IEC Events
A lightweight WordPress upcoming-events list: one post type, one shortcode, no front-end JavaScript.
Install
No release zip yet. The repository archive installs, but the folder name will carry the branch suffix and updates will not flow:
wp plugin install https://github.com/nick-m019m1/iec-events/archive/refs/heads/main.zipA lightweight upcoming-events list for WordPress. One custom post type, one shortcode, no front-end JavaScript, no build step, no external dependencies.
Events are entered in the admin and displayed with a shortcode. An event drops off the list by itself once it has finished — there is no cron job and no "past event" status to maintain.
Installation
Zip the three PHP files and upload via Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin:
Compress-Archive -Path iec-events.php, admin.php, render.php -DestinationPath iec-events.zip -ForceOnly those three files are needed; this README and anything else in the repository can stay out of the zip.
The shortcode
There is exactly one shortcode:
[iec_events]On its own it prints the next 4 upcoming events with no heading. Everything else is optional.
Attributes
| Attribute | Default | Accepts | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
count |
Settings page (4) | 1–12 | How many events to show. Values outside the range are clamped, not rejected. |
title |
none | any text | Heading above the list, output as an <h3>. Omit it and no heading is printed. |
title_align |
Settings page (theme default) | left, center, right |
Aligns the heading only, not the events. Anything unrecognised falls back to the theme's alignment. |
tz_label |
none | any text | Replaces the automatic timezone abbreviation. Use ET to avoid showing EST half the year and EDT the other half. |
show_desc |
Settings page (off) | 1, true, yes, on / 0 |
Shows each event's description under its title. Events without a description show nothing either way. |
show_thumb |
0 |
1, true, yes, on / 0 |
Shows the event's Featured image to the left of the text. Events without one are unaffected. |
class |
none | CSS class names | Extra classes on the wrapping <div>, for targeting one instance in your own CSS. |
Examples
The usual case — a heading, a fixed timezone label, four events:
[iec_events title="Upcoming Events (ET Time)" tz_label="ET"]A longer list with descriptions, for a dedicated events page:
[iec_events count="12" title="All Upcoming Events" tz_label="ET" show_desc="1"]A compact sidebar list — no heading, three events, no description:
[iec_events count="3"]With images and a custom class for styling:
[iec_events count="4" show_thumb="1" class="homepage-events"]Automatic timezone abbreviation (shows EST in January, EDT in July):
[iec_events count="4" title="Upcoming Events"]Settings page
Events → Settings sets the defaults for count, show_desc and title_align.
Settings are defaults only. An attribute written on a shortcode always wins. If a page
contains [iec_events count="4"], changing "Events shown" on the settings page will not
affect that page until the count="4" is removed from the shortcode.
title, tz_label, show_thumb and class are shortcode-only — a heading is per-page by
nature, so it is not a global setting.
Where to put it
The shortcode goes in a core Shortcode block, which can sit inside a Spectra container like any other block. There is no custom block.
Behaviour worth knowing
- Nothing is printed when no events are upcoming — the heading included. An empty "Upcoming Events" box on a quiet week looks broken.
- Events disappear when they end, not when they start. The list filters on the event's end time, so an 8–9pm session stays visible while it is actually running and drops off at 9:01pm. Duration is what decides this.
- Times display in the event's own timezone. An event set in London reads in London time regardless of where the site or the reader is.
- Descriptions are plain text. Line breaks are preserved; HTML is not rendered.
- Page caching will keep a finished event visible until the cache clears, since the plugin does no cache invalidation.
Styling
The CSS is a single inline `