How to add custom entry types to moderncv?

Question

I use the moderncv document class. I would like to add two new sections:

• Conferences
• Mandates

I would like to know the best way to add those two sections. Should I use BibTeX or biblatex like for publications (books, scientific articles etc.)? Or should I use another way, if yes what should I do?

By conferences I mean that I’d add to add some information about the conference I give, such as:

• Date
• Name of the congress
• Title of my presentation
• Place (city, country)
• Etc.

By mandate I mean information like:

• Date
• Names of the writers (me and colleagues)
• Name of the person who gives the mandate
• Name of the company
• Title of the mandate
• Small description of the mandate

Answer 1

The easiest way is adding them with \cventry, which takes one optional argument (the vertical space following the entry) and six arguments, out of which number 3-6 can be {}, in which case they won't be typeset.

I show a basic application first, and then a customized macro \cvconference, which is basically \cventry (as defined in moderncvstyleclassic.sty) with a few random font changes, which you can adapt to your liking. You could do the same thing for mandates.

As a matter of fact, moderncv is a good way of starting to look into packages and finding out how things are defined. If you feel like you have a good basic understanding of LaTeX, take a look into the .sty files of moderncv. You don't have to understand everything, just try to find out what is defined where, copy a definition you want to play around with to your .tex document, and play around with it, see what happens.

\documentclass{moderncv}
\moderncvstyle{casual}

\firstname{John}
\familyname{Doe}

% copied and adapted from moderncvstyleclassic.sty
% customizations are made before the elements #2 - #7
\newcommand*{\cvconference}[7][.25em]{%
  \cvitem[#1]{\color{blue}#2}{%
    {\scshape#3}%
    \ifthenelse{\equal{#4}{}}{}{, {\itshape#4}}%
    \ifthenelse{\equal{#5}{}}{}{, {\color{red}#5}}%
    \ifthenelse{\equal{#6}{}}{}{, {\sffamily#6}}%
    .\strut%
    \ifx&#7&%
      \else{\newline{}\begin{minipage}[t]{\linewidth}\small% next line: customization
      \fontfamily{pzc}\selectfont% The percent signs are necessary!
      #7\end{minipage}}\fi}}

\begin{document} 

\section{Conferences}

\cventry{2012}{\TeX.sx symposium}{Additional \texttt{moderncv} types}{The Internet}{Another Category}{And here are some details about that.}  % arguments 3 to 6 can be left empty

\cventry{Date}{Name of the congress}{Title of my presentation}{Place (city, country)}{Etc.}{Description}

\cvconference{2012}{\TeX.sx symposium}{Additional \texttt{moderncv} types}{The Internet}{Another Category}{And here are some details about that.}  % arguments 3 to 6 can be left empty

\cvconference{Date}{Name of the congress}{Title of my presentation}{Place (city, country)}{Etc.}{Description}

\section{Mandates}

\cventry{Oct.~2012}{Peter Pan, Abe Lincoln}{Donald Knuth}{Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory}{The Golden Ticket}{Well, let me tell you a little story ...}

\cventry{Date}{Names of the writers (me and colleagues)}{Name of the person who gives the mandate}{Name of the company}{Title of the mandate}{Small description of the mandate}

\end{document}