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Record and Track Past Events With the LifePress Calendar Plugin

Two weeks ago, Ashan Jay released LifePress to the WordPress plugin directory. It is an interactive, front-end calendar for tracking past events — a journal of sorts. For a version 1.0 launch, it has enough features with just the right touch of simplicity to show promise.

This is not Jay’s first rodeo when it comes to calendar-based plugins. He is also the creator of EventON, a virtual event calendar for WordPress.

The goal of the plugin is simple. As its description reads, “LifePress is a calendar based journal recorder that will allow you to track back progress and review past events to learn from the past and make positive progress in the future.”

Watch an introduction video to the plugin:

Digging Into the Plugin

Call me a fan. The ease of use of this plugin is spot-on. LifePress creates a page called “LifePress Dashboard” upon activation, which allows individual users of the site to see and manage life events on the front end on a per-user basis. It feels much like Google Calendar, except in WordPress.

And that is the plugin’s main selling point — it allows end-users to store all of their data in their own database instead of on a third-party server.

On the front end, users are presented with a weekly calendar view by default. However, there is a button for switching between weekly and monthly views.

Monthly calendar view of the LifePress Dashboard on the front end.
Monthly calendar view.

A simple “+” button lets users create new calendar entries. After clicking it, an overlay appears for adding a date, title, optional description, and tag. Most users should pick up the system quickly and without documentation.

Adding a new calendar entry with the LifePress WordPress plugin.
Creating a new calendar entry.

The tag system allows users to group different types of entries with custom colored backgrounds. Colored dots for each tag adorn the left sidebar, allowing users to toggle specific entry types on and off, which is one of my favorite features of the plugin. It is a simple thing, but it adds to the overall user experience.

The design is, for the most part, great. The interface is uncluttered and simple to use. However, the plugin is not without some flaws, which is to be expected with a version 1.0. The plugin’s various overlays, such as from the new-entry popup, butt against the top of the page. Some spacing at the top would help with the layout.

Backend management could use a little work. There is no way to edit a tag’s color after it has been created. This feature also does not appear to be available on the front end.

The monthly-calendar view was consistently off by one day of the week when I first installed LifePress in my testing environment. For example, today is Tuesday, December 15, 2020. However, the plugin had the 15th listed under Monday. I managed to track this issue down to the “week starts on” setting in WordPress. The plugin will only work if this option is set to Sunday (the WordPress default sets this to Monday). Every other day of the week pushes the calendar back another day.

This is a non-issue with the default, weekly calendar view. However, it should be addressed by the plugin author for the monthly layout.

Features Requests

While LifePress is geared toward being a journal and tracking calendar, it would be nice if it could pull double-duty and behave like a simple event calendar too. The plugin already allows end-users to add items to future dates, so the core of scheduling events is already in place. To extend this already-existing feature, the plugin could have a notification system. Users should be able to at least get custom emails as a reminder for upcoming events on the schedule. This could make it worthwhile enough for some users to ditch Google Calendar, depending on their use case.

If the plugin wants to continue focusing on being a great journal and tracking calendar, it should have a progress-tracking mechanism built in. It is great to see that I put in my daily 30-minute jog on the calendar, for example. However, it would be even better if I could see that I am hitting my exercise goals on a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis.

That sort of application is not just relevant to personal exercise regimens. It can be applied to other facets of life or used in business environments.

Overall, it is a good first outing for the plugin. However, there is a lot of potential for more features in the future.

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How to Add Google Calendar Events From Your WordPress Contact Form

Do you want to send events from your WordPress contact form straight to Google Calendar?

Perhaps you use Google Calendar to take bookings, or maybe you have a contact form that lets clients book a call with you. You can automatically add those events to your Google Calendar.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily add Google Calendar events from your WordPress contact form.rr

Adding Google Calendar events from a WordPress contact form

Why Add Google Calendar Events From a WordPress Form?

Normally, you can add a contact form to your WordPress website and get notifications via email or in your WordPress dashboard.

You can use a contact form for allowing customers to book appointments, request a callback, get a quote, and more. However, managing contact form leads manually is not very efficient, and you may lose customers because of that.

This is where Google Calendar can help. It works on any device, and you can get instant notifications / reminders for each calendar event.

Automatically sending your form entries to Google Calendar ensures that you don’t miss any bookings, appointments, orders, and calls.

That being said, let’s look at how to easily create a Google Calendar event from your WordPress form entries.

Connecting Your Contact Form and Google Calendar

For this tutorial, we’ll be using WPForms, which is the best form builder for WordPress. It comes with an intuitive drag and drop interface that lets you easily create any type of form.

We’ll then use Zapier to connect your contact form to Google Calendar. Zapier works as a bridge, connecting 2 different apps with no need for any code.

Let’s get started.

Creating Your Contact Form in WPForms

First, you need to install and activate the WPForms plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Note: You need the Pro version or higher to use the Zapier addon for WPForms.

Upon activation, go to the WPForms » Settings page and enter your license key. You will find your license key in your account area on the WPForms website.

Entering your license key for WPForms

Now, it’s time to create your contact form. If you already have a contact form set up, simply edit it by going to the WPForms » All Forms page and clicking on its name.

Otherwise, visit the WPForms » Add New page in your WordPress admin to launch the WPForms builder and create a new form.

We’re going to use a simple contact form template with added date/time fields for the start and end time of the call. If you need help creating your form and adding fields, check out our step by step guide to creating a contact form.

Creating a call booking form in WPForms

Tip: Want to use a specialized event form template instead? Simply install the Form Templates addon under WPForms » Addons for access to the Event Planner Form and dozens of other templates.

Once you’ve set up your form, you need to add it to your WordPress site. Simply edit the page (or post) where you want to include it, or add a new one by going to Pages » Add New.

First, you need to click the + icon to add a new block. Then, search for the WPForms block and add it to your content area:

For more detailed instructions, check out our step by step guide on creating a contact form.

Once you’ve added your form to your website, go ahead and publish or preview the page.

Make sure that you submit a test entry using your form. This test entry is necessary to set up and check the connection between WPForms and Google Calendar.

Here’s our test entry, with name, email, date, start and end time, plus a message:

Creating a test entry for your contact form or booking form

Preparing to Connect WPForms and Zapier

We are going to use Zapier to link WPForms and Google Calendar. This means you need to install and activate the WPForms Zapier addon.

Simply go to the WPForms » Addons page in your WordPress admin. Search for the Zapier addon and then click the ‘Install Addon’ button to install and activate it.

Installing the Zapier addon for WPForms

Now, you need to visit the WPForms » Settings » Integrations page. From here, you simply need to click on the Zapier logo to get an API key.

You may want to copy your API key somewhere safe or keep your tab open. You’ll need this later to connect Zapier to your WPForms account.

Creating Your Zap to Send Data From Your Contact Form to Google Calendar

Now, it’s time to go to the Zapier website. If you don’t already have an account, then go ahead and create a free account here.

Once you are logged in to the Zapier dashboard, click on the ‘Make a Zap’ button. This is on the top left of the screen.

Click on the button to start making your Zap

Note: In Zapier, a ‘Zap’ is a process that has both a trigger and an action. In this case, our trigger will be someone filling in the contact form, and our action will be to create a new event in Google Calendar.

Now, you need to give your Zap a name at the top of the screen. After that, it’s time to set up the trigger.

First, type ‘WPForms’ into the search bar for the ‘Choose App & Event’ box. Then, simply click on the WPForms icon that appears:

Select WPForms as your trigger app in Zapier

Zapier will automatically fill in the trigger event of ‘New Form Entry’ so you just need to click the Continue button.

Choosing a trigger event in Zapier

Next, Zapier will prompt you to sign in to your WPForms account. Just click the ‘Sign in to WPForms’ button to do so:

Click the button to sign in to WPForms

You should now see a popup window, where you need to enter your API key. This is the API key that you found earlier on the WPForms » Settings » Integrations page in your WordPress admin.

You also need to add the URL (domain name) of your website.

Enter your API key from WPForms and the URL of your website

After doing that, simply click the ‘Yes, Continue’ button to move to the next step.

Zapier will now ask you to select your contact form from the dropdown list. If you have several different forms on your site, then make sure you select the right one:

Selecting the correct contact form in Zapier

Next, go ahead and click the test trigger button:

Testing your trigger in Zapier

Zapier would now find the test entry you created earlier and show the data on screen:

The data from the test contact form entry that Zapier has found

Click the ‘Continue’ button and you’ll move on to the Action part of the Zap. This is where you need to choose your second app, Google Calendar.

Selecting Google Calendar as your action app

Next, click on the ‘Choose Action Event’ dropdown and select the ‘Create Detailed Event’ option:

Select 'Create detailed event' as the action event for Google Calendar

Zapier will now prompt you to sign in to your Google Calendar account:

Sign in to your Google Calendar account when prompted by Zapier

You need to give Zapier permission to access your Google Calendar, or it will not be able to create events:

Give Zapier permission to access your Google Calendar

Once you’ve signed into Google Calendar, click the Continue button to carry on.

Next, you will see the Customize Detailed Event section. Here, you need to select the correct calendar from the first dropdown:

Choose which calendar you want to use with the Zap

Once you’ve done that, type in an event summary for the event. We’re going to use Client Call for ours. You could also choose a form field here, if you have an appropriate field on your form for this.

Type in an summary for your Google Calendar event, e.g. "Client Call"

For the event description, we’re going to use the message from the form. Just click on the description box, then click on the field from your form that you want to use. Your test data will be shown alongside the field name:

Select the form field that you want to use for the Google Calendar event's description

You can include other fields in here, such as the person’s name and/or email address.

You also need to make sure you add the Start Date & Time and the End Date & Time. Again, click on the box and select the appropriate field from your form:

Select the correct fields from your form for the start and end times of the event

You may also want to include the email address of the person who booked the call or event. This means they’ll be sent an invite, so they can easily add the event to their own calendar:

Enter the field for the attendee's email address, if you want to send them a Google Calendar invite

You can change other settings here, as well. Once you’re happy with your settings, click the Continue button.

Now, Zapier gives you the opportunity to test out your Zap. First, you will see the details of what’s going to be sent to Google Calendar:

The details of the test event that will be sent to Google Calendar

Below this, simply click the ‘Test & Continue’ button to test out your Zap:

Click the 'Test and Continue' button to send the test entry's details to Google Calendar

Next, go ahead and view your Google Calendar to check that the test event has been successfully added:

Viewing the details of the event that's been added to Google Calendar

Now, it’s time to switch on your Zap by clicking the blue button:

Turn on your Zap once you're ready

Tip: If your event has been added at the wrong time of day, check the timezone settings in your Zapier profile. If these are incorrect, set them to the correct timezone and test your Zap again.

That’s it. Your contact form entries will now be automatically sent to your Google Calendar.

We hope this article helped you learn how to add Google Calendar events from your WordPress contact form. You may also want to see our comparison of the best business phone services, and our step by step guide on how to get a free business email address.

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The post How to Add Google Calendar Events From Your WordPress Contact Form appeared first on WPBeginner.