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These articles have been prepared for schools using 25Live Pro and Publisher.
Building Event Categories for Use with 25Live Publisher
Most campuses that use event categories for grouping events for event feeds use a common naming convention: Calendar - Calendar Name Here. This typically results in building a small number of event categories that are then used as the anchor element in event searches for the event feeds.
To build 25Live Publisher calendar event categories:
- Log into 25Live Pro.
- In 25Live Pro → System Settings, click Master Definitions and then click the Categories group and select the Event group
- Click Create New and enter a name for the new Event Category in the text box.
- Click the Save button to add the new category to the available Event Categories. It is customary to leave the Abridged checkbox unchecked and give requestor-level users alternative methods for indicating calendars.
- The new Event Category has been successfully added to your available Event Categories master definition list.
Creating an Abridged List of Event Categories for Requestors
If you use Event Categories as your grouping mechanism for building event feeds, you will likely not want to allow event requestors to self-select the calendars on which they want their events to appear. But, you may want to allow these users to indicate that they do not want an event published to web calendars, or even allow them to select categories that they use in grouping their events for searching that have more to do with reporting than calendar publication. In this case, you need the assistance of your System Administrator and 25Live System Settings to create an abridged list of event categories available for users that only have request rights for events.
To create an abridged list of Event Categories:
- Using the System Administrator's account, log into 25Live Pro → System Settings.
- Click on the Master Definitions tab.
- Click on the Categories sub-tab and select Event.
- Check all of the Calendar event categories in the Abridged column.
- Select Save Changes.
- You have successfully created an abridged list of event categories for users in functional security groups with Can view abridged list of active items set for event master definitions.
For the Requestor, they will see a smaller set of Event Categories when they are building an event in the Event Wizard.
Hiding All Event Categories from Requestors
An alternative approach that some campuses have chosen to take is to hide all of the Event Categories from Requestors. In this case, created an abridged list would leave users with an empty wizard telling them to select nonexistent categories. To avoid this, the System Administrator modifies the Event Wizard for Requestors and hides the Event Categories editor from requestors.
To hide the Event Categories editor from Requestors:
- Log into 25Live Pro → System Settings.
- In System Settings, look for the Event Form Settings tab and click on Config Settings to select a custom configuration to edit.
- Set the Categories editor to Visibility Level: Not Visible.
- Click Save to save your modifications to the event wizard configuration.
Best Practice
The best practice approach to handling event categories and Requestors is to provide these users an abridged list of categories from which to choose. Although Requestors often misuse event categories, there are valid instances where they need to tag their events for future searching and reporting purposes. Additionally, the Publisher User will build searches excluding events that make use of the Do Not Display on Web Calendars event category to exclude events that users absolutely do not want on calendars. An abridged list provides a smaller, manageable set of event categories to these users and protects the valuable calendar event categories from inadvertent misuse.
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