Timeloop plugin for Craft CMS 3.x

This plugin created repeating dates without complex inputs

Requirements

This plugin requires Craft CMS 3.3.0 or later.

Installation

To install the plugin, follow these instructions.

1. Open your terminal and go to your Craft project:

    cd/path/to/project

2. Tell Composer to load the plugin:

    composer require percipiolondon/craft-timeloop

3. In the Control Panel, go to Settings → Plugins and click the “Install” button.

Timeloop Overview

The Timeloop plugin provides recurring dates based on a starting date and a regular loop period.

Example: Set a payment date for employees on the first of each month.

Configuring the Timeloop field.

The following configuration options that are available for the field:

• ShowTimes: When selected, this will give the ability to choose a starting time and end time for the recurring dates.

Using Timeloop

The Timeloop Model

Getting the entered dates (returned as DateTime objects)

Getting the start date for the loop (this includes the time set in loopStartTime):

    {{ entry.timeloop.loopStartDate | date('Y-m-d\\TH:i:sP') }}

Getting the end date for the loop (this includes the time set in loopEndHour):

    {{ entry.timeloop.loopEndDate | date('Y-m-d\\TH:i:sP') }}

Getting the start time for the loop:

    {{ entry.timeloop.loopStartTime | date('H:i:s') }}

Getting the end time for the loop:

    {{ entry.timeloop.loopEndTime | date('H:i:s') }}

Getting an array of dates between the selected start and end dates (Array with DateTime Objects):

    {% for date in entry.timeloop.dates %}
        {{ date | date('Y-m-d\\TH:i:sP') }}
    {% endfor %}

This generated set of dates takes all the field values into consideration (frequency, cycle and custom)

Upcoming Dates (returned as DateTime Objects)

Getting the first upcoming date:

    {{ entry.timeloop.upcoming | date('Y-m-d\\TH:i:sP') }}

Getting the next upcoming date:

    {{ entry.timeloop.nextUpcoming | date('Y-m-d\\TH:i:sP') }}

Get entries between certain dates

If you want to fetch entries from a certain section between two dates. You can fetch them by giving the ElementsQuery with the name of the timeloop field, start and end date. This will return you an array of recurring dates per entry between this period. If no dates are defined, you will get an empty array. In the returned array, you can find the entry id, entry title and the dates.

    {%- set recurringEntries = recurringDates(craft.entries.section('events'), 'timeloop', '2021-01-01', '2022-02-01')  %}
    {% for recurringEntry in recurringEntries %}
        <div>
            <h2>{{ recurringEntry.entryTitle }}: {{ recurringEntry.entryId }}</h2>
            {% for date in recurringEntry.dates %}
                {{ date | date('d/m/y H:i') }}<br/>
            {% endfor %}
        </div>
    {% endfor %}

Returns this array layout

0 => [
    'entryId' => 1111
    'entryTitle' => 'Event title'
    'dates' => [
        0 => DateTime#1
        (
            [date] => '2022-01-01 00:00:00.000000'
            [timezone_type] => 3
            [timezone] => 'Europe/London'
        )
        1 => DateTime#2
        (
            [date] => '2022-01-08 00:00:00.000000'
            [timezone_type] => 3
            [timezone] => 'Europe/London'
        )
    ]
]

Period Model

Getting the frequency (DateTimePeriod String):

    {{ entry.timeloop.period.frequency }}

Getting the cycle (Integer):

    {{ entry.timeloop.period.cycle }}

Displaying the selected days (Array):

    {% for day in entry.timeloop.period.days %}
        {{ day }}
    {% endfor %}

This will parse the names of the selected days when weekly has been chosen as frequency.

Timestring Model

Get the ordinal of a monthly set loop (e.g. first, second, ..., last)

warning: If the frequency is not set to monthly, the returned value will be null.
warning: If the frequency is set to monthly and no timestring selection has been made, the returned value will be none as String.

    {{ entry.timeloop.timestring.ordinal ?? 'not set' }}

Reminder Model (WIP - not ready for production)

GraphQL

If you want to use the plugin through GraphQL, we've added a GraphQL Type to provide the field data.

You can get the DateTime Types from the data directly for

• loopStartDate will return the start date
• loopStartTime will return the start time, defaults to 00:00:00 when no start time has been entered or showTimes is set to false.
• loopEndDate will return the end date
• loopEndTime will return the end time, defaults to 23:59:59 when no end time has been entered or showTimes is set to false.
• loopReminder

Loop Period

You can get the loopPeriod object as follows:

    loopPeriod {
        frequency
        cycle
        days
        timestring {
          ordinal
          day
        }
    }

• frequency will return the selected frequency ( P1D / P1W / P1M / P1Y )
• cycle will return the entered cycle value
• days will return an Array that contains the selected days of the week
• timestring will return an object that contains the ordinal (e.g. last) and day (e.g. saturday)

The Dates

To get an array of formatted dates, use dates.

Dates arguments:

• limit (Integer): add a limit of dates you want to return, default to 100.
• futureDates (Boolean): if you want to show future dates only, default to true.

Dates directives:

formatDateTime(timezone: "Europe/London" format: "d/m/Y")

query{
  entries(section: "homepage"){
    id,
    ...on homepage_homepage_Entry{
      dateCreated,
      title,
      timeloop {
        loopReminder,
        loopStartDate,
        loopStartTime,
        loopEndDate,
        loopEndTime,
        loopPeriod,
        dates(limit: 5) @formatDateTime(format: "d/m/Y" )
      }
    }
  }
}

Timeloop Roadmap

Potential features for the future:

• Reminder Support
• Make the fieldtype translatable
• Provide language translations
• Add the possibility to blocklist dates
• Add holiday settings
• Localise holidays based on the CraftCMS timezone settings

And many more!

Brought to you by Percipio.London