Click here to view related articles.
In 25Live Publisher, not only do you have control over the settings and styles used by calendar views, control spuds, and promotion spuds, but you also have control over how e-mails are formatted and how much information and data your calendar feeds provide.
In this Article:
Setting Up and Styling Emails
There are two broad types of e-mail that may be configured for use in 25Live Publisher: Calendar Email and Event Email. The Calendar Email contains only one e-mail possibility with two options to either use the List e-mail or the Classic e-mail. While the Event Email group contains three separate e-mail types: Email Me, Forward To Friend, and Event Email. Each of these types of e-mail may be styled and branded to be in keeping with the rest of your calendar implementation. The Registration e-mail type may be styled but it will never be used in 25Live Publisher since the Registration module is not turned on.
Setting Up and Styling Calendar Email - List Option
There is the possibility of having a calendar e-mail that frequent campus event attendees may subscribe to receive. Some campuses actually send out a monthly e-mail of featured events or upcoming events. The Calendar Email group gives us two different options: Classic and List. The Classic view provides a list of events that are one-time or upcoming with no ability to manipulate for featured events. The List view also provides a list of events but in this view, we may determine if we only want featured events to go into the e-mail. Most campuses opt for the List view because of the featured event functionality.
To edit the Settings and Styles of the Calendar Email:
Locate the Calendar Email region on the Email tab and find the List view. If you see that Classic is the listed Calendar Email and you want to change it, click the Switch Calendar Email View. Once you see the List option displaying under Calendar Email, locate and click the Edit Settings & Styles link.
The Edit Settings for List window will open revealing a number of tabs including General Settings, Calendar Color Key Legend, Email Footer, New/Updated Events, and Events: Default (plus all of your featured levels listed out). This should be your first clue that this last tab may be separated out by featured level so that non-featured events get one set of settings while each featured level gets its own special formatting.
General Settings Tab (Click to Expand)
This tab contains the basic settings applying across both featured and non-featured events and allows you to control which featured events you want to format differently from the non-featured and other types of featured events. The General Settings are arranged in twelve groups governing both settings and styles including:
Events | Email Settings | Grouping | Featured Event Settings |
Group Header Format | Event Layout | Event Actions | Other Settings |
Email Body | Heading | Groups | Update Indicator Styles |
Events
Maximum Number of Events
Controls the number of events that may appear in the e-mail.
Email Settings
Email Header
Controls the header of each List e-mail generated by 25Live Publisher. You will note that it is blank meaning that there will be no header. However, you may insert images, text, and other elements into this textbox. This textbox is HTML-compliant meaning that you may use HTML tags like <p> and <blockquote> to group and format text. You may event include the campus's logo by inserting an <img> tab containing alt text for screen readers provided you supply a full URL to the image's location and not a relative URL, and even web links and e-mail links using the <a> tag. Be sure that any HTML tag you open is properly closed meaning that each <p> tag needs to have a corresponding </p> tag. For <img> tags which are self-closing, remember to add the following after you set alt text and the link to the image, "/>. This can be a very useful place to speak to the audience who have subscribed to these e-mails so be creative.
Grouping
Governs how grouping of events will be applied as well as what to do with Multi-day events.
Group by
Contains options allowing you different approaches to grouping the events in the e-mail. You may opt for No grouping which effectively just lists out the events without any type of grouping. Additionally, you may group the events in the e-mail by Year, Quarter, Month, Week, and Day. The most commonly chosen approach is to group events by Month or Week depending on how many events you are supplying to the e-mail. A smaller maximum number of events may make it more appropriate to select Week or even Day grouping.
Multi-day Events
Determines whether to include events that started in the past. As you will likely have events with repeating occurrences that did indeed start in the past, a best practice is to place a checkmark in this box. When grouping, if an event has multiple occurrences that occur within differing months, for instance, those events will display once in each month where an occurrence is scheduled.
Featured Event Settings
Only Show Levels
Allows you to essentially filter the e-mail to only display events that have the selected featured levels. Using this approach, you could schedule an e-mail that only provides "Premier" featured events and does not include any other event. Most institutions do not opt to filter to only featured events but it is an option in cases where you need to have the list e-mail function as a notice of upcoming featured events.
Group Header Format
Group Date Format
Allows you to select how you want the Group Header to format the date. The drop-down menu contains all of the date formats that are used across the entire calendar implementation. Select the format you would like to use from the drop-down menu.
Day of the Week Format
Allows you to control which format the grouping will use on the List e-mail. There are four options: None, Wed, Wed, and Wednesday. If you choose to spell out the group date in long form, you will likely want the spelled out day of the week as well.
Event Layout
Contains two settings, one to govern the default layout for the majority of events on the e-mail and a second to govern the layout for each featured level for which you define a different Event Layout.
Default Layout
Applies to all non-featured events and any featured events where the Event Layout is set to Same as "Default layout". The Default Layout should use the Standard Layout (1) set as the default selection. The other option, New Featured Layout, is not appropriate for the default layout. This layout will only be used if you did not make selections in the Featured Event Settings → Only show levels earlier. If you are only showing featured events, only featured event layouts will be utilized.
Featured events layouts
Provides the opportunity to select from the Event Layout drop-down menu including applying a new standard layout to some featured layouts and applying differing featured layouts for others. Each New "Featured Layout" choice you make will separate that featured level out onto its own tab in the List email settings for special formatting. For instance, if one selected New "Featured Layout" were selected for each of the four Featured Levels in the image above,For instance, if one selected New "Featured Layout" were selected for each of the four Featured Levels in the image above, Each featured layout would generate a separate tab for formatting that featured level layout. There are now four tabs corresponding to each of those featured layouts for events tagged with the appropriate featured level. This allows your e-mail to differentiate those featured events just like your calendars have already been set up to accomplish.
Another change that occurs once you select a new featured layout, is that you may apply that featured layout to other featured levels. Computer Training could use the same featured layout as Leadership Training. If your purpose is to truly differentiate each featured level, you will likely not do this but it points out the possibility of combining featured levels into a single or a smaller number of featured layouts.
With four featured layouts defined and a standard layout for all non-featured events, the tabs for formatting those looks like the following image:
Event Actions
Contains settings governing the event actions associated with the list e-mail.
Event Action Icon
Governs whether the icon will display next to an event or not. The event action in this instance is to add the event to the viewer's calendar. It is a best practice to include the Event action icon. The suggested value is Yes.
Show Sign-up Buttons
Governs whether the sign-up buttons that are part of event registration will show up or not. Since the event registration module is not functional, the suggested value is No.
Other Settings
Contains settings governing the update indicators and the calendar link.
Show Update Indicators
Determines whether an update indicator will display when an event is new or has been updated. It is a best practice approach to display the update indicators which are formatted later in the General Settings.
Show Calendar Link
Determines whether the link to the full calendar on the campus website is provided with the e-mail. As the e-mail may not necessarily include every event based on choices about featured events, it is a best practice to show the calendar link.
Email Body
Contains settings that control the width of the body of the e-mail text as well as how links will behave in the e-mail.
Max Body Width
Controls the width of the body of the e-mail window. The suggested approach for this value is to set the maximum body width value to 100%—rather than a fixed point value—so that whatever normal window opens when the recipient opens their e-mails will be filled with the e-mail body.
Link Color
Controls the color of links to more event details. This style is inherited from the Base link color set in the Global Settings. There is one caveat that is important. If you have enabled calendar colors in the global settings, those calendar colors for links will be used in lieu of this single Link color setting.
Link Transform
Controls the case of link text. It is a best practice to just accept the link text as output by the calendar which means none is the appropriate value. However, you may also choose between capitalize, lowercase, or uppercase.
Link Decoration
Controls whether links are underlined by default or not. This value is inherited from the Base link text decoration setting in the Global Settings. To alter this selection, click in the textbox and select a drop-down menu option.
Heading
Contains a group of stylistic settings governing the header of the e-mail including font styles, background color, and padding and spacing.
Font
Controls the font stack being used by your e-mails. The Base email font is set in the Global Settings.
Size
Controls the font size.
If you are using relative length units like rem or em, you will need to divide your desired point value by the original base text size to arrive at a value. For example, if your desired value is 10pt (points) and your original base text size is 10 pts, you will need to divide 10 points by 10 points base to arrive at a value of 1rem or 1em.
Weight
Controls the relative weight of the font. There are three options: normal, medium, and bold.
Color
Controls the color of the font used for the Heading text. It defaults to the Global group color set in the Global settings. However, if you want to select a different color in your institution's color palette, you simply have to click in the textbox to activate it and alter the hexadecimal color code.
Background Color
Controls the background behind the Heading. It is a best practice to set a value for the background to a light color, such as white (#ffffff).
Text Transform
Controls how the text in the Heading will appear. If this value is set to uppercase, it will transform the heading text into all capitals. Other options include: none, capitalize, and lowercase. This value is inherited from the Global group text transform setting in the Global settings. For consistency in the design of your calendars, you should most often accept this inheritance.
Padding
Controls the padding around the Heading. If you preview and determine that your font selection requires more spacing above or below the heading you may modify the values in the text boxes.
Bottom Spacing
Controls the spacing at the bottom of the Heading region and adds 8px of space between the padding and the next box region of the e-mail.
Groups
Contains a group of stylistic settings governing the grouping headers of the e-mail including font styles, background color, padding, and separators. As most of these settings mimic exactly what is outlined in the Heading region, just follow those directions to style this group of settings. However, there are two style settings that are different: Separator width and Separator color.
Separator Width
Controls the width of the separator between the groups and associated items. If you want to display a separator, you will need to set the value to 1px or greater.
Separator Color
Controls the color of the separators. This value is inherited from the Base border color set in the Global settings. You may alter this value by clicking in the textbox to activate it and then providing a new hexadecimal color code.
Update Indicator Styles
This group contains stylistic settings for an indicator to appear with an event on the e-mail if that event has been updated since a past e-mail was sent.
Indicator Font Size
Controls the size of the font used by the indicator. If you are using relative length units like rem or em, you will need to divide your desired point value by the original base text size to arrive at a value. For example, if your desired value is 8pt (points) and your original base text size is 10 pts, you will need to divide 8 points by 10 points base to arrive at a value of 0.8rem or 0.8em.
Indicator Font Weight
Controls the weight of the font used by the update indicator.
Indicator Color
Controls the color of the indicator that denotes an updated event. Most campuses would rather not have a combination of yellow and red for the indicator color and its background color. Choose a value from your institution's approved color palette and set a hexadecimal value for the Indicator Color. A good rule of thumb to follow is that if the background is dark, you want a light indicator color.
Indicator Background Color
Controls the background color underneath the Indicator. Very often, the background will be a darker color meaning that the Indicator color would be a lighter color. Choose a value from your institution's approved color palette and set a hexadecimal value for the Indicator background color.
Calendar Color Key Legend Tab(Click to Expand)
The Calendar Color Key Legend tab controls whether or not a Calendar Color Key Legend appears with the List e-mail. In order for this functionality to work, you will need to have calendar colors turned on in the Global Settings and then set a different background color for each calendar's events.
Legend Settings
Show Legend
Setting this to No will turn off the Calendar Color Key Legend. If you want to use this feature, select the Yes radio button. Remember, you must also enable calendar colors in the Global Settings and include events from differently colored, mixed-in calendars.
Legend Styles
Contains stylistic settings governing the font, font size, heading color, heading background color, and border color for the Legend.
Font
Controls the font used for all text on the Legend. This font value is inherited from the Base email font set earlier.
Font Size
Controls the size of the font for all text on the Legend. If you are using relative length units like rem or em, you will need to divide your desired point value by the original base text size to arrive at a value. For example, if your desired value is 8pt (points) and your original base text size is 10 pts, you will need to divide 8 points by 10 points base to arrive at a value of 0.8rem or 0.8em.
Heading Color
Controls the font color for the heading for the Legend. The default value is inherited from the Global group color contained in the Global Settings. If you want to use a different color for this heading, simply click to activate the text box and replace the value with a hexadecimal color value from your institution's approved color palette.
Heading Background Color
Controls the background color behind the Heading text. It is a best practice to set a value for the background which will, very often, be white (#ffffff).
Border Color
Controls the color of the border surrounding the legend. It is normally a good practice to set this value to the same value used as your Base border color set in the Global Settings.
Email Footer Tab (Click to Expand)
The Email Footer tab contains two groups: an Email Settings group and a Footer Styles group
Email Settings
Email footer
The Email footer provides a large textbox where you may enter a custom privacy message, images, text, and other elements. As a completely HTML-enabled region, you can use HTML entities to produce live links, connect to those images, and more. However, be aware that if you enter anything in the textbox, it removes the standard footer messages for unsubscribing from the e-mail as well as the reporting abuse link. You will likely want to capture these URLs so that you can recreate them in your customized e-mail footer.
Tip: Using Pre-Defined Text Field Variables
A few pre-defined text variables are available for you to use in the Email footer section, including the highly recommended opt-out/unsubscribe link ({EmailOptOutUrl}
), required by many email recipient systems to help your emails not be classified as "spam."
The opt-out variable must be used (not hard coded), so the system can dynamically replace it with a URL you define, or the opt-out link will not work.
Example:
<p>To unsubscribe, <a href="{EmailOptOutUrl}" target="_blank">click here</a>.</p>
Other variables include an email abuse reporting URL ({EmailAbuseUrl}
).
Define variable values on the Edit Settings page, on the Settings tab.
Footer Styles
Contains stylistic elements governing the font, font size, font weight, line height, text color, link color, background color, padding, and separator width and color.
Font
Controls the font used for all text in the Footer. This font value is inherited from the Base email font set earlier.
Size
Controls the size of the font for all text in the Footer. If you are using relative length units like rem or em, you will need to divide your desired point value by the original base text size to arrive at a value. For example, if your desired value is 8pt (points) and your original base text size is 10 pts, you will need to divide 8 points by 10 points base to arrive at a value of 0.8rem or 0.8em.
Weight
Controls the relative weight of the font. There are three options: normal, medium, and bold.
Text Line Height
Controls the line height of each line of text in the Footer. If you are using the rem setting to scale text around the base font size set in the Global Settings simply update the units from "em" to "rem".
Color
Controls the color of the font used for all Footer text. If you'd like to make this setting match the base text color, collect the hexadecimal code from the Global Settings and insert it here.
Link Color
Controls the color of links in the e-mail's footer region. Note that there is only one setting for the link color and no option to have a differing hover color. This value is inherited from the Base link color in the Global Settings.
Background Color
Controls the background behind the Footer region. It is a best practice to set a value for the background which will, very often, be white (#ffffff).
Padding
Controls the padding around the Footer region. The default settings make it so the footer begins immediately after the last event listing in the e-mail.
Separator Width
Controls the width of the separator between the groups and associated items. If you want a heavier separator, increase the number of pixels allotted to the separator.
Separator Color
Controls the color of the separators. This value often will match the Base border color set in the Global settings. You may alter this value by clicking in the textbox to activate it and then providing a new hexadecimal color code.
New/Updated Events Tab (Click to Expand)
New/Updated Events tab contains settings and styles controlling whether or not to show updated events, date/time options, font styles, padding and spacing, and heading styles.
Updated Events
Show Updated Events
Contains only one setting, Show updated events. This setting governs whether or not new and updated events are listed at the top of the digest e-mail. If you want to show updated events at the top of the digest e-mail, set the radio button to Yes.
Date/Time Options
Contains settings governing the formatting of dates, how the year behaves, the formatting of Time, and whether or not to display Short or Long Time Zone formats.
Date Format
This setting allows you to select from a large list of different formats for the date in the drop-down list. If you have been using one form of the date in all your calendar, control, and promo spuds, use that same format here for consistency of design.
Hide Year
Displays or hides the year. Since there will be grouping that indicates the year, it is possible to hide the year within dates. However, you may choose to show the year within dates by selecting No.
Time Format
Controls how time outputs on the events in the calendar. If you have been using one form of the time in all your calendar, control, and promo spuds, use that same format here for consistency of design.
Time Zone Display
Controls the display of the time zone along with the time. For the vast majority of campuses, None is the appropriate selection. However, if you are a multi-campus institution with multiple campuses in multiple time zones, choose between either Short or Long format.
Styles
Contains stylistic settings for new and updated events including font, font size, padding, and bottom spacing.
Font
Controls the font used for all text in the New/Updated section of the e-mail. This font value is inherited from the Base email font set earlier.
Size
Controls the size of the font for all text in the New/Updated section of the e-mail. If you are using relative length units like rem or em, you will need to divide your desired point value by the original base text size to arrive at a value. For example, if your desired value is 8pt (points) and your original base text size is 10 pts, you will need to divide 8 points by 10 points base to arrive at a value of 0.8rem or 0.8em.
Padding
Controls the padding around the New/Updated section of the e-mail. If you preview and determine that your font selection requires more spacing above or below the heading you may modify the values in these textboxes.
The Bottom spacing style adds 16px of space between the last entry in the New/Updated section and the rest of the list of events in the e-mail.
Heading
This group contains stylistic settings for the Heading above the New/Updated section of the e-mail.
Size
Controls the size of the font for the Heading above the New/Updated section of the e-mail. If you are using relative length units like rem or em, you will need to divide your desired point value by the original base text size to arrive at a value. For example, if your desired value is 10pt (points) and your original base text size is 10 pts, you will need to divide 10 points by 10 points base to arrive at a value of 1rem or 1em.
Weight
Controls the relative weight of the font. There are three options: normal, medium, and bold.
Style
Controls whether the Heading text is output in normal text or in italic text. Most heading text on websites is in normal text.
Color
Controls the color of the Heading text. This value is inherited from the Base text color set in the Global Settings. However, if you want to use an alternated color from your institution's color palette, simply click in the textbox to activate it and replace the default with a new hexadecimal color code.
Events Default Tab (Click to Expand)
The Events: Default tab contains a group of settings and styles governing how all of the events listed in the e-mail will be displayed with the exception of any featured levels that you may have separated out for separate styling. The settings and styles are arranged in eight groups:
Display Settings | Date/Time Options | Image Settings | Inline Images |
General Styles | Event Title Styles | Event Details Styles | Image Styles |
Display Settings
This group contains the Field list of data that will be displayed for each calendar entry on the e-mail. It uses default values of Title, Time Span, Location or Venue, and Description.
Note that the Title and Time Span fields always appear at the top of each calendar entry in the list. But, you may reorder any additional fields like the Location or Venue and the Description fields by either using the up or down arrow head or simply renumbering the Order. Also, note that you may provide a different Label for both the Location or Venue field and the Description field. In addition, you may limit the Max Length of those fields as well. While these default, or non-featured, events may only display 300 characters of the event description, you could alter that on featured events to provide for more text. You may also Remove all of the default fields with the exception of the Title of the event. If you select a field for removal or alter the Order, Label or Max Length fields, click the Update button to update the field list. The versatility of the Display Settings also provides for the ability to add new fields to the displayed list of fields. Click on the drop-down list labeled add new field will reveal a list of all the additional fields of data coming from 25Live into the Publisher events for you to display.
Date/Time Options
Contain settings governing how dates and times will be displayed on the events in the e-mail.
Label Ongoing Events
This setting includes a label for multi-day events that start in the past and extend into the future. For this functionality to work, you must select Include events that started in the past in the Grouping section of the calendar view settings.
Ongoing Events Label
If Yes is selected for the prior question, modify the label by replacing the provided text with your own.
Date Format
Should be set to follow the date format you have been using throughout your entire calendar implementation.
Hide Year When Grouping
If you are grouping events by time, setting this to Yes will remove the year from the dates as it is not necessary to repeat it because of the grouping. These grouping options would also cover grouping by month.
Hide Event Dates When Grouping by Day
If you are grouping events by day, setting this to Yes will remove the dates from the event as you already have them in the grouping.
Day of the Week
Controls first whether or not the day of the week is displayed with the date and second if it is displayed whether it will be spelled out or abbreviated. Make the selection that matches how you have been formatting the Day of the week throughout the rest of your calendar implementation.
Show End Date
Yes displays the end date in addition to the start date for an event. However, for single-day events, only the end time will appear. This setting should be Yes to cover your events with repeating occurrences.
Show Time
Yes displays the event time along with the event date. As the event time is critical information, this is exactly how you want the events to be formatted on the e-mail.
Time Format
Controls how time outputs on the non-featured events in the calendar. If you have been using one form of the time in all your calendar, control, and promo spuds, use that same format here for consistency of design.
Time Zone Display
Controls the display of the time zone along with the time. For the vast majority of campuses, None is the appropriate selection. However, if you are a multi-campus institution with multiple campuses in multiple time zones, choose between either Short or Long format.
Image Settings
Contains settings that control the positioning and the size of the Event Image when displayed with the non-featured events on the list e-mail.
Image Position
Controls the positioning of the event image. It also provides an option for No Image should you choose to not display the event image on non-featured events. You may also position the event image to either the Left or Right of the event information in the list e-mail. For instance, you might position the image to the Left of the event information for all of the non-featured events in the list e-mail while positioning the image to the Right to the right of the event information for all featured events.
Max Image Width (pixels)
Controls the maximum width of the event image. You should match the event image's width to the same width you have been using throughout the rest of your calendar implementation.
Max Image Height (pixels)
Controls the maximum height of the event image. It is customary to leave the height value blank to allow for variable heights and to avoid distortion when images do not fit within the bounding container when both max image width and max image height are entered.
Inline Images
Show Inline Images
Choosing Yes for this setting will display images included in the event description using the HTML <img> tag. If you are using the <img> tag in your event descriptions in 25Live Pro's Event Form, you should set this value to Yes.
General Styles
Margin
Controls the top, right, bottom, and left margins around the event information section for each event.
Padding
Controls the top, right, bottom, and left padding around the content region for each event.
Separator Size
Controls the thickness of the separator line between each event in the list e-mail. If you want a heavier line, increase the pixel size of the separator.
Separator Color
Controls the color of the separator line. If you want to add more color differentiation between each image, select a hexadecimal color value from your institution's approved color palette and enter that value in place of the default value.
Vertical Alignment
Controls the vertical alignment of the event information for each event.
Event Title Styles
Font
Controls the font used for event titles in the e-mail. This value defaults to the Base email font set earlier. However, if you are using a serif font for your headers, you might want to specify that font stack from your global settings here. Otherwise, just use the default setting.
Size
Controls the size of the font for the Title text for each event listed on the e-mail.
If you are using relative length units like rem or em, you will need to divide your desired point value by the original base text size to arrive at a value. For example, if your desired value is 10pt (points) and your original base text size is 10 pts, you will need to divide 10 points by 10 points base to arrive at a value of 1rem or 1em.
Weight
Controls the relative weight of the font.
Style
Controls whether the Title text is output in normal text or in italic text. Most heading text on websites is in normal text.
Signup Button Padding
Controls the padding around the signup button. Since the registration module is not functional in 25Live Publisher, you may simply accept the default values here since you turned off the signup button in an earlier setting.
Event Details Styles
Font
Controls the font used for the details of each event in the e-mail. This value defaults to the Base email font set earlier. It is a best practice to use the inherited default value for this font setting.
Font Size
Controls the size of the font for Details text for each event listed on the e-mail.
If you are using relative length units like rem or em, you will need to divide your desired point value by the original base text size to arrive at a value. For example, if your desired value is 9pt (points) and your original base text size is 10 pts, you will need to divide 9 points by 10 points base to arrive at a value of 0.9rem or 0.9em.
Field Label Wrapping
Controls whether or not the labels will wrap or not if they will not fit on one line. If you want labels to wrap to an additional line, select the normal setting, otherwise choose no wrap.
Field Label Font Weight
Controls the relative weight of the font. If you want labels to behave like they do in your calendar entries, set this value to bold.
Image Styles
Contains three stylistic settings for images on each event in the e-mail.
Image Padding
Controls padding around the image. The left padding defaults to 0px so that image will be flush with the margin of the event information region. The top and bottom padding is set to 5px giving spacing both above and below the image. The right padding is set to 10px to separate the image from the event information text. Should you want additional padding, simply replace the values in each textbox with your own values.
Image Border Size
Controls the size of any border surrounding the image. 0px will set no border around images. If you want to add a border, a best practice is to add a 1px border.
Image Border Color
Controls the color of the border if it is greater than 0px. The customary color for borders around images is black (#000000). However, you may use any other color in your institution's color palette for the border around the image by simply replacing the hexadecimal value with your own chosen value.
Featured Event Settings
Contains the exact same set of options just outlined for the Default events. As such, you may follow the outline of instructions for default events with featured events. There are a couple of changes that you might make for featured events to differentiate them on the list e-mail.
Display Settings, you might choose to display additional fields as well as provide a longer Description by increasing its Max Length value.
If you abbreviated the date and day of the week in the Date/Time Options for the Default events styling, you might use long form for the date and day of the week for featured events.
In the Image Settings, you could put the featured event's image to the right of the event information if you set it to the left for the default events. Additionally, you might increase the Max image width (pixels) value to provide for a more prominent image on featured events.
In the Featured Event Settings group, you could specify your own language for the Featured label.
Featured Label Styles
You will also need to style the featured label using the Featured Label Styles group of settings.
Alignment
Determines whether the featured label will appear to the left, center, or right above the featured event's information.
Font
Controls the font used for the featured label text and defaults from the Base email font set earlier. You should accept this default styling.
Font Size
Controls the size of the font for Featured Label text for each featured event of that level on the e-mail.
If you are using relative length units like rem or em, you will need to divide your desired point value by the original base text size to arrive at a value. For example, if your desired value is 7pt (points) and your original base text size is 10 pts, you will need to divide 7 points by 10 points base to arrive at a value of 0.7rem or 0.7em.
Color
Controls the color of the featured label text. Your choice here depends on whether or not the Background color of the featured label box is dark or light.
Weight
Controls the relative weight of the font.
Style
Controls whether the Featured Label text is output in normal text or in italic text. Most heading-type text on websites is in normal text.
Text Transform
Controls how the Featured Label text will be output.
Background Color
Defaults to the Global header color set earlier. If you have created a color coding system for multiple featured levels, you should select the appropriate background color for the feature level for each separate feature event that you intend to style differently in the list e-mail.
Padding
Controls padding around the Featured Event region. If you want to alter the amount of padding simply replace the default values with your chosen pixel values.
The General Styles, Event Title Styles, Event Details Styles, and Image Styles should all correspond to the same setting you used for the default, or non-featured events. As most of these concern fonts, font sizes, link colors, borders, those elements should be consistent in both featured and non-featured events.
Once you are satisfied with your selections, you may click the OK button to save your settings and styles for the list e-mail. Remember that you may always preview your work by clicking the Preview button.
Styling the Event Email
There are three different event e-mails that may be generated from a calendar entry: Email Me, Forward to Friend, and Event Email. Each of these must be individually styled but contain the same style choices throughout. For instance, each e-mail option contains a Settings tab that includes a large textbox in which you may format your own customized Email header and Email footer. These textboxes are HTML-capable meaning that you may enter properly formatted HTML for inclusion in the e-mails. Be sure that you check your HTML and that you close all elements that you open. The Email footer, if left blank, will display the default footer. The default footer contains default links to unsubscribe from e-mails as well as to report e-mail abuse. If you do not have your own privacy options to insert in any edited text, be sure, to copy the links to these two options so that you can format them into your customized Email footer. The Settings tab also contains options for controlling the Event Template (or as we know it in 25Live Pro, the Event Type). The Show event template setting controls whether or not the event type will display detailed information about the event. The Event template label is set to default to Event type. If you want to use a different label or even capitalize the work, type, make that alteration here by replacing the default text. The Show inline images setting controls whether images displayed using HTML's <img> tag will appear or not, the answer should be Yes.
Additionally, each e-mail option contains a Styles tab which contains the exact same set of five groups: Body, Message, Rules, Header (Event Description), and Event Info. The Body group in each case sets the Max width of the e-mail to 636px. A better approach is to set this value to 100% to allow the viewers' e-mail to populate based on their normal e-mail sizing. The stylistic elements throughout the rest of these groups work exactly as in the List e-mail so the same instructions apply here. There is one important element to note. In the Event Info group, there is both a Label size style and a Event data size style. The label size is set to 8pt while the event data size is set to 10pt. This means the labels are significantly smaller than the event information they are denoting and describing. This type of setting is poor design and should be altered to set the Label size and the Event data size to the same setting. Again, if you are using relative length units scaling around the default original 10pt base text size, you would end up with values between 0.8rem and 1.0 rem depending on whether you scaled using 8pt, 9pt, or 10pt text size. You should also change the Label color from a gray value to a value that corresponds with the color palette you have been using throughout the calendar build.
Setting Up and Styling Feeds
Each 25Live Publisher calendar comes with a set of five different calendar feeds: an iCal Feed, an RSS Feed, an Atom Feed, a CSV Feed, and a JSON Feed. The following table describes the differences between the different types of feeds available with each calendar.
Feed Name | Feed Description |
---|---|
RSS Feed | Short for Really Simple Syndication, RSS is "a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in standardized, computer-readable format" (Wikipedia - RSS Feed). In the case of 25Live Publisher, subscribing to an RSS feed means that the subscriber is notified of any updates to events on the feed without viewing the calendar. An RSS feed uses a standard XML file format to ensure compatibility across different machines and programs. |
Atom Feed | Atom refers to "a pair of related Web standards. The Atom Syndication Format is an XML language used for web feeds, while the Atom Publishing Protocol (AtomPub or APP) is a simple HTTP-based protocol for creating and updating web resources" (Wikipedia - Atom). Atom was designed to replace RSS to "clarify RSS ambiguities, consolidate its multiple versions, expand its capabilities, and fall under the auspices of a traditional standards organization. |
iCal Feed | iCal, short for Internet Calendaring and Scheduling Core Object Specification (Calendar), "is a media type which allows users to store and exchange calendaring and scheduling information such as events, to-dos, journal entries, and free/busy information. Files formatted according to the specification usually have an extension of .ics" (Wikipedia - iCalendar). iCalendar is supported by many products including Google Calendar, Apple Calendar (formerly iCal), IBM Notes, Yahoo! Calendar, Evolution (software), eM Client, Lightning extension for Mozilla Thunderbird, and SeaMonkey. It is also partially supported by Microsoft Outlook and Novell Groupwise. |
CSV Feed | CSV stands for "Comma-separated values). These feeds most often get used within affiliate marking because they allow for the import of large amounts of information into a database quickly. It is important to understand that "CSV is not like XML and is not as semantic, but it does have a good basic structure. This file format can easily be created and loaded with any spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel" (Wikipedia - CSV data feed and affiliate marketing). |
JSON Feed | A JSON Feed "is a Web feed file format for Web syndication in JSON instead of XML as used by RSS and Atom" (Wikipedia - JSON Feed). JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation. The difference between the XML-based feeds and a JSON feed is that XML must be parsed with an XML parser while JSON may be parsed by a standard JavaScript function. Its simpler structure provides for quicker parsing of the data being fed to other applications. JSON CORS setting in the Publisher feed allows you to share data from the Publisher calendar with other applications denoted by their web page address (for a more in-depth discussion read web.dev - Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)). |
Setting Up the iCal Feed
CLICK TO EXPAND
The iCal Feed provides only limited control of its settings as illustrated in the following screen capture.
Feed
Start Date
Controls when you want the feed to begin.
End Date
Controls when the feed will end.
Maximum Number of Events
Controls how many events will be served by the feed within the given Start date and End date. You may increase this value up to a maximum of 1,000 events.
Ongoing Events
Controls whether or not events that started in the past will display on the feed. In the case of repeating occurrences on events, you should make sure that this box remains checked.
Include HTML
Controls whether or not HTML formatting in event data is included on the feed or not. It is a better practice to include the HTML formatting on the feed so that events on the feed behave and look like events on the calendars. Yes is the suggested setting.
Include Fields in Notes
Controls whether or not to include custom field values in the iCal notes field. Yes is the appropriate setting to capture the majority of the information on each calendar entry.
Once you are happy with your settings, click the OK button to save your settings.
Setting Up the RSS and Atom XML Feed
CLICK TO EXPAND
Both the RSS and Atom XML feeds use the exact same setup information. The settings are contained in five groups:
Feed | RSS Publish Date (or Atom Publish Date | Date/Time Options |
Image Settings | Inline Images |
Feed
This group of settings controls a number of critical elements to the overall function of the feed of data
Start Date
Controls when you want the feed to begin.
End Date
Controls when the feed will end.
Maximum Number of Events
Controls how many events will be served by the feed within the given Start date and End date. You may increase this value up to a maximum of 1,000 events.
Ongoing Events
Controls whether or not events that started in the past will display on the feed. In the case of repeating occurrences on events, you should make sure that this box remains checked.
Include Event Template Field
Controls whether or not the event type will be included on the RSS or Atom XML feed. If you want to use that information for another application that is consuming the data from 25Live Publisher via the XML you will want to select Yes.
Include Custom Event Fields
Controls whether custom fields contained on the event will display as part of the feed data. The suggested selection is Yes.
Include Web Link
Controls whether or not the web link field will be contained on the event as part of the feed data. The suggested selection is Yes. A blank web link value will cause this field to not be output on an event.
Include HTML
Controls whether or not to include HTML formatting in event data. As the Event Description from the 25Live Pro Event Form may contain significant amounts of HTML formatting, you should select Yes.
Include xCal Data
Controls whether or not to include extended XML elements using xCalendar and custom field data. This data is useful with extensible to
The RSS Publish Date or the Atom Publish Date
Allow you to include a publish date, which can be either the date the event started or the date it was added or changed.
Date/Time Options
Contains settings for labeling ongoing events, formatting the date and day of the week, showing end date and time, setting the time format, and whether or not to display the time zone.
Label Ongoing Events
Controls whether or not events with repeating occurrences will get a special label to denote that they are part of a series. The best practice is to select Yes.
Ongoing Events Label
Controls whether or not events with repeating occurrences will get a special label to denote that they are part of a series. If you have a specific phrase you want to use, enter it here, replacing the default text.
Date Format
Controls how the date is formatted. The accompanying drop-down list provides a multitude of date options. However, for consistency of design, you will want to use the same date format you have been using throughout the rest of your calendar. However, if you are serving these events to another device using the feed, you might need to use one of the alternate formats to put the date in a consumable setting.
Day of the Week
Controls whether or not you display the day of the week and how it is displayed if you choose to display it. It provides for two different formats of the abbreviated day of the week and the fully spelled day of the week. For consistency, use the day of the week format you have been using through the rest of your calendar implementation.
Show End Date
This setting will display the end date along with the start date of the event for repeating events when Yes is accepted. A single date event would only display the start date. The best practice is to set this value to Yes.
Show Time
Controls whether or not the event time displays with the event date. It is a best practice to select Yes.
Time Format
Controls how the AM/PM will be formatted on the event time. The accompanying drop-down menu contains a full listing of the various formats from which you may select.
Time Zone
Controls whether or not the time zone is included after the event times and specifies whether to use short or long form. For most calendar implementations, None is suggested selection.
Image Settings
This group controls whether or not to display the image on the RSS or Atom feed.
Show Image
Determines whether or not to display the image as part of the RSS or Atom feed. It is a better practice to select Yes, especially if you are feeding this data to another application via the feed.
Image Type
Allows you to select whether you will use the Event Image or the Detail Image. Select which image you prefer from the drop-down menu.
Max Image Width (pixels)
Controls the absolute maximum width of whichever of the two images you select. It is a good practice to use the same value you have been using for either the Event Image or the Detail Image throughout your calendar implementation.
Max Image Height (pixels)
Control the absolute maximum height of whichever of the two images you select. A best practice is to leave this field blank allowing the height to be variable avoiding distortion issues when image are scaled from a large width to the maximum width set above.
Inline Images
Show Inline Images
If you want to display images that are contained in the event information (25Live Pro's Event Description) using the <img> tag, you should set this value to Yes. If however, you want to suppress those images, you should say No.
When you are satisfied with your settings, you should click the OK button to save your settings.
Setting Up the CSV Feed
CLICK TO EXPAND
CSV Feed provides a format that you can use to import the data into other systems.
Feed
Start Date
Controls when you want the feed to start.
End Date
Limits the number of events that will show up in the feed.
Maximum Number of Events
Controls how many events will be served by the feed. The number can be increased up to 1,000.
Ongoing Events
Controls whether or not events that started in the past will display on the feed. In the case of repeating occurrences on events, you should make sure that this box remains checked.
Include Event ID Field
This setting will produce a Unique ID for each event in the CSV file.
When you are satisfied with your settings, you should click the OK button to save your settings.
The CSV file that is generated provides fields for all data on the events in the set indicated by your Start and End Dates as well as the maximum number of those events. If your events have images, it will also include the URLs to those images.
Setting Up the JSON Feed
CLICK TO EXPAND
The JSON Feed contains three groups of settings that you need to configure: Feed, Date/Time Options, and Security.
Feed
This group of settings controls the range of dates covered by the feed, the maximum number of events on the feed, what to do with events with repeating occurrences, and whether or not to include HTML included in the event data
Start Date
Controls when you want the feed to start.
End Date
Limits the number of events that will show up in the feed.
Maximum Number of Events
Controls how many events will be served by the feed. You may increase this value up to a maximum of 1,000 events.
Ongoing Events
Controls whether or not events that started in the past will display on the feed. In the case of repeating occurrences on events, you should make sure that this box remains checked.
Include HTML
Controls whether or not to include HTML formatting in event data. As the Event Description from the 25Live Pro Event Form may contain significant amounts of HTML formatting, you should accept the value of Yes.
Date/Time Options
This group controls how ongoing, or repeating, events are labeled, the date and day of week format, whether or not to show end date, whether or not to show the time along with the event date, the format for time, and whether or not to display the time zone and if displayed what format.
Label Ongoing Events
Controls whether or not events with repeating occurrences will get a special label to denote that they are part of a series. The best practice is to select Yes.
Ongoing Events Label
Controls whether or not events with repeating occurrences will get a special label to denote that they are part of a series. If you have a specific phrase you want to use, enter it here, replacing the default text.
Date Format
Controls how the date is formatted. The accompanying drop-down list provide a multitude of date options. However, for consistency of design you will want to use the same date format you have been using throughout the rest of your calendar. However, if you are serving these events to another device using the feed, you might need to use one of the alternate formats to put the date in a consumable setting.
Day of the Week
Controls whether or not you display the day of the week and how it is displayed if you choose to display it. It provides for two different formats of the abbreviated day of the week and the fully spelled day of the week. For consistency, use the day of the week format you have been using through the rest of your calendar implementation.
Show End Date
This setting will display the end date along with the start date of the event for repeating events when Yes is selected. A single date event would only display the start date. The best practice is to set this value to Yes.
Show Time
Controls whether or not the event time displays with the event date. It is a best practice to accept the value of Yes.
Time Format
Controls how the AM/PM will be formatted on the event time. The accompanying drop-down menu contains a full listing of the various formats from which you may select.
Time Zone
Controls whether or not the time zone is included after the event times and specifies whether to use short or long form. For most calendar implementations, None is appropriate selection.
Security
Contains only one setting, Allowed websites. This large textbox is used for Cross Origin Resource Sharing (CORS). The list is a comma-separated list of web site URLs that may access this feed.
Cross Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)
For further understanding of what Cross Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) is and how it may be used with other websites and this feed, visit the following resources:
MDN WebDocs Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/CORS)
W3C CORS (https://www.w3.org/wiki/CORS)
Wikipedia Cross-origin resource sharing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-origin_resource_sharing)
When you are satisfied with your settings, you should click the OK button to save your settings.