You need to code in PHP to modify or create an Elgg plugin. The Elgg core functions are written in PHP and to make use of it you need to write your code in PHP, too. For simple modifications (even for a lot of more complex stuff) when modifying a plugin or create a new plugin you would only need a basic knowledge of PHP (no need for MySQL coding). Apart from some basic knowledge in PHP you would also need some basic knowledge of how an Elgg plugin is built up (i.e. which files you need to create at minimum and where to place files of certain purposes). For a start if might help to do a beginners course of PHP (by book or online) and start studying the code of some simple Elgg plugins (maybe one plugin in more details but also several others at least briefly to see the typical patterns of where some files are to be found). Also, studying the help pages (http://learn.elgg.org/) can help at the beginning (after you know at least a bit PHP already).

Don't rush. It takes time especially at the beginning to make some progress. Don't try too complex thing at the beginning. As I said, PHP is enough at the beginning. Later on you might also come across some HTML/CSS code (for output layout if pure PHP code is not enough) and probably also some Javascript code to get some dynamic stuff working.

Thank You, Bro

Don't clone same discussions

Entity tools and Blog tools plugins by ColdTrick can help you with date.

I'm not sure but you can try Event calendar plugin to take a code snippet for calendar view.