Feature list

Here are some of the features of the Comendar Community Event Calendar System.

Ease of use: Comendar has been designed to be used both by computer novices and experienced users. Attention has been given to making the core functionality easy to use.
Storage of appointments, special dates and tasks to do: Comendar knows about three different types of event, understands that you think about them differently and treats them accordingly.
Multiple different calendars: Comendar provides a public calendar, a community calendar, unlimited group calendars and a personal calendar for each registered user of your web site.
Calendar views resembling paper-based diaries: Users will be instantly familiar with the layout used for the day, week and month graphical calendar views.
Effective, automated reminders via e-mail: You can request e-mail reminders for any event. Substantial research has been conducted into the properties that make a reminder effective, thereby helping to ensure that you won't forget about important events if you use the reminder facility.
Categorisation of events via "interest groups": Members of the site can join interest groups, which are groups of users with a common interest. Each event can be categorised by associating it with one or more groups. This allows users to find events they are interested in quickly, without being bombarded by irrelevant material.
Pre-defined event descriptions: You can save event descriptions that you think you'll use again, so you don't have to type them again next time you want to create an event of that type.
Easy configuration of repeating events: You can make copies of a particular event, either one at a time or in groups with an underlying repetition pattern. The software remembers that copied events are associated with one another, making it easy to find related events.
Handling of conflicting events: The software can cope with multiple overlapping appointments and will even alert you if you have clashing appointments in your personal calendar.
Community security model: Comendar recognises that most of the users of your site will probably know one another in person and the security rules have been developed accordingly. In particular, most of the site is maintained by the individual users; web site administrators have minimal responsibilities.
On-line user manual: Comendar has an on-line user manual built into it. Relevant instructions are also displayed on screen to help users as they work.
Modular software, which is easy to expand: It is possible for developers to customise the appearance of the site and add new functionality without modifying any of the existing code. Why not add your own custom features? The software was released under the GPL, to ensure it is of maximum benefit to communities, so you're free to modify it as you wish.
Tested on many software/hardware configurations: Comendar has been tested on servers running Apache on both Windows and Linux. Its web pages have been successfully viewed in a variety of web browsers on several different operating systems.

What does Comendar not do?

The information on this page isn't intended to be a sales pitch for Comendar; it's intended to help you decide whether Comendar is appropriate for inclusion on your community web site. So, in the interests of fairness, here's some things that Comendar doesn't do.

It's not easy to organise business meetings: It's possible (with some effort) to find out when other members of the web site are busy and free, but there is no easy way to find common times when multiple people are free. Comendar was originally developed for a village community to share information about forthcoming activities, not as a business product.
No content management: Comendar can be used to add a calendar to your web site. It won't help you build a web site or manage its content.
No discussion forums: Although discussion forums are covered in the specification of Comendar, they have not been implemented.
No digest e-mails: Although digest e-mails (regular e-mails detailing recent activity on the web site) are covered in the specification of Comendar, they have not been implemented. Similarly, e-mails are not sent informing users of individual changes to the calendar.
Installation is not for computer novices: Although detailed installation instructions are provided, you will need a reasonable level of competence at administering web servers to be able to install Comendar. Once it's installed, it's designed to be easy to use, but don't expect to be able to install it if you're a computer novice.
No warranty: This software is distributed with absolutely no warranty. See the GPL for details.