Using PHP DateInterval to create recurring events

Question

So I have spent quite a bit of time researching how best to add recurring events to my calendar application.

I would like to use the PHP DateInterval function and have formulated the code below to try and work out how to create a recurring event based on the original events Start Date, Finish Date and the EndDate of Recurrence.

//user defined event start and finish dates
$eventStart = new DateTime( '2011-01-31 09:00:00' );
$eventFinish = new DateTime( '2011-01-32 17:00:00' );

//user defined event recurring end date
$endRecurring = new DateTime( '2011-05-31 23:59:59' );

//define for recurring period function
$begin = $eventStart;
$end = $endRecurring;

//define our interval
$interval = DateInterval::createFromDateString('next friday');
$period = new DatePeriod($begin, $interval, $end, DatePeriod::EXCLUDE_START_DATE);

//loop through and create new dates for recurring events
foreach ( $period as $dt )
  $recurringStartDate = $dt->format( "l Y-m-d H:i:s\n" );
  $recurringEndDate = ?NOT SURE HOW TO PROCESS THE END DATE IN THIS START DATE FOREACH LOOP?

This should hopefully create a list of new event start dates. BUT I also need to define new end dates for my recurring events. How do I do this? Do I need to process this in the event start date foreach loop?

My other question is how I could combine multiple dateIntervals to take care of Repeat every Monday, Wednesday and Friday? Currently only single dateIntervals are working like next friday

Answer 1

There is a Date/Calendar recursion library for PHP 5.2+ by Thomas Planer. Its not DateInterval, but it seems to do the trick. Check it out at https://github.com/tplaner/When.

Answer 2

Hi I had to develop something similar and i did the flowing:

$event_date = "2012-10-06";
$event_end_date = "2012-10-08";
$event_repetition_type = "Daily";

$date_calculation = "";
switch ($event_repetition_type) {
    case "Daily":
    $date_calculation = " +1 day";
    break;
case "Weekly":
    $date_calculation = " +1 week";
    break;
case "Monthly":
    $date_calculation = " +1 month";
    break;
default:
    $date_calculation = "none";
}

$dateArray[] =  $event_date;

$day = strtotime($event_date);
$to = strtotime($event_end_date);

while( $day <= $to ) 
{
    $day = strtotime(date("Y-m-d", $day) . $date_calculation);
    $dateArray[] = date("Y-m-d" , $day);
    }


//here make above array as key in $a array
$a = array_fill_keys($dateArray, 'none');
print_r($a);