Extend Events Module with Duplicate Action

We would like to allow our users to duplicate an event from the built in Events Module similar to the duplicate function in the Page module.  Many of our events are recurring and being able to duplicate would greatly speed up the input of similar events.

I would like them to click the duplicate function from the Actions menu of a grid item and have the Create Event Dialog open with all the properties from the original event copied into the fields.

How do we extend a built in module to provide additional functionality other than custom fields and custom field types?  Specifically how do we hook in custom commands that perform a specific action or open a custom or built in dialog?

Hello Jeremy,

As I mentioned in your support ticket - this is quite the work and might stop working when we release the next version of Sitefinity.

I would recommend you to read this blog post

http://www.sitefinity.com/blogs/radoslavgeorgiev/posts/11-10-24/creating_custom_sidebar_widgets.aspx

It might give you some insights.

In the refreneced article we are directed to modify the "ProductsDefinitions" class as part of registering the new new command with the module.  How do we do this with a built in module.  The article intro paragraph talks about extending a built in module, but the article only talks about extending one of the sample modules.

Hi Euclidlibrary,

Unfortunately, it looks like this is going to be more touch than I expected. The blog post is really targeted for custom modules. I'm sorry I mislead you. 

Is this request even possible?  I am looking to avoid having to reimplement via a custom module the built in events module functionality just to obtain this desired functionality.  Before I go down that road I would like to know for sure if there is a way to extend a built in module.

Hello Jeremy,

Well, it turns out to be very hard in reality. I will take the responsibility to write a blog post with a full example on how to extend an existing module with an additional command and maybe some more, but I'm afraid this will be possible only in the beginning of the next year. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Thanks for the update.  At least I know that it is possible and will await your blog post.  Sitefinity has come a long way since I started developing with it in 3.2.  In the latest version I love how easy it is to extend and modify the front views and add additional fields to the modules, but the user story for extending and modifying the backend content based modules UI did not get the same treatment.

Hello Jeremy,

Basically to some extend you are right, yes. All content based modules share the same controls and are only differentiated by configurations. As I mentioned - I will try to compose a blog post that would explain how you can plug client-side and server side code into these views to add custom logic. I believe I will be able to write this blog post in the beginning of Janurary.

I too am very interested in how to go about extending an existing module in this fashion.  I eagerly await the blog post on this subject.

We are approaching the end of the month and still no blog post addressing this issue.  I saw a blog post talking about how to add a code behind to a Sitefinity page, but I have no idea how to use this to accomplish my goal.  The monolithic uber backend control is very javascripty and much of the UI is dynamically generated so it is difficult/impossible to use what was presented in that blog article for this use case.

Hello Jeremy and Larry,

I have scheduled the writing of this blog post for the beginning of the next week. Please stay tuned.