Skip to content

event-dates-sync.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
88 lines (57 loc) · 3.77 KB

event-dates-sync.md

File metadata and controls

88 lines (57 loc) · 3.77 KB
Raw

Event Dates Sync

Syncs event dates from Event Details block attributes to the datamachine_event_dates table on save. Also handles ticket URL normalization for duplicate detection.

Architecture

Event datetimes are stored in two places:

  1. Event Details block attributes (startDate, startTime, endDate, endTime) — the authoring source of truth. Edited by humans and AI in the block editor.
  2. datamachine_event_dates table — the query source of truth. Calendar queries, upcoming-event filters, admin columns, and Schema.org fallbacks all read from this table.

The save_post hook parses the block attributes and writes the computed MySQL DATETIME to the table. There is no postmeta middle layer — the redundant _datamachine_event_datetime / _datamachine_event_end_datetime meta keys were removed in issue #424.

Location

inc/Core/event-dates-sync.php

Key Features

Automatic Synchronization

Monitors post saves and automatically syncs Event Details block data to the datamachine_event_dates table.

Block Parsing

Parses Gutenberg blocks to extract datetime information from Event Details blocks.

Denormalized post_status

The table includes a post_status column kept in sync via transition_post_status so date queries can filter to published events without joining the posts table.

Key Function

data_machine_events_sync_datetime_meta(int $post_id, WP_Post $post, bool $update): void

Syncs event datetime to the datamachine_event_dates table on save.

Process:

  1. Validates post type is data_machine_events
  2. Skips autosave operations
  3. Parses blocks to find Event Details blocks
  4. Extracts start/end dates and times from block attributes
  5. Guards against malformed dates (issue #394) — skips the datetime write cleanly instead of writing a junk 0000-00-00 00:00:00 row
  6. Combines into MySQL DATETIME format
  7. Upserts or deletes the table row based on data presence
  8. Syncs ticket URL meta for duplicate detection queries

Datetime Logic:

  • Start datetime: startDate + ' ' + startTime (defaults to 00:00:00 if no time)
  • End datetime: Uses endDate + endTime if provided, otherwise null
  • If no start date, deletes the table row

Integration Points

  • Event Details Block: Automatically triggered on block saves
  • Calendar Block: Queries the table for efficient date-based filtering (via DateFilter / UpcomingFilter)
  • EventUpsert: Block content is generated from AI parameters; save_post handles table sync
  • Admin Interface: Enables date-based sorting and filtering via table JOIN
  • EventSchemaProvider: Falls back to the table (not meta) when block attributes are empty
  • EventHydrator: Reads datetime from the table to hydrate calendar event data

Data Format

Storage Format: MySQL DATETIME (Y-m-d H:i:s)

Examples:

  • 2024-12-25 14:30:00 - December 25, 2024 at 2:30 PM
  • 2024-01-15 00:00:00 - January 15, 2024 (midnight)

Block Attribute Mapping

The system reads these attributes from Event Details blocks:

  • startDate: Date in Y-m-d format
  • startTime: Time in H:i:s format (optional)
  • endDate: End date in Y-m-d format (optional)
  • endTime: End time in H:i:s format (optional)

Performance Benefits

  • Index Support: Dedicated table with indexes on start_datetime, end_datetime, and (post_status, start_datetime)
  • Fast Filtering: Enables efficient date range queries without postmeta JOINs
  • Sorting: Allows ORDER BY on indexed datetime columns
  • Calendar Queries: Powers responsive calendar block filtering

Migration

The EventDatesTable::backfill() method performs a one-time migration of events that still have legacy _datamachine_event_datetime postmeta but no row in the table. New events are written directly to the table by save_post.