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JCal Pro Popular ComponentModulePluginLanguageExtension Specific Addon

Editor's Note
  • This extension requires registration to download.
  • Access to this GNU GPL-licensed archive requires a subscription fee
JCal Pro is a W3C-validated, multi-language events calendar component with a gorgeous, CSS-based front-end display. Feature highlights include, native Joomla! permissioning for event creation/management and event viewing, location management and event geolocation, nested categories, custom fields for events and and event registration, private or public events, WYSIWYG event descriptions, administrative theme installation and management, back-end event management, re-captcha support, an integrated search plugin, feature-rich mini-calendar and latest events modules, the all new FLEX module, a convenient content editor plugin, RSS feeds, SEF URL support, robust print-views, JomSocial plugins and Community Builder plugins.

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2007-11-05
Reviews: 19
Like so many such calendars, you can never please all of the people all of the time, and I'm very aware of that in writing this review. I downloaded it primarily for use on a church website where it would hopefully show weekly services and club meetings etc. Initially I thought it was going to suffice for all our needs, but the more I play with it the more I realise it isn't as yet. Our weekly services obviously change in content but there are some elements that would be standard each week. On our old site using an Access driven calendar I could copy the standard info across as many weeks as I desired (albeit manually which was slow work), but then all I had to do each week would be to update it with the specific info for that week. With JCal I can't utilise the repeat event because it repeats the entire information for any one week across all of them, so the only option is to then do every week separately which is ok but would have been nice to have more options on the repeat event. I would just have preferred for more than 1 weeks worth of services to show on the main calendar otherwise it wouldn't be an issue. Plus (unless I'm mistaken) I can't find any way of making a particular view e.g. Monthly, as mandatory - while again it's great for the user to have the various options offered to them, some people wouldn't see that menu and thus think what they were seeing (the weekly?) was the only view available and maybe miss meetings as a result. Again, our older calendar always and only showed a monthly view which was really helpful. Small points and very specific to our own requirements, but would be nice if yet more flexibility could perhaps be built in on future updates? Overall tho - definitely one of the best around.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful
2007-10-30
Reviews: 2
I went with JCal Pro but it was a mistake. To be clear, I am using 1.5.3 Stable with Joomla 1.0.12. Here are TWO MAIN PROBLEMS, (there are more, but these are the ones that really matter):

- Scheduling is highly inflexible. When you say repeat monthly, it thinks you want it to repeat on the same day of every month... when in reality nothing ever works that way. What you really mean is you want it to repeat on the first Monday of every month or something like that.

- Highly inefficient code. I entered all my events in and it slows down to a crawl when pulling up the monthly calendar. When I looked into the code it was a total mess. It was making 31 separate sql queries (sometimes more) in order to build the calendar. Also, for repeating events, it cycles through EVERY SINGLE EVENT to see if there is a repetition that falls on the current day. It might be a good calendar if you had 4 or 5 events a month, but not if you have more than 20.

Stay away from this product, go with JEvents instead. So far I'm really satisfied with JEvents.
Owner's reply

We have an efficiency build planned for JCal Pro. Those queries remain from the original standalone extcal. That said, I routinely use this for busy calendars and page-loads are fine. You might consider trying the speed on localhost or another server to test the speed.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful
2007-10-09
Reviews: 7
Just throwed away 5 bucks. This component is very good to see but it's almost useless due to the extremely slow response. Got many many timeout errors.
2007-09-25
Reviews: 1
To be honest i was a little scared about paying something for a module / component without testing it within my own websites.

Okay it was only $5,00 but when you have experiences in the past with these kind of things, and feel very bad after you bought something, and the result was dissapointing, you will be scared forever ;-)

I took the risk of buying this module/component and YES this is REALLY GREAT / AWESOME !!

Very much thanks to the developers !!
2007-09-22
Reviews: 2
And it's exactly what I needed for my site.
The look is great and realy profecional.
2007-09-17
Reviews: 28
I was sad to the see ExtCalendar turn into the subscription-based JCal Pro - but in fairness - JCal Pro is very well-developed, and they aren't asking for much (currently $5).

The Calendar has a nice 'category' system and modules for listing events, and is great and easy-to-use for basic non-techie site administrators.

Good Calender - a couple more visual styles would be useful though, as it has a default design that will not work for all sites.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
2007-08-03
Reviews: 3
I love this calendar. Validates, nice design and easy to use.
BUT the JcalPro makes Google bot to go crazy when spidering my website trying to index the website content.

I have tried to disable the JcalPro in my robots.txt file, but I simply cannot stop this.

I have not found any places to disable linking in JcalPro or to prevent this trap.

It produces thousands of duplicated indexed files in google.
Each day - until 2008 is indexed!!

How do I fix this?My robot txt file has this parameter:
User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow: /*com_jcalpro
Disallow: /*com_jcalpro*
Disallow: /jcalpro/

Regards datatrond
2007-07-30
Reviews: 2
I've had great luck, so far, with the JCal component and modules. Easy installation and seamless transfer of events from ExtCal. The one odd thing that I can't seem to correct is that all events are listed with "MDT" following the date/time of the event, despite the fact that the time zone is set correctly in the admin back-end (Eastern Time). If I use a 24-hour option, no problem, but the 12-hour option results in something like this: "Date: Saturday, July 07, 2007 At 8:00:00 Am MDT".
I'd also like an option for a simple, default text editor, rather than providing the more robust editors for entering event information (stuff like "insert image" confuses the operation).
Minor quibbles, though. All in all, JCal is a fine component, and many thanks to the creators.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
2007-07-24
Reviews: 1
It really is a good substitute for the famous ExtCalander and it just to be free BUT......
The editor "forgot" to mention that you have to pay for it. Registration alone is not enough, you really must PAY for it.
Even though the license is still GNU GPL, hmm......
Owner's reply

Delivery fees are expressly permitted by the GNU GPL.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful
2007-07-02
Reviews: 2
I installed this so my employees can "pencil in" their vacations. Problem is, they can submit just fine, but there's no way to tell who submitted anything unless they are kind enough to include the information. Some people are sensitive about including any personal data and therefore won't.

So I get entries like someone is going to be off a week yet I don't have a clue who. Who posts events to the calendar should be easily seen by admin.
2007-06-12
Reviews: 9
I used JEvents, although that was great it just did not have the fully loaded features that i needed. This calendar however ...well there is only one word that can describe it....perfect
2007-06-11
Reviews: 17
I love this calendar and so do my clients. Clean, crisp, and easy to use. I look forward to future updates and would love see some Google Map integration.

I also plan to create themes for this most awesome component.
Great Start!
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
2007-05-20
Reviews: 6
I put JCalPro on a church website, a non-profit website, and am about to install it on a news portal for another non-profit to use as a community events calendar. I love the way it installed with ease and it's basically simple to use in it's basic form.

I'd like to see more flexibility in entering recurring date events. In all three instances where I am/will be using it, there are occassions to enter events that happen on the XX weekday of the month (Example - 1st Saturday each month). I can't get it to let me do that, and have to hand enter the event each time.

Integration would be great, too, from a news portal viewpoint. For instance if you're writing an article that has multiple events listed in it, being able to add those events to the calendar without finishing the article THEN going to the JCal component and same way on the JCal end. You're entering an event that inspires an article.

All things considered, though, this is a good extension for just about any application
Owner's reply

The next version will offer, simply put, the most extensive set of recurring event options, as well as recurring event exceptions. We have been using it on the development site for over a month...it rocks :)

2007-05-16
Reviews: 1
Only one thing i've to add to these reviews..this component is ..Simply the best!!!!
2007-05-13
Reviews: 29
Having had Extcal as one of the earlier joomla calendar solutions, which was generally excellent but the latest events section missed displaying some important data.
This solution was tried but an early version had a minor bug with no listed fix however, the latest version has dealt with that and I agree with others that this is now the best joomla calendar program yet available. Indeed, it's strange that a number of other joomla sites haven't yet utilised this feature more.(Especially small clubs and sporting organisations)
Though it can probably be changed,(I'm just not sure how)the monthly set out can be a little confusing because the monthly data is shown on the one page and the monthly titles are shown on the top bar. This can lead to accidentally entering data in the wrong month.
ie titles
1 7 14
and so data for 14th June can be accidentally entered as 14 th July. These titles need to be faded back further and the centre title and colours made more vivid
The great thing, is that it's an upgrade to Extcal and data previously entered can be imported directly into the new Jcal version. Great job, Great addition
2007-05-11
Reviews: 7
Solid component, installs easily, intuitive, professional look and feel to the backend. Not as full featured as Thyme but the tight Joomla integration and ease of use more than make up for that. Best of the Joomla calendars that I tried.

Has a search bot, and 2 modules, one a mini cal and one for "upcoming events".

Wishlist: dropdown with pre-defined event locations, click for directions.
2007-05-08
Reviews: 2
I installed this component after implementing a template and a tutorial from JoomlaShack. Good component. Great look and feel, and very easy to install and configure. Same goes for the modules.

Problems started when other users started adding events to the site. There was/is no way for users (as authors) to manage only their events from the frontend. There is a backend setting that allows authors to manage events, but this grants them access to managing ALL events, not only the ones they have created. I searched the JCalPro forum to see if anyone posted something about this, but found nothing. I posted the question to their forum so lets see. Great if you don't wish for users to manage their events.
2007-05-07
Reviews: 1
The calendar is great except it is missing the event registration module. I was forced to use JEvent and Attend Event because they were integrated together. I would definitely use JCal if it has that module.
2007-04-26
Reviews: 5
it is a good starter but need a lot a easy multiupload image manager,actually it 's the editor mambot but user who will add event need to make it easily cause usually they don't use jce or fck and it takes long time
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
2007-04-24
Reviews: 1
I've been testing some calendars for my site. It's a site for a pub and wanted to publish events for Football, Music and other events. After testing some calendars, JCal Pro is the best for me.
It has multiple languages translations, a templating system, easy to install and use.. and fully configurable. I love this calendar.
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