Simple Google Calendar Outlook Events Widget vs VentoCalendar

Simple block or widget to display events from a public google calendar, microsoft office outlook calendar or an other iCal file, in the style of your website. The Gutenberg block requires at least WordPress 5.9. This simple block/widget fetches events from a public google calendar (or other calendar in iCal format) and displays them in simple list allowing you to fully adapt to your website by applying all kinds of CSS. Google offers some HTML snippets to embed your public Google Calendar into your website. These are great, but as soon as you want to make a few adjustments to the styling, that goes beyond changing some colors, they’re not enough. Plugin Features Calendar block or widget to display appointments/events of a public Google calendar or other iCal file. Block gives live preview in the editor and is not constrained to widget area. Old widget will be displayed in legacy widget block only in widget area. Old widget works also with Elementor (with some limitations e.g. preview in backend editor is not always available). Small footprint, uses only Google ID of the calendar, or ICS link for Outlook, or Url of iCal file, to get event information via iCal Merge more calendars into one block Manage events in Google Calendar, or other iCalendar source. Fully adaptable to your website with CSS. Output in unordered list with Bootstrap 4 listgroup classes and toggle for details. Choose date / time format in settings screen that best suits your website. Displays per event DTSTART, DTEND, SUMMARY, LOCATION and DESCRIPTION. DTSTART is required other components are optional. Displays most common repeating events. Frequency Yearly, Monthly, Weekly, Dayly (not Hourly, Minutely and smaller periods) Basic support for filter on Categories Warning: MS Outlook does not share categories via iCal now. Google and iCloud calendar don’t support categories at all. So this will not work with these calendars. In the screenshot below: Left the block with default settings and clicked on one summary. Right with some adjusted settings. Adjusted settings for start with summary: Lay-out: Start with summary. Date format first line: “. l jS \o\f F” Enddate format first line: ” – l jS \o\f F” Time format time summary line: ” G:i” Time format end time summary line: ” – G:i” Time format start time: “” Time format end time: “” Tag for summary: “strong” Documentation Gets calendar events via iCal url or google calendar ID Merge more calendars into one block Displays maximum the selected number of events as listgroup-items Displays only events in a selected period with a length of the setting “Number of days after today with events” from now limited by the time of the day or the beginning of the day at the start and the and of the at the end. Displays events in timezone of WordPress setting, or in Clients timezone with javascript REST call fetched from the clients browser. Displays event start-date and summary; toggle details, description, start-, end-time, location. Displays most common repeating events Frequency Yearly, Monthly, Weekly, Dayly (not parsed Hourly, Minutely …), INTERVAL (default 1), WKST (default MO) End of repeating by COUNT or UNTIL By day month, monthday or setpos (BYDAY, BYMONTH, BYMONTHDAY, BYSETPOS) no other by… (not parsed: BYWEEKNO, BYYEARDAY, BYHOUR, BYMINUTE, RDATE) Exclude events on EXDATE from recurrence set (after evaluating BYSETPOS) Respects Timezone and Day Light Saving time. Build and tested with Iana timezones as used in php, Google, and Apple now also tested with Microsoft timezones and unknown timezones. For unknown timezone-names using the default timezone of WordPress (probably the local timezone). (This widget is a Fork of version 0.7 of that simple google calendar widget by NBoehr https://nl.wordpress.org/plugins/simple-google-calendar-widget/) Copyright and License This project is licensed under the GNU GPL, version 2 or later. 2017 – 2023 © Bram Waasdorp.

VentoCalendar is a powerful yet simple WordPress plugin for creating and managing events. It provides an intuitive interface for adding events with start and end dates, customizable colors, and an interactive calendar view. Free and privacy-friendly plugin: No ads, no tracking, no external services required. All your event data stays on your server. Developed with WordPress coding standards and best practices in mind. Features Custom Event Post Type – Dedicated post type for events with all WordPress features Date & Time Management – Easy-to-use datetime picker for start and end dates Color Coding – Assign custom colors to events for better visual organization Interactive Calendar – Beautiful calendar with selectable view type (monthly calendar or event list), with “Add to my calendar” buttons for Google Calendar and Apple Calendar. Layout Options – Choose between basic, compact, or clean layouts to customize the calendar appearance Gutenberg Blocks – Two custom blocks for displaying calendars and event information Shortcodes – Flexible shortcodes for displaying calendars and event information anywhere REST API – Built-in REST API endpoints for custom integrations Responsive Design – Fully responsive calendar that works on all devices Internationalization Ready – Fully translatable with .pot file included Gutenberg Blocks Calendar Block – Show a monthly calendar view with all your events Event Info Block – Display event date and time information using your WordPress date/time formats Shortcodes [ventocalendar-calendar] – Display full calendar view [ventocalendar-start-date] – Display event start date [ventocalendar-end-date] – Display event end date [ventocalendar-start-time] – Display event start time [ventocalendar-end-time] – Display event end time All shortcodes use the date and time formats configured in Settings → General. Perfect For Community organizations Event venues Churches and religious organizations Schools and universities Business event calendars Conference websites Workshop and class schedules Privacy & Compliance VentoCalendar is designed with privacy and WordPress.org guidelines in mind: License GPLv2 or later – This plugin is free software licensed under the GNU General Public License v2 or later Designed to comply with WordPress.org guidelines All code is open source and available for review No Obfuscated Code All JavaScript, PHP, and CSS code is readable and unminified No build process or compilation required All source code is human-readable and editable No hidden functionality or encrypted code No External Services Required Self-hosted solution – All functionality runs on your WordPress server No mandatory third-party services or API keys required Vue.js library is bundled with the plugin and loaded locally (no CDN). No external accounts, subscriptions, or paid services needed No Advertising The plugin does not display advertisements in the WordPress admin area or on the frontend. No affiliate links or sponsored content are included. All features are available without promotional notices or upsells. Privacy Friendly The plugin does not collect, track, or transmit user data to external services No analytics, tracking scripts, or cookies are added by the plugin Event data is stored locally in the WordPress database and remains under the site owner’s control The plugin operates entirely within the WordPress environment without external communication What Data is Stored Event information (titles, descriptions, dates, colors) – stored in WordPress database All data remains on your server under your control No external communication or data sharing Developer Notes Architecture The plugin follows WordPress Plugin Boilerplate architecture with a centralized loader system. All hooks are registered through the main plugin class. REST API Endpoint: GET /wp-json/ventocalendar/v1/events Parameters: * start (optional) – Start date filter (Y-m-d format) * end (optional) – End date filter (Y-m-d format) Response: Array of event objects with id, title, dates, times, color, and permalink. File Structure admin/ – Admin-specific functionality (PHP, JS, CSS) public/ – Public-facing functionality (PHP, JS, CSS) includes/ – Core plugin classes includes/blocks/ – Gutenberg block classes includes/cpt/ – Custom post type definitions languages/ – Translation files Development No build process required. All files are unminified and ready for direct editing. The plugin uses standard WordPress enqueue functions for all assets. Donations This plugin is free. Donations are voluntary support for its development. If you find VentoCalendar useful, you can support its development here: Donate via Ko-fi Support For support, feature requests, or bug reports, please visit the plugin’s support forum on WordPress.org. Credits Built using WordPress Plugin Boilerplate Calendar powered by Vue.js