NS Events Manager

A lightweight WordPress plugin for managing event listings as a custom post type. Built for sites that promote events hosted elsewhere — each event links out to an external registration or detail page rather than having its own WordPress post page.

Optimized for use with Breakdance post loop builders, but usable with any page builder that supports custom post type queries.

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Features

• Custom post type (ns_event) with a configurable admin menu label, slug, and icon
• External URL redirect — visitors hitting a single event URL are immediately redirected (301) to the event's external registration page
• Advanced Custom Fields integration — all event metadata is managed through ACF field groups, auto-registered by the plugin
• Configurable fields — toggle optional fields (end date, venue, full description, capacity, featured flag) on or off from the settings page
• Sortable admin columns — event list in wp-admin shows date, type, location, and external URL; sortable by event date (soonest first by default)
• REST API support — core event meta fields exposed via the WP REST API (toggleable)
• WP-CLI seed script — quickly populate sample events for development and testing

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Requirements

Requirement	Version
PHP	>= 8.0
WordPress	>= 5.0
Advanced Custom Fields (ACF)	Free or Pro

ACF is required. The plugin will display an admin notice if ACF is not active.

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Installation

1. Clone or download this repository into your WordPress plugins directory:

   cd wp-content/plugins
   git clone https://github.com/your-username/ns-events-manager.git

2. Install and activate Advanced Custom Fields if you haven't already.

3. Activate NS Events Manager from the WordPress admin Plugins screen.

4. Configure the plugin at Settings > Events Manager.

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Configuration

Navigate to Settings > Events Manager to configure the plugin.

General Settings

Setting	Default	Description
Menu Label	Events	Label shown in the wp-admin sidebar menu
Singular Label	Event	Singular form used in admin UI strings
Plural Label	Events	Plural form used in admin UI strings
URL Slug	events	Base slug for the CPT rewrite rules
Menu Icon	dashicons-calendar-alt	Any Dashicon slug
Enable REST API	On	Exposes events and core meta in the WP REST API
Default Link Label	Learn More	Fallback button text when an event has no custom link label

Changing the URL slug will automatically flush WordPress rewrite rules.

Optional Fields

Enable additional ACF fields per your use case:

Field	Description
End Date	For multi-day events
Venue Name	Specific venue or location name
Full Description	Rich-text WYSIWYG editor (in addition to the excerpt)
Capacity	Maximum number of attendees
Featured	Boolean flag to mark highlighted events

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Event Fields

Every event includes these core fields (managed via ACF):

Field	Type	Notes
Event Date	Date picker	Required; stored in Ymd format
Start Time	Time picker	Stored as H:i:s; displayed in 12-hour format
End Time	Time picker	Optional
Event Type	Dropdown	Speaking, Retreat, Workshop, Online, Other
Location	Text	e.g. "Austin, TX" or "Online"
Price	Text	Flexible — supports any pricing display string
External URL	URL	Optional; where visitors are redirected when set
Link Label	Text	Custom button text; falls back to the default set in settings
RSVP Email	Email	Optional RSVP contact address
RSVP Email Subject	Text	Optional pre-filled subject line
RSVP Email Body	Textarea	Optional pre-filled message body

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How the Redirect Works

Single event post URLs (e.g. yoursite.com/events/my-event/) redirect visitors directly to the event's External URL via an HTTP 301 redirect. If no external URL is set, visitors are redirected to the home page.

This means your events act as a curated directory pointing to external registration or detail pages (Eventbrite, Luma, a separate registration site, etc.) rather than hosting duplicate content.

The CPT remains publicly_queryable so post loop builders like Breakdance can render event cards in archive/loop views.

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Displaying Events

The plugin does not include shortcodes or block templates. Instead, use your page builder's post loop builder to query and display ns_event posts.

Recommended approach with Breakdance:

1. Add a Post Loop Builder element to your page
2. Set the post type to Events (or whatever label you configured)
3. Add custom field bindings for event date, location, type, and external URL
4. Sort by event_date meta key ascending to show upcoming events first

The following meta keys are available for use in post loop templates:

• event_date — date in Ymd format
• event_type — event type string
• event_location — location text
• external_url — the external link URL
• rsvp_email — RSVP email address
• rsvp_subject — pre-filled RSVP email subject
• rsvp_body — pre-filled RSVP email body

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REST API

When REST API support is enabled, events are available at:

GET /wp-json/wp/v2/ns_event

The following meta fields are included in REST responses:

• event_date
• event_type
• event_location
• external_url
• rsvp_email
• rsvp_subject
• rsvp_body

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WP-CLI Seed Script

To populate sample events for development:

wp eval-file wp-content/plugins/ns-events-manager/seed-events.php

To remove seeded events:

wp eval-file wp-content/plugins/ns-events-manager/seed-events.php remove

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License

GPL-2.0-or-later. See LICENSE.