Creating Effective Searches for 25Live Publisher Calendar Feeds

Click here to view related articles.
Pre-Publisher Cycle
Selecting a Security Framework for Your Publisher Environment
Building a Publisher Functional Security Group
Building a Generic Publisher User Account
Preparing 25Live Data for Publisher
Building Calendars Using Event Categories or Resources
Publisher Cycle
Creating Effective Searches for Publisher Calendar Feeds
Creating a Calendar Feed from Your Search
25Live Publisher: Customizing Your Calendar for Publication
           1. Working with Publish Settings for a Calendar
           2. Selecting and Styling Calendar Views
           3. Selecting and Styling Control Spuds
           4. Selecting and Styling Promotion Spuds
           5. Styling Emails and Feeds
Setting Up and Styling Event Actions
Configuring Custom Fields and Event Templates
Embedding Publisher Spud Code in Websites
Post-Publisher Cycle
Analytics in 25Live Publisher
Monitoring Published Calendars and Making Modifications to Existing Calendars
Additional Publisher Resources
Example Publisher Calendars
Displaying a 25Live Publisher Feed in an Outlook Calendar (Desktop)
Displaying a 25Live Publisher Feed in an Outlook Calendar (Office 365)
Displaying a 25Live Publisher Feed in Google Calendar
Matching Series25 Fields with Publisher Fields
Setting Up Disqus Comments and Facebook Comments on Your Calendar Spuds
Installing the 25Live SharePoint Web Part


Tip: Create Your Calendar Searches as the Publisher User

It is a CollegeNET Best Practice that all calendar event searches should be created by the generic Publisher User described in Step #3 of the Pre-Publisher Cycle.  Doing so will allow a future publisher user to build on those feeds as well as keep pre-existing calendars functional.

Since all 25Live Publisher calendars are based on event searches built into 25Live, creating effective searches is the critical first step in building your calendars. There are a number of considerations for building event searches in 25Live that will reveal only the events that you want on your new calendar. A number of elements may make up an effective search for your calendar such the:

  • Event Cabinet
  • Event State
  • Event Categories (if your calendars are driven by calendar categories)
  • Event Resources (if your calendars are driven by calendar resources)
  • Event Type
  • Locations
  • Sponsoring Organization (possibly for departmental calendars) 

If you are using a 25Live-oriented event structure, consider including the cabinet in your search. This will make the search marginally more efficient by allowing the search algorithm to ignore all other cabinets. 

Note: Consider Planning for Mixed-In or Top-Level Calendars 

Often, campuses want to create calendars for specific groupings of events like student events, faculty/staff events, major public events, and the like for specific web pages on the campus's website, while still folding these disparate sets of events into a group as a comprehensive campus events calendar. That can be accomplished in one of two ways:

  • Mixed-in calendars: This is a container calendar in 25Live Publisher where separate calendars are "mixed" together. 
  • Top-level calendars: A calendar where all other calendars are sub-calendars of a "top-level" calendar.

For more information on the differences between the two, and instructions for building each in 25Live Publisher, please see:

The event search criteria for a Publisher calendar are similar regardless of the approach taken for finding events. The majority of Publisher calendars use an event search based on...

  • A Single Calendar Event Category
  • A Single Calendar Resource
  • One or More Event Types
  • Assigned Location(s)
  • A Sponsoring Organization

Additionally, most calendar searches will use the Event State to filter out Tentative events and only return Confirmed events for public-facing calendars. Let's explore the steps for creating each of these searches.

Event Search Based on a Single Calendar Event Category

(Click to Expand)
  1. In 25Live, click the Go to Search link from the Dashboard or the 25Live More menu.
    search link in the more menuImage: Use the Go to Search link on the dashboard or the Search link in the More menu.
  2. In the Search window, make sure that you are on the Events search option by looking at the dropdown list (see below).
    Image: Select Object search dropdown pointing to Events
    Image: Select Object search dropdown.

  3. Toggle from Quick Search to Advanced Search.
    Toggle to Advanced search.
    Image: Toggle to Advanced search.

  4. Click the Add Criteria button to begin selecting the criteria for your search.
    Add Criteria button.
    Image: Add Criteria button.

  5. Select the following criteria:
    • Cabinets,
    • Event State,
    • Event Category, and
    • A second Event Category.

  6. Make sure that there is an AND between each of the criteria selected.  Now go through each of the criteria setting the following options:
    • Under the Cabinets criteria click the Edit button to open a view of the available cabinets and click on your events cabinet.
      Advanced search Edit button under Cabinets.
      Image: Advanced search Edit button under Cabinets.
      Advanced search checkbox options.
      Image: Advanced search checkbox options.

    • Under the Event States criteria, click the Edit button to open a view of the event states and select Confirmed.
      Event States Confirmed checkbox.
      Image: Event States Confirmed checkbox.

    • Under the Event Category criteria, click the Edit button to open a view of the event categories and select the Calendar category that you want to use for this event search.
      Calendar category checkbox.
      Image: Calendar category checkbox.
       
    • Under the second Event Category criteria, click the Edit button to open a view of the event categories and select the Do Not Publish to Web Calendars category (this category will be named differently at each campus).  Alter the settings on this Category from Include Any to Do Not Include.
      Dropdown set to Do Not Include for the chosen category.
      Image: Dropdown set to Do Not Include for the chosen category.

  7. With your criteria selected, click the Search button to execute your search and review the results.
    Advanced search highlighting Cabinets, Event States, and Categories filters.
    Image: Advanced search highlighting Cabinets, Event States, and Categories filters.

  8. Save your search giving it a name that identifies which calendar these events will feed.
    Search name and Save button on the
    Image: Search name and Save button.
     

Event Search Based on a Single Calendar Resource

(Click to Expand)
  1. In 25Live, click the Go to Search link from the Dashboard.
  2. In the Search window, make sure that you are on the Events search option by looking at the dropdown list (see below).
  3. Toggle from Quick Search to Advanced Search.
  4. Click the Add Criteria button to begin selecting the criteria for your search.
  5. Select the following criteria:
    • Cabinets,
    • Event State,
    • Assigned Resources, and
    • Event Category.
  6. Make sure that there is an ANDbetween each of the criteria selected.  Now go through each of the criteria setting the following options:
    • Under the Cabinets criteria click the Edit button to open a view of the available cabinets and click on your events cabinet.
      Advanced search Edit button under Cabinets.
      Image: Advanced search Edit button under Cabinets.

    • Under the Event States criteria, click the Edit button to open a view of the event states and select Confirmed.
      Event States Confirmed checkbox.
      Image: Event States Confirmed checkbox.

    • Under the Assigned Resources criteria, click the Edit button to open a view of the event resources and select the Calendar resource that you want to use for this event search.
      Specific Resources Edit button.
      Image: Specific Resources Edit button.
      Resources calendar checkbox.
      Image: Resources calendar checkbox.

    • Under the Event Category criteria, click the Edit button to open a view of the event categories and select the Do Not Publish to Web Calendars category (this category will be named differently at each campus).  Alter the settings on this Category from Include Any to Do Not Include.
      Dropdown set to Do Not Include for the chosen category.
      Image: Dropdown set to Do Not Include for the chosen category.

  7. With your criteria selected, click the Search button to execute your search and review the results.
    Advanced search highlighting Cabinets, Event States, and Categories filters.
    Image: Advanced search highlighting Cabinets, Event States, and Categories filters.

  8. Save your search giving it a name that identifies which calendar these events will feed.
    Search name and Save button.
    Image: Search name and Save button.
     
     

Event Search Based on One or More Event Types

(Click to Expand)
  1. In 25Live, click the Go to Search link from the Dashboard.
  2. In the Search window, make sure that you are on the Events search option by looking at the dropdown list (see below).
  3. Toggle from Quick Search to Advanced Search.
  4. Click the Add Criteria button to begin selecting the criteria for your search.
  5. Select the following criteria:
    • Cabinets,
    • Event State,
    • Event Type(s), and
    • Event Category.
  6. Make sure that there is an AND between each of the criteria selected.  Now go through each of the criteria setting the following options:
    • Under the Cabinets criteria click the Edit button to open a view of the available cabinets and click on your events cabinet.
      Advanced search Edit button.
      Image: Advanced search Edit button.

    • Under the Event States criteria, click the Edit button to open a view of the event states and select Confirmed.
      Event States Confirmed checkbox.
      Image: Event States Confirmed checkbox.

    • Under the Event Types criteria, click the Edit button to open a view of the event types and select the Event Type, or Types, that you want to use for this event search.
      Dropdown set to Include Any Event Types
      Image: Dropdown set to Include Any Event Types

    • Under the Event Category criteria, click the Edit button to open a view of the event categories and select the Do Not Publish to Web Calendars category (this category will be named differently at each campus).  Alter the settings on this Category from Include Any to Do Not Include.
      Dropdown set to Do Not Include for the chosen category.
      Image: Dropdown set to Do Not Include for the chosen category.

  7. With your criteria selected, click the Search button to execute your search and review the results.
    Advanced search highlighting Cabinets, Event States, and Categories filters.
    Image: Advanced search highlighting Cabinets, Event States, and Categories filters.

  8. Save your search giving it a name that identifies which calendar these events will feed.
    Search name and Save button.
    Image: Search name and Save button.
     
     

Event Search Based on Assigned Location(s)

(Click to Expand)
  1. In 25Live, click the Go to Search link from the Dashboard.
  2. In the Search window, make sure that you are on the Events search option by looking at the dropdown list (see below).
  3. Toggle from Quick Search to Advanced Search.
  4. Click the Add Criteria button to begin selecting the criteria for your search.
  5. Select the following criteria:
    • Cabinets,
    • Event State,
    • Assigned Location(s), and
    • Event Category.
  6. Make sure that there is an AND between each of the criteria selected.  Now go through each of the criteria setting the following options:
    • Under the Cabinets criteria click the Edit button to open a view of the available cabinets and click on your events cabinet.
      Advanced search Edit button.
      Image: Advanced search Edit button.

    • Under the Event States criteria, click the Edit button to open a view of the event states and select Confirmed.

      Event States Confirmed checkbox.
      Image: Event States Confirmed checkbox.

    • Under the Assigned Location(s) criteria, click the Edit button to open a view of the locations, locate the Location,  and select the Location that you want to use for this event search.
      Dropdown set to Include Any of the chosen Specific Locations.
      Image: Dropdown set to Include Any of the chosen Specific Locations.

    • Under the Event Category criteria, click the Edit button to open a view of the event categories and select the Do Not Publish to Web Calendars category (this category will be named differently at each campus).  Alter the settings on this Category from Include Any to Do Not Include.
      Advanced search Edit button.
      Image: Advanced search Edit button.

  7. With your criteria selected, click the Search button to execute your search and review the results.
    Advanced search highlighting Cabinets, Event States, and Categories filters.
    Image: Advanced search highlighting Cabinets, Event States, and Categories filters.

  8. Save your search giving it a name that identifies which calendar these events will feed.
    Search name and Save button.
    Image: Search name and Save button.

Event Search Based on Sponsoring Organization

(Click to Expand)
  1. In 25Live, click the Go to Search link from the Dashboard.
  2. In the Search window, make sure that you are on the Events search option by looking at the dropdown list (see below).
  3. Toggle from Quick Search to Advanced Search.
  4. Click the Add Criteria button to begin selecting the criteria for your search.
  5. Select the following criteria:
    • Cabinets,
    • Event State,
    • Primary Sponsoring Organization, and
    • Event Category.

  6. Make sure that there is an ANDbetween each of the criteria selected.  Now go through each of the criteria setting the following options:
    • Under the Cabinets criteria click the Edit button to open a view of the available cabinets and click on your events cabinet.
      Advanced search Edit button.
      Image: Advanced search Edit button.

    • Under the Event States criteria, click the Edit button to open a view of the event states and select Confirmed.
      Event States Confirmed checkbox.
      Image: Event States Confirmed checkbox.

    • Under the Organizations criteria, click the Edit button to open a view of the filter the organizations to locate and select the Organization that you want to use for this event search.
      Dropdown set to Include Any of the chosen Organizations.
      Image:  Dropdown set to Include Any of the chosen Organizations.

    • Under the Event Category criteria, click the Edit button to open a view of the event categories and select the Do Not Publish to Web Calendars category (this category will be named differently at each campus).  Alter the settings on this Category from Include Any to Do Not Include.
      Dropdown set to Do Not Include for the chosen category.
      Image: Dropdown set to Do Not Include for the chosen category.

  7. With your criteria selected, click the Search button to execute your search and review the results.
    Advanced search highlighting Cabinets, Event States, and Categories filters.
    Image: Advanced search highlighting Cabinets, Event States, and Categories filters.

  8. Save your search giving it a name that identifies which calendar these events will feed.
    Search name and Save button on the
    Image: Search name and Save button.