How it works:
I created a Facebook application called event-tools that gets data from all the FB events that are in my FB calendar through the FB API and copies it to my website's database. A cron job automates this process. I need only click on the event or rsvp for it to appear in my calendar and event-tools takes it from there.
Once in the database, the events are displayed on louisvillelivemusic.com. Pretty straight forward so far.
Here's where it get's interesting:
Another cron job publishes the data back to FB on my website's fanpage wall through the event-tools application and FB API. This is useful because not all my FB friends and fans are friends with the musicians and venues so they might not see all of the events that I do. This benefits the musicians and venues by increasing attendance to events, benefits fans by informing them of events they might not know about, and benefits me by increasing awareness of Louisville Live Music. Everyone benefits!
That's the main part of it. I also have created:
Scapers that get content from other locations like Meetup and various venue's calendars,
an RSS feed, and a fully AJAXified content management system for editing and greenlighting the database entries.
Planned improvements:
In addition to pushing the events to the fanpage as they come in, I will also have the publisher re- send alerts for events happening "Tonight - ".
Make the website W3C validated. The RSS feed is already because it has to be.
Integrate with the Meetup API instead of using their RSS feed. (a lot of work for little benefit)
Improve and update the CMS system. It is very out of date. It was designed around an old model for the site but still works and is still very useful. (I'm quite proud of it) It is also the most complex piece of code on the site.
I will post a record here of improvements as I make them, and also list planned improvements so I don't forget.
Facebook Page Website
