Dienstplan

Dienstplan turns your WordPress site into a shift and duty roster that runs without a full-time coordinator. It is built for teams that rely on volunteers — fire departments, emergency medical services, first-responder and crisis-response groups, sports clubs and associations. Members open a calendar page and sign up for open shifts themselves. Coordinators see at a glance which shifts are still open, who already volunteered, and who has not yet contributed this period. Every change is recorded, so "who removed me from Saturday?" always has an answer. Everything runs on your own WordPress install. Member data, schedules and assignments stay in your database — no SaaS account, no recurring fee for the free version. The only optional outbound connection is the public-holiday lookup via openholidaysapi.org, disabled by default (see External services). What you can do

• Define shift types (early/late/night, driver/paramedic — whatever your team uses) and build week or month rosters
• Drop the roster onto any page with the [dienstplan] shortcode
• Let members sign up for shifts and remove themselves again — coordinators see every change live, no email ping-pong
• Plan events like training nights, fundraisers or on-call duties with categories (per-event signup lists come with Basis)
• Show each member their own upcoming shifts in a dashboard widget
• Let members download their shifts as an ICS calendar file

Why WordPress Most volunteer organisations already run a WordPress site for news and member communication. Adding the roster there means members use the account they already have, your data stays in your own database, and there is no external SaaS to vet for data protection. Free, Basis and Pro The version on WordPress.org is Free and stays free forever: one shift schedule, unlimited members, shift types and events — no artificial caps. Two optional add-ons extend the same plugin in place, with your data carrying over automatically:

• Basis — multiple rosters, recurring events, per-event signups and tasks, shift trading, group and weekday restrictions, automated email notifications, and a community feedback channel. For established teams that need self-service workflows.
• Pro — everything in Basis plus attendance statistics, a tamper-evident audit log and waiting-list promotion on full events. For organisations with reporting or audit obligations.

Pricing and the full comparison are at wp-dienstplan.de. Languages Ships with English, German, Spanish, French and Italian. Source strings are English; further languages can be added via standard .po/.mo files in languages/.

From WordPress.org (recommended)

1. Go to Plugins → Add New and search for "Dienstplan".
2. Click Install Now, then Activate.
3. Open the new Dienstplan entry in the admin sidebar to start configuring.

From a ZIP file

1. Download the latest ZIP from this plugin page or your account at wp-dienstplan.de.
2. Go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin, upload the ZIP, then Activate.

First steps

1. Open Dienstplan → Overview for a guided setup of shift types and event categories.
2. Place the [dienstplan] shortcode on the page where members should see the calendar.
3. Optionally configure public holidays under Dienstplan → Settings → Holidays.

3.5.1 — 2026-06-25 Documentation-only update: condensed wp.org readme, plugin header description aligned with the new short tagline, German GlotPress reference docs refreshed. No code changes. 3.5.0 — 2026-06-15 Focus on the shift planner and calendar readability. No breaking changes.

• Shift planner redesigned as a master-detail view: plans in a resizable sidebar on the left, shifts on the right
• Shifts can be reordered by drag & drop; consistent active/inactive toggling across all admin tables
• Shift colours now shown directly in the month view
• Clearer plan comparison with separate ICS tiers and a new "Multiple rosters" row
• Renamed UI term "shift type" to "shift"
• Updated translations (DE/DE-formal/ES/FR/IT)

3.4.0–3.4.2 — June 2026

• wp.org compliance: free is a fully functional single-schedule roster with no trialware patterns; multi-plan, weekday restrictions, event sign-ups/recurrences and audit log moved to the Premium add-on
• Restored the "My shifts" dashboard widget
• Hardened sanitization for shift-type/event saves and holiday settings
• Clarified that openholidaysapi.org is the only optional external service (disabled by default)

3.3.0 — 2026-06-01

• wp.org compliance: removed all quantity limits (members, plans, shift types, groups, events) from the free plugin
• Groups moved entirely to the Premium add-on, including tables and access-control logic; free exposes extension hooks only
• Simplified event creation dialog and clearer plan comparison

3.2.0–3.2.2 — May 2026 First releases prepared for the official WordPress.org directory, addressing the plugin-review team's feedback. No feature changes — output hardening and naming only.

• Unified plugin prefix dienstplan_ across all AJAX actions, nonces, options, transients, cron hooks, asset handles and CSS classes
• Output escaping hardened throughout (wp_kses() for SVG icons, esc_attr() in attributes, defensive filtering of inline styles)
• Renamed shortcode [termine] to [dienstplan_termine]
• Documented the openholidaysapi.org integration under External services

3.1.0 — 2026-04-30 Preparation for the first WordPress.org release (not shipped publicly; see 3.2.0).

• Fully English source strings with DE/ES/FR/IT localisations
• Public hook API (dienstplan_* filters and actions) for clean extension — reference in docs/hooks-reference.md
• Tier structure (Free / Basis / Pro) documented