IP.Calendar has supported an RSVP system for events for the last several versions, and this has been a well received addition to Calendar. Where allowed, users can request RSVP for events submitted to the calendar, and where allowed, other users can RSVP (and subsequently un-RSVP) for these events. This functionality is useful for real-world events being coordinated through your site to help event organizers know who will attend. Some minor but useful enhancements have been made to the RSVP functionality in calendar for 4.0.
RSVP Limits
Often times, you may only have a limited number of spots available for an event. You may only be able to accommodate 10 users or 20 users at an event, and you typically will know this up front. Subsequently, it makes sense to limit the number of users who can RSVP for a given event in such scenarios. To this end, event submitters can now limit the number of RSVP responses allowed on a per-event basis. If you know only 10 users can be accommodated at an event, you may now specify this up front.
Yes? No? Maybe?
While being able to RSVP for an event is useful, many users online are familiar with other attendance systems that allow you to specify yes, no or maybe when RSVP support is available. In other words, instead of simply allowing you to say "yes I'm coming", sometimes it is just as useful to allow users to specify they are not coming, or that they might attend (in which case the organizer may plan to have extra food available, for example). The 4.0 Calendar will now support yes/no/maybe responses when RSVP is requested for an event.
One caveat to mention - when an upper RSVP limit has been specified, the "Maybe" option is not available. A gray area becomes apparent when there is a limit to the number of attendees allowed for an event and users begin to RSVP as "maybe". Does that fill up a spot? If not, what if they decide to come after all? It is much clearer for all involved to simply limit responses to yes or no when there is an attendee limit specified for an event.
When you have RSVP'd for an event, you will be presented with the option to leave the event in case you change your mind.
Download guest list
When RSVP has been enabled for an event, anyone who can see the list of attendees will be able to download a guest list in PDF format. This is especially useful for the event organizer in case they need to print out the guest list to bring with them to the event.
RSVP for imported events
When you configure iCalendar feed imports in the admin control panel, you will now be able to enable or disable RSVP status for events from the feed. As the administrator, you had no control over whether events imported from a feed had RSVP enabled or not in previous versions of Calendar. As of 4.0, you can specify whether to enable or disable RSVP for imported events on a per-feed basis.
As with 3.x, events exported through iCalendar feeds will include the attendee list with them.
When events are imported through an iCalendar feed, if an attendee is specified (through the iCalendar specification) and that attendee is also a member of your site (based on their email address), the member on your site will automatically be set as RSVP'd for the event.
We believe these several minor but useful enhancements to the RSVP capabilities in Calendar will make the feature more useful in real world usage scenarios, and will allow you and your event coordinators to get more out of Calendar than ever before.