Announcing the release of PostCalendar v6.0.0, the "Lazarus [4]" release. This release brings PostCalendar completely into the Zikula [5] era. PostCalendar v6.0.0 requries Zikula [6] v1.2.1 and will not work with previous Zikula [7] versions.

PostCalendar has remained an important and favorite module for Zikula [8] users for many years, but was abandoned after developers became frustrated with its convoluted codebase and meandering development. In early 2009, Craig Heydenburg (craigh) of Sound Web Development [9] adopted the module and began redevelopment while maintaining compatibility. PostCalendar v6.0.0 is the culmination of that work and features a completely refactored codebase that adheres to Zikula [10]'s code standards, is completely Zikula-API compliant with internally well documented code. PostCalendar 5 was a product of Robert Gasch (rgasch) in his OpenStar project and utilized many of his Util libraries which were eventually adopted by Zikula [11] as its foundation. This 'fork' was the basis used for the development of version 6.0.0. Craig was assisted in the transition from version 5 to 6 by Arjen Tebbenhof (teb) and Karma Dordrak (drak). Many thanks to all three for their help. (PostCalendar History and Credits [12]) Thanks also to Michael Halbrook (HalbrookTech) for testing during 6.0.0 development.

PostCalendar version 6.0.0 boasts many significant improvements over past versions, but the most significant of these is the support of Zikula [13] Categories. Just as News and other modules have done previously, PostCalendar will migrate all previous internal category or Topics relationships to the Zikula [14] categories module. If the site has already migrated the old Topics module, PostCalendar will attempt to utilize those same categories. Events can be categorized in one or multiple categories.

PostCalendar now provides a new "Featured Event" block. This block allows a site administrator to feature one event in a block with event details and an optional daily countdown timer. The block can also be configured to hide itself when the event expires.

PostCalendar now supports all hooks and specifically features enhanced support of EZComments. If EZComments is hooked to PostCalendar, events with comments will display a special icon to note the existence of comments. Other supported hook modules include (but are not limited to) bbsmile, scribite! and MultiHook. PostCalendar now provides two MultiHook needles to allow sites to quickly link to PostCalendar events or dates (see documentation [15] for usage).

A unique feature of PostCalendar is the option for an administrator to choose the date format for all display purposes throughout the PostCalendar module. Using PHP [16]'s strftime() format, PostCalendar will display all dates in the chosen format throughout the entire module, including needles, blocks, popups and user pages. This includes the jumpdate selector! This feature, plus the recent conversion to Zikula [17]'s gettext language management system makes PostCalendar the most internationalized calendar module available for Zikula [18].

Since the previous release of PostCalendar, the templates and stylesheets have been overhauled to ensure complete W3C XHTML 1.1 validity. Usability has also been refined through improved semantic markup and form structure. Lastly, the templates have been re-styled for a more contemporary look, removing tables for layout purposes wherever logical.

With the release of version 6.0.0, Sound Web Development will offer FREE basic customization of PostCalendar's stylesheets to match your website's color-scheme. If you are interested in taking advantage of this service please see the directions on the project's webpage [19]. This is a limited time offer.

• Download from Extensions Database [20]
• Demo [21]
• PostCalendar Website [22]
• Installation and Upgrade documentation [23]
• Full feature list and documentation [24]
• Release Notes [25]
• Complete changelog [26]
• PostCalendar Support is provided on the Zikula International Community Forums [27]