Event Calendar is the core event tool in your site. It's perfect for getting the word out about your organization's upcoming events, and if your community is AMS-managed, you can use it to advertise events from your AMS on your Higher Logic site.
NOTE: Event Manager is a separate, optional Higher Logic module that provides full event registration and management. See Event Manager Overview to learn more.
Super Admins
To view and manage the Event Calendar encompassing all events across your site:
- In the Admin Toolbar, click Admin.
- Navigate to Events > List.
Community Admins
To view and manage the Event Calendar for your community:
- Navigate to your community Home page.
- Click Settings > Manage Events.
Add an Event
In addition to the locations mentioned above, you can also create events from the Upcoming Events and Manage Events pages.
NOTE: The availability of the Manage Events page depends on your site configuration. The Events option in your Navigation bar might take you directly to the Upcoming Events page.
To add an event:
- Navigate to either the Upcoming Events or Manage Events page.
- Click Add Event.
- Complete the fields to configure your event. Note that some fields are required; others are optional. Refer to the table below for descriptions of each option.
- When you're finished, click Save to create your event.
The event is now available to users in your various Event Calendar feeds.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Event Details | |
| Event Title | Give your event a clear and descriptive title. |
| Event Type | Select an Event Type. Several default Event Types are available, but you can create additional Event Types in the Admin interface and update existing ones. Event Types enable you to categorize your events into groups, which then (1) allows users to filter events to easily find them and (2) allows you and other admins to create type-specific event displays using the All Events List and Upcoming Events List widgets. NOTE: Event Types provide additional functionality in the Event Manager product. NOTE: Refer to the How to Create & Manage Event Types section below to learn how to create Event Types. |
| Community | Selecting a community here limits the ability to view this event to its members only. Only communities configured to include an event calendar are selectable in this menu (i.e., the Communities can have a Calendar option is toggled ON for the Community Type and the Calendar Events feature is enabled on a community's Edit Settings page). If this configuration is not complete for any community/Community Type, this option is not available at all when creating events. |
| Start/End | Click the calendar and clock icons to select your event's start and end time. |
| Timezone | Select the appropriate time zone for your event. This is required for users to be able to use the Download to Calendar feature (see the How to Download Events to Your Personal Calendar section below for more information). |
| Event Visibility | Choose a visibility setting for your Event List page AND search results. For each, you can decide whether to:
|
| Event Location | |
| In what country is the event being held? | To indicate where your event is being held, select the country here. |
| How will event attendees participate? | Choose the attendance options (you can select more than one):
|
| Contact Information | |
| Contact Information | If you want to designate a point-of-contact for your event, provide their information in these fields. If you're the point-of-contact, just click the Insert my contact information button to the right to automatically insert this information from your profile. |
| Description | |
| Description | This is where you can provide detailed information about your event. You can do so by either: 1. Using the Content Editor, you can insert HTML, embed videos, files, links to other web sites, and more. See Content Editor to learn more about this editor. 2. Using the menus below the editor to provide a URL to a web page or web site with information about your event. |
| Event Image | |
| Choose File | If you want to include a logo for your event, click Choose File and upload one from your computer or network. This logo displays in search results, your Upcoming Events page, and on the event's Details page.
NOTE: The maximum dimensions for this image are 300 x 300px. Images larger than this will automatically be re-sized. |
| Registration | |
| Registration | Lastly, you need to specify how participates will register for your event. With Event Calendar, you only have two options: 1. Select No Registration to not require participates to register to attend. 2. Select Link to External Registration System to redirect participates to the provided URL where they'll register using an external registration process. NOTE: Event Calendar does not support registration for events. If this is a feature you need, you'll want to ask Higher Logic staff about Event Manager, Higher Logic's separately-licensed, fully featured event management product. |
Display your Events
The All Events List widget (in the Events category) and Upcoming Events List widget (in the Feeds category) allow you to display events anywhere on your site. These widgets include numerous parameters allowing Community and Super Admins to create several types of event lists and calendar displays.
NOTE: Refer to the pages in the CMS Overview section to learn how to use the CMS to create/edit pages and Content Items (one of which is a widget).
Via the Upcoming Events page
The standard Higher Logic configuration includes the Upcoming Events page, which is accessible from your main Navigation bar (see the image below) and is likely one of the primary places users will go to search for upcoming/past events. A number of filters are available, enabling users to search for events by tags, location, community, and Event Type.
This page includes the All Events List widget with its default configuration: It lists all of your organization's events. If needed, you can create additional events pages with the All Events List widget and use its parameters to only display events associated to a specific community or Event Type.
Via a landing page content item
You can add the Upcoming Events List widget to any page to feature a short list of upcoming events. This widget is often added to a community's main Home page (see the image below), community Microsite Home pages, and community landing pages. When added to community Microsites and community landing pages, the widget defaults to only showing events associated to the community for that site or page.
If there are several events listed in this widget, you can add a "more" button (with customizable label) to take users to the Upcoming Events page.
Create & manage Event Types
When creating an event, you can assign an Event Type. Event Types enable you to categorize your events into groups, which then 1) allows users to filter events when searching to easily find them and 2) allows you and other admins to create type-specific event displays using the All Events List and Upcoming Events List widgets.
NOTE: Event Types provide additional functionality in the Event Manager product.
Several default Event Types are available but you can create additional Types or update existing ones.
To manage your Event Types:
- In the Admin Toolbar, click Admin.
- Navigate to Events > Types.
From here, you can:
- click Add to create a new Event Type
- Click Edit to update an existing one
- Select Delete from an Event Type's dropdown to remove it
How to download Events to your personal calendar
An issue has been discovered with the handling of .ICS files in Microsoft's Outlook (new) email application. If you're using this application and are experiencing issues with these files, see Calendar Event (.ICS) Files in Microsoft Outlook (new).
On an event's Description page (accessed by clicking an event's title on a calendar page or landing page widget), click the Download to Your Calendar button to download an event.ics file in your browser.
Click this file and select your preferred email program (e.g., Microsoft Outlook) to add an appointment for the event to your calendar.
Search and filter events
On the Events > Manage Events page, you can:
- Click the magnifying glass icon to expand a search field, allowing you to find specific events by name.
- Click the filter icon to view various filters you can apply to make it easier to find specific events. After selecting your filter(s), click Apply Filter to see the results.