What is a Cache?

A cache is a method of storing previously retrieved information for a certain amount of time temporarily. For DPCalendar, when the first user requests a Joomla page with a DPCalendar (or plugin) on it, the data is retrieved from the database or calendar source. This takes time. Time to retrieve and process the information. When a second user requests the same page and the cache is enabled, the information is pulled from the cache (memory) instead of the original source. This is faster and uses less server resources. However, the information will be minutes old. For most users the delay is not noticed. If you are responsible to update the calendar, you might not see the update for several minutes after you made the change. This may upset some users that want to see their changes immediately. Turning off the cache will show changes more quickly but can slow your site down considerably.

Joomla has a caching system as does DPCalendar and other extensions, they will be explained more deeply in the next chapters.

Joomla Cache

The best cache option for your site is the cache plugin, which caches the whole page. Means that no PHP code is executed at all, will relax your server and deliver the pages faster.

You may find Joomla's cache settings in the Global Configuration > System tab.

For more information see this article from Joomla - http://docs.joomla.org/Cache

DPCalendar external events plugin cache

Every plugin which integrates external events into DPCalendar has options to choose a cache behavior to temporary save the external events on the Joomla site and to increase/decrease the cache time. You can even turn off the cache completely in the plugin settings.

Joomla cache

The Joomla cache option caches the events in a file in the cache folder within your Joomla installation. The time settings defines the lifespan of the cached files before the events are refetched from the remote system. This behavior is used since the beginning of DPCalendar and is the most stable option.

Database cache

In DPCalendar 5.2 the Database cache option was introduced to have the the full power of database operations on external events. This options is properly tested but has still issues when not used together with a cron job as it fetches all the events for a timespan and updates the database. It's the option to use when you are an experienced server administrator as you need to set up a cron job and adjust probably some PHP settings in an ini file. The following list shows the most important ones:

• memory_limit
  Set it to a high value like 128M. If you still get memory errors, increase it till they stop.
• max_execution_time
  Set it to 0 to disable max execution time on CLI tasks.

It is very much recommended to set up a cron job when database caching is enabled, which syncs the events completely in the background. Like that the visitor will never suffer from events sync during a page load. DPCalendar comes with a script which can be run on the command line and as cron job. It can be found in the folder /administrator/components/com_dpcalendar/cli and has the name eventsync.php.

The following line can be copied into the crontab file to set up a cron job. Keep in mind that you need to properly set the cron execution time. For example if your cache time is 15 minutes, then you should run the cron job every 14 minutes like that the sync is always done on the command line.

*/14 * * * * /{my-path-php-executable}/php /{{joomla-root}}/administrator/components/com_dpcalendar/cli/eventsync.php

The database cache works the way that it fetches per default the last three years and the next three years of events. One year at a time and adds the events into the database. These settings can be controlled in the plugin parameters when database caching is enabled. If you have a lot of events, then it is recommended to lower the sync step value. It is done that way as incremental sync is not supported by every plugin and the initial sync will explode your database on large calendars.

Plugin cache comparison

The following list shows which plugin does support which cache option.

Location Cache

When a location for a string is requested, during external event sync, then the location is stored in the database and is available for edit in the DPCalendar back end's Location Manager. If something is wrong with a location it can easily be corrected. If you want to refetch the locations, just delete them and on the next external event sync, they will be recreated.

When opening the Calender when holding my tablet in portet the calender is disfigured.
when turning tablet to landscape calender shows normal.

Hi,

We have a website still in development located at http://loudgamer.com. We've been trying to update to 3.3 but when looking at DPCal via backend it tells us it's fully updated at 3.2.3. We have then tried to install the 3.3.0 and 3.3.1 packs from the website via extension manager, both of which come up with the same error. "An error has occurred. -1 copy file failed"

Any ideas why it's not displaying the 3.3 version or why we can't upload the new package?

TIA for your help,

Michelle

Counter Module Output Editing

The best method for editing the event output is to use template overrides.  Please watch this YouTube video on the steps necessary to create and edit a script:
http://youtu.be/7phxrS824Qw

The links below are written steps to create a template override:
http://docs.joomla.org/J3.3:How_to_use_the_Template_Manager#Creating_Overrides

Editing the script

Edit between the {{#event}} and {{/event}} codes in the file.

The codes used for editing can be found in the event output mustache codes - http://joomla.digital-peak.com/documentation/58-dpcalendar/627-output-rendering

The default code is below.

{{#events}}
<span class="countdown_row">{y<}<span class="countdown_section"><span
		class="countdown_amount">{yn}</span><br />{yl}</span>{y>}{o<}<span
	class="countdown_section"><span class="countdown_amount">{on}</span><br />{ol}</span>{o>}{w<}<span
	class="countdown_section"><span class="countdown_amount">{wn}</span><br />{wl}</span>{w>}{d<}<span
	class="countdown_section"><span class="countdown_amount">{dn}</span><br />{dl}</span>{d>}{h<}<span
	class="countdown_section"><span class="countdown_amount">{hn}</span><br />{hl}</span>{h>}{m<}<span
	class="countdown_section"><span class="countdown_amount">{mn}</span><br />{ml}</span>{m>}{s<}<span
	class="countdown_section"><span class="countdown_amount">{sn}</span><br />{sl}</span>{s>}
	<div style="clear: both">
		<p>
			<a href="/{{{backLink}}}">{{title}}</a><br />{{{description}}}
		</p>
      	</div></span>
{{/events}}{{^events}}{{emptyText}}{{/events}}

To change the time and date formatting edit these two lines using the formats from http://php.net/date.

$tmp->set('event_date_format', $params->get('date_format', 'm.d.Y'));
$tmp->set('event_time_format', $params->get('time_format', 'g:i a'));

hi,

Can you please advise how can i change the date format in the POP UP module to add a new event. I would like the date format DD MM YY. I have changed the date formats using the PHP syntax in the Options and even in the menu item. However, the date on the pop up module remained with MM DD YY.

tnx

On the advice I have, after finishing CGCalendar, bought the DPCalendar Professional.

The free version of the CGCalendar worked perfectly but that seems the DPCalendar Professional not to be. I do not want to change templates or change PHP settings. I just want to integrate my Google calendar in DPCalendar. That's all. Waste of money and my question is how I can receive my money back.

Hi, I can get the calendar looking fine with a default Joomla template (Prostar) but I'm struggling to get it look right with my own template.

I've cross-referenced the code between the two temapltes and it looks like DPC is missing some CSS as using the Prostar template CSS fixes most of my issues but obviously I don't want to go through that line by line to see with my template and DPC are missing.

If I disable all my own custom CSS and jQuery its still doesn't work so I can rule that out.

Any pointers would be great,
Thanks,
Chris

EIDT: The feautes I can see arn't working are the popup (CSS) and the tooltips (CSS)

.

I would like to display the link to download the iCal formatted calendar in a more obvious place -- right now, the only way to get to it is to toggle that little blue triangle above the month title in the month-display. Is there a way to display that elsewhere?

Not sure what I m doing wrong; however, once an event is made for calendar, I can not edit the event. Is there a setting I am missing? I have the permissions correct.

Thanks

I went in and added an event and when I tried to  save it I received these errors:

Notice: Trying to get property of non-object in /home/gnbcoast/public_html/dev2013/jupgrade/administrator/components/com_comprofiler/plugin.foundation.php on line 2926

"Fatal error: Call to a member function getCfg() on a non-object in /home/gnbcoast/public_html/dev2013/jupgrade/administrator/components/com_comprofiler/plugin.foundation.php on line 2932"