joomla 1.5, the calendar has changed and now when you have a recurring event, it creates a separate event for each occurrence, which gets really messy in the admin side. Our area has a ton of weekly items and it's impossible to maintain a calendar with so many separate listings of events like that. It would be nice if the events would automatically delete x number of days after they expire, too, but I am sure that's hoping for too much. Still, it's the best calendar component I have found for Joomla.
But since switching to Joomla 1.5, the calendar has changed and now when you have a recurring event, it creates a separate event for each occurrence, which gets really messy in the admin side. Our area has a ton of weekly items and it's impossible to maintain a calendar with so many separate listings of events like that. It would be nice if the events would automatically delete x number of days after they expire, too, but I am sure that's hoping for too much. Still, it's the best calendar component I have found for Joomla.
Owner's reply
Thanks for the kind review. In the backnd events manager, you can filter the listed events as "upcoming only", meaning past events won't be displayed. Makes managing the events very easy.
The change in the way events were recorded was implemented so that you could easily modify one instance in a recurring seris, without affecting the rest.
We have been looking for a well featured calendar for our simracing site. We have a lot of events, and a lot of Event Managers needing to be able to announce their events. JCal makes it easy - and it looks good too.
I had a query about a small issue with the component (caused by our SEF component, not by JCal), and this was quickly looked into and solved via the JCal support site.
Can't ask for better than that really.
I had a query about a small issue with the component (caused by our SEF component, not by JCal), and this was quickly looked into and solved via the JCal support site.
Can't ask for better than that really.
Love JCAL - and Google seems to like it too.
Seems like a very stable and well-thought out extension. We have it in service now with six months plus of events on it. Good clear event entry screens.
One drawback is that the event descriptions can be formatted any way the user wishes, WYSIWYG, and if everyone does it differently we'll end up with a very sloppy looking calendar (especially the flat view which is our default, as we need the full information on each event to be visible initially). Maybe there could be a way to optionally force the use of a chosen font and color.
Thanks for a great extension!
One drawback is that the event descriptions can be formatted any way the user wishes, WYSIWYG, and if everyone does it differently we'll end up with a very sloppy looking calendar (especially the flat view which is our default, as we need the full information on each event to be visible initially). Maybe there could be a way to optionally force the use of a chosen font and color.
Thanks for a great extension!
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