Creating a Calendar Feed from Your Search

Once you have created an event search containing the events for your new calendar, you need to publish that event search as an event feed.  Each 25Live Publisher calendar is based on an event feed.  You build the event feed by "publishing" it in 25Live Pro.  As 25Live Pro creates the Publisher feed for your calendar, it is simultaneously creating a new calendar in Publisher.  The event feed sends events and updates about events to that calendar by periodically rerunning the search that the feed is based upon.  The refresh of the calendar updates existing events, removes cancelled events (unless these are included in the feed), and adds new events to the calendar.  Once created, it continues to feed this calendar until you either delete the calendar, delete the feed, or both.

While logged in as the Publisher User, take the following steps to publish an event search as a Publisher feed:

1. Locate your search in the Select Object drop-down list and then click the Search Actions drop-down box.
   
2. In the Search Actions drop-down list, locate and click the Publish item to begin the process of publishing your new event feed.
   

3. You will be prompted to log in with your 25Live Publisher credentials.  Enter your 25Live Publisher Username, 25Live Publisher Password, and click the Sign In button to sign into Publisher in 25Live Pro.
   
   

   What are my 25Live Publisher credentials?

   Your 25Live Publisher credentials will be different than your 25Live User's credentials for 25Live Pro.  These credentials should have been provided to you by your Series25 Account Manager when your 25Live instances were built.  Should you not have or not be able to locate these credentials, you may contact your Account Manager, or Series25 Support (support@collegenet.com).  Your 25Live Publisher Username will be formatted as follows:  publisher@yourschoolnamehere.edu.

4. The Send Events to 25Live Publisher window will appear with a number of options for you to consider.  The first set of options you need to review are the Feed Options.  The Feed Options contain a set of checkboxes letting you determine which options you want to turn on for the new feed and its corresponding calendar.  You will notice that at least one or two feed options have been checked by default.  These default settings are set by your System Administrator in the System Settings > Publisher Settings section in 25Live.  It is customary to have the “Show event title (rather than event name)” and “Show location formal name (rather than short name)” checked for all of your 25Live Publisher feeds.
   

   Feed Options for 25Live Publisher

   When publishing an event search as a Publisher feed, there are five feed options for 25Live Publisher.  The following table contains a description of what each option will provide.
   
   

   Feed Option	Description and Rationale for Use
   Show event title (rather than event name).	The event title field on the 25Live Event Form provides for a title of 120 characters.  This length of the field is preferable to the event name because the event name is limited to 40 characters and will end up producing event links on your calendars that contain too many abbreviations.
   Publish only event occurrences with location assignments.	When checked, this feed option examines the events coming into the calendar feed to determine whether or not they have an assigned location.  Any event that met the criteria of the underlying event search but does not have an assigned location would be removed from the search and not appear on calendars.
   Show location formal name (rather than short name).	The location formal name field on the 25Live Event Form returns the formal name for the location from 25Live Pro instead of the short name.  As the short name is very often a combination of a building abbreviation and room number that matches the data in your SIS for academic scheduling purposes, the formal name provides enough space to spell out the name of the building making it easier for visitors to campus events to find the right location on campus.
   Include reservation comments.	When checked, this feed option will include the 25Live event's reservation comments.  Generally speaking, this setting should be left unchecked as these comments might contain internal event logistics.  The only exception to this general rule of thumb would be if you were creating a calendar for setup crews to review and that calendar is behind an employee's only portal then you might consider turning this setting on.
   Include setup and takedown times.	When checked, this feed option will include the event's setup and takedown times.  On public-facing calendars, this setting should never be turned on as you will get attendees appearing early to the event.  The only exception to this general rule of thumb would be if you were creating a calendar for setup crews to review and that calendar is behind an employee's only portal then you might consider turning this setting on.
   Include Cancelled	When checked, this feed option will include events with the event state Cancelled. 25Live Publisher will prepend "CANCELLED" on the Event Name (or Event Title) for easy identification. If this option is not enabled, cancelling an event in 25Live will cause it to be removed from the feed the next time the calendar is refreshed.

   The next set of options concerns how you will actually publish your calendar.  There are two radio buttons to choose from in determining what will have with the events on your search.  The first setting, Send reservations in event search to an existing 25Live Publisher calendar will open up a drop-down list of already published calendars.  You would be forcing the events in your new search into that calendar.  Generally speaking, this is a very bad idea and should not be used.  The more typical option is to select Create a new 25Live Publisher calendar for these events.  When this option is selected, it presents two options to the Publisher User:  (a) Create a new 25Live Publisher calendar for these events, or (b) Create new 25Live Publisher calendar for these events → Create as a sub-calendar of.  The first option will create a new stand-alone calendar feed and calendar with the name you enter in the Enter a name for your new 25Live Publisher.  The second option allows you to select a top-level calendar and publish this calendar feed as a sub-calendar to that top-level calendar (see the process of publishing top-level and sub-calendars by clicking here).  Visit Building a Top-Level Container Calendar for 25Live Publisher page to create a top-level calendar first.
   The Enter a name for your new 25Live Publisher calendar textbox will contain the name of your search.  Change name to the name you would like to display for this calendar.  For example, Camps, Clinics and Fairs Event Search might be changed to Camps, Clinics, and Fairs Event Calendar.
   
5. Once you have chosen your options for how to create the new calendar, you will need to click the Create Calendar and Send Events button.  In a short few seconds (normally less than 30 seconds), you will notice the name of the calendar you just provided over in the Status box in bold text.
   
6. As 25Live publishes your calendar feed, it is simultaneously sending instructions to 25Live Publisher to not only create the feed but also to create a connected calendar inside of 25Live Publisher.  You are now ready to review your feed in the Publisher window in 25Live Pro and work with the newly created calendar in 25Live Publisher.
   

You may immediately enter 25Live Publisher and begin styling your calendar by clicking the Open 25Live Publisher link in the Send Events to 25Live Publisher window.

If you would like to review the newly published feed in 25Live Pro, click on the More menu option in the 25Live Pro Header and select Publisher from the drop-down list of options.

You may review the options contained in 25Live Pro's Publisher page by clicking here.  For more information about the Publisher Overview, visit Reviewing and Monitoring 25Live Publisher Feeds in the Publisher Overview page.