Tablepress Simple TV Schedule Shortcode Extension
MONDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2024 | |
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TIMES (Eastern) | EPISODES |
8:00 am to 9:00 am | 922 Repack - Best of Season 5(Note: “Season 5” is the internal build season numbering for production company Dorsey Pictures. Fans will recognize these episodes from season 6.) The Maine Cabin Masters show up to get the job done right, always deserving an enthusiastic high five. If you like your camps old, big, haunted or practically starting from scratch they have got you covered! Dixie and Ryan invite you to be a fifth wheel as they go over the Best of Season 5.Release Date: May 27, 2024 |
9:00 am to 10:00 am | 703 - Rivalry at the Chadwick Cabin![]() The Chadwick family has purchased a cabin built in 1906 by the Cony family, and now need the Cabin Masters help for a long overdo remodel. Fun fact, the Cony family also built Chase, Dixie, and Ashley's old high school. Not so fun fact, Cony high school is the rival of Ryan, Brad, and Jedi's old high school, Gardiner. Can the team overcome their past schoolyard grudges to fix a rotting roof, completely remodel the interior, and add in a specialty fire pit and outdoor bar all on a tight 8 week deadline? Release Date: Dec. 13, 2021 Owners: Robbie & Suzanne Chadwick Location: Cobbosseecontee Lake, Winthrop Budget & Timeline: $50,000, 8 weeks Special Projects: Boat bar, bottle cap serving tray, Mainely Handrails fire pit |
10:00 am to 11:00 am | "Building Italy" 101, Chase Hunts for an Italian Dream HomeJoin Ryan, Fletcher, and the rest of the crew for Episode 1 of Maine Cabin Masters: Building Italy. This 6 episode series takes us across the pond to Italy where Chase, his wife Sarah, their 4 kids, and the family dog spend the Winter renovating a family vacation home in the beautiful Italian countryside.Release Date: June 17, 2024 |
TIMES (Eastern) | EPISODES |
8:00 pm to 9:00 pm | 901 - Legacy Camp on Maranacook Lake![]() What do you do when your family has outgrown your lakeside abode? You call the Maine Cabin Masters that's what! Join the gang as they meet the Klinoffs, a huge, lakeloving, family whose cabin has great bones but after decades of add-ons it has a maze-like layout which is not conducive to their growing needs. It doesn’t stop at the interior, the place needs a new deck, dock and fire pit suitable for their massive family gatherings. The guys take on the challenges of construction as Ashley “keys” in on a special breakfast bar using a family relic. It’s a race to the finish, as the Klinoffs need to project done before their annual big family Fourth of July blowout! Release Date: October 23, 2023 Owners: Andy and Mary Klinoff Location: Maranacook Lake, Reedfield Budget & Timeline: $70,000, 12 weeks Special Projects: Glass-top bar made from the family's upright piano keys |
9:00 pm to 10:00 pm | 1003 - Pop of Color at Popham Beach![]() The Triangle House is a thing of legend in Phippsburg. It began its journey as a gas station in 1922. After that, it served as a monument to the town’s history for some time before falling into the hands of local artist, Jane Burke, who had admired the funky building since childhood. After a century of wear and tear, the triangle house needs to be saved, and that’s why Jane called the Maine Cabin Masters! Battling rot, ants, antiquated building techniques and a tight deadline the gang gets to work replacing rotten wood, rebuilding the deck and properly waterproofing the structure. Adding to the cabin’s unique personality, the Masters recruit Uncle Leigh to create some shingle reliefs, Ashley repurposes some lobster ropes and the gang finish things off with a paint job that you need to see to believe. Release Date: January 13, 2025 Owners: Steve & Jane Burke Location: Popham Beach, Phippsburg Budget & Timeline: $20,000, 6 weeks Special Projects: Custom library ladder to the loft, lobster trap rope art, shingle "relief art" of fish, whales, sharks, etc., osprey cutout for the peak |
A sample schedule displaying examples of Repack, “Building Italy”, and Build episodes from the Maine Cabin Masters. The schedule is also split, where the network inserts other shows for a time before showing more Cabin Masters episodes the same day. This type of split in their schedule happens often. The Tablepress extension available in the link below is actively displaying this sample schedule using the MCM theme.
Active Usage
This plugin was developed specifically to create show-specific schedules for the growing fan base of the Maine Cabin Masters unscripted cabin rebuild show on Magnolia Network. Click here to view the current schedule generated by this plugin.
Background
Design Concepts
Maine Cabin Masters episodes are not always aired in a complete sequence throughout the day. Fairly regularly, the schedule is “split” into two or more broadcast blocks on a given day, where Magnolia Network inserts other shows for a time before showing more Cabin Masters episodes. This type of split happens often enough that handling such splits is built into this plugin, as can be seen in the sample schedule at the top of this page.
A Build episode is the most common, so those episode tables contain much more detail. A Repack episode, however, was originally of a “Top Ten” design, so those tables have less detail. Because of this, the Build and Repack tables are built differently. Then, when the “Building Italy” mini-series of six episodes aired during the summer of 2024, those tables had the same detail as the Repack episodes.
Build Episode Table | Repack / “Building Italy” Episode Table |
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The design of the tables themselves can be rather arbitrary, and as can be seen here, they can either be simple or complex. Note that the Duration, Episode Type, and Image rows are set to Hidden, so they don’t show up in the Episode Guide. The < img > code that provides the image is inserted in Tablepress using the “Add Image” button for that cell.
The design of the plugin itself can be easily modified by a PHP developer for the needs of any show or set of shows.
Prerequisites
- Download, install, and activate the main Tablepress plugin either from https://tablepress.org or from the WordPress.org plugin directory.
- Download, install, and activate the Single Cell Content Shortcode Tablepress extension from https://tablepress.org/extensions/table-cell-shortcode/.
- Download the Tablepress Simple TV Schedule Extension from the link at the top of this page, and install and activate the plugin.
Basic Usage
The shortcode attribute “scheddate” is a simple string for display only, so its content is arbitrary. It can be a date, a broadcast or streaming channel, a classroom or meeting room, a location of a public space, etc.
The basic format of the “tables” array is hhmmt,themel,id,id. Hhmmt is 4-digit military time (hhmm), followed by a “t” to identify the array item as a time. Any other format will display an error instead of a schedule. Also, the first item in the “tables” array must be a time, or another error will be generated.
The second item is a theme name, followed by an “l” (lower-case “L”). This must be the second item to ensure the subsequent episodes are rendered with the selected theme. The code does, however, default to the “spreadsheet” theme, with no error generated.
If the shortcode itself looks good but you’re getting the constant error of “Table not found”, make sure you’re editing the shortcode in a WordPress Text editor. Any of the Visual editors will automagically add the dreaded < span > tag to the shortcode, which will break its usage.

The theme is followed by a sequence of episode table ids in Tablepress, separated by a comma. To create a split schedule, add the next start time as hhmmt, then follow that with the necessary table ids. Any amount of splits can be used. However, you cannot use a new theme at a split as doing so will cause errors.
There’s no limit to the number of tables that can be included in this array. However, it’s recommended a different shortcode be used for different days, for the sake of the reader.
In creating a given schedule, I first look at the schedule on Magnolia Network’s Local TV Schedule (which is only “local” because you can set the timezone.). I then verify this information in Sling using that carrier’s Guide. It’s then a matter of using the built-in Search function in the Tablepress Admin pages within WordPress to find that episode’s table ID. I then add it in-sequence to the array in the shortcode. Creating a day’s schedule then only takes about 5 or 10 minutes. I then copy-and-paste the episode numbers and titles from that generated schedule into a fun graphic in Adobe Illustrator, exported for display within the Friends Who Like Maine Cabin Masters Facebook Fan page.

Mods
While these modifications are relatively simple, doing them incorrectly can break your site. You do these at your own risk. If you do break your site, connect to your server and delete this plugin file, then re-upload a fresh copy and re-activate. (Note: I did attempt to use various Syntax Code Highlighters for Elementor to display the code blocks below. However, every last one of them executed the shortcode in those code blocks instead of just displaying them. Go figure.)
Episode Types
The differing Tablepress table layouts for the Build and Repack episode types as described above are handled when the HTML code for the displayed schedule is assembled. This code block is at the bottom of the foreach loop. The table-info shortcode, which is built in to Tablepress, is used for displaying the Tablepress table’s title. The table-cell shortcode from the Single Cell Content Shortcode plugin to retrieve data from the desired cells in a given table layout. Modifying this code block will allow for any desired schedule designs.

More Background
A little deeper background … Back in 2021, when I first began volunteering as a Moderator at the Cabin Masters‘ Official Friends Who Like Maine Cabin Masters Facebook page for their fans, I took a hard look at the show’s pages on IMDb. Once I realized those pages needed work, I decided to adopt them and continue the work. I then created the Maine Cabin Masters Episode Guide on this site using Tablepress. This Episode Guide contains more detail than the IMDb pages I keep it synced with, in order to create a source for answers to questions from the show’s fans.