The Stacks Events feature is a great way to promote events, trainings, and other occurrences that help you further engage your patrons or users. From the Events Management tile in the Dashboard, users with the Administrator, Moderator, Program Manager, or Event Manager role have the ability to create, edit, and delete events that are associated with your organization.
Considerations
Before creating events there are a couple of considerations to think about, which may impact event creation and how your users/patrons view events, these are Labels and Filter Vocabularies.
Labels
Almost all field names and labels can be changed in Stacks, this allows you to customize label sets to ensure the terminology used matches what your users or patrons would expect to see when viewing events. Before creating events, its worth reviewing the labels associated with the events and updating any if needed.
To change labels:
- From the Dashboard, click the System Configuration tile
- Click the Site Labels tile, then scroll to and click the Stacks Events tab on the left of the screen
- Scroll back up and review the labels in the Fields and Listing View sections and change any values as needed
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Submit when finished
Filter Vocabularies
Filter Vocabularies are lists of values that can be used by your users/patrons to filter and group information in Stacks; review the filter vocabularies associated with events to make sure the appropriate values exist for your users/patrons to use.
To add to or update filter vocabularies:
- From the Dashboard, click the System Configuration tile
- Click the Filter Vocabularies tile, then click the Stacks Events tab on the left of the screen
- Click the List Terms link to the right of the Event Topic
- To Add new values:
- Click +Add Term
- Enter the name for the new term
- Click Save, to save the value and stay in this screen to add another OR click Save and go to list, to save this value and return to the list term view
- To Edit a value:
- Click the Edit button to the right of the value
- Update the name
- Click Save
- To Add new values:
- Repeat the steps above for the Event Category and Event Type options
Creating an Event
To create an event:
- From the Dashboard, click the Events Management tile
- Click the Events tile, then click + Add Event
- Title - enter a name for the event
- Enable Event QR Code - when checked, individuals who register for an event will receive an email notification which includes a QR code that can be scanned to confirm their registration and access to attend the event, similar to a ticket
- Body - enter a description of the event and any other relevant details you wish the patrons to see when viewing it on your Stacks site
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Recur Type - select the most appropriate recurrence type for the event; depending on your selection, additional fields will appear below
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Consecutive Event
- Create Events Between - enter the appropriate dates
- First and Final Event Starts At - enter the appropriate times
- Event Duration (number field) - specify the duration of the event
- Event Duration (drop-down field) - specify the time type (second(s), minute(s), or hour(s))
- Event Buffer (number field) - specify the buffer time of the event
- Event Buffer (drop-down field) - specify the time type (second(s), minute(s), or hour(s))
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Daily Event
- Create Events Between - enter the appropriate dates
- Event Start Time - enter the appropriate start time for the event
- Event length, select from
- Set Duration, then choose the duration; OR
- Set End Time, then choose the end time
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Weekly Event
- Create Events Between - enter the appropriate dates
- Event Start Time - enter the appropriate start time for the event
- Event length, select from
- Set Duration, then choose the duration; OR
- Set End Time, then choose the end time
- Day(s) of the Week - select the day(s) of the week the event will occur
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Monthly Event
- Create Events Between - enter the appropriate dates
- Event Start Time - enter the appropriate start time for the event
- Event length, select from
- Set Duration, then choose the duration; OR
- Set End Time, then choose the end time
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Event Recurrence Schedule - select from
- Recur on a Day of the Week, then select the most appropriate Day Occurrence and Day(s) of the week; OR
- Recur on a Day of the Month, then select the day(s) of the month
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Custom/Single Event
- Start and End date - enter the appropriate dates and times
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Consecutive Event
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Excluded Dates
- If applicable, enter a date where the event would fall on, but needs to be excluded. For example, the date might fall on a holiday or a day where the event cannot be run, it will be excluded for the identified date
- Click Add another item to open another set of date fields, and repeat as needed for additional excluded dates
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Included Dates
- If applicable, enter a date where only if the conditions are met for specific day(s)
- Click Add another item to open another set of date fields, and repeat as needed for additional included dates
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External Signup
- Expand this section and check External Signup to allow for external signups for the event
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Event Registration
- Enable Registration - check this box to enable registration for the event and to specify the capacity for the event, and if applicable allow for a waitlist
- Restrict registration to once per email address? - check this box to limit registrations to only 1 per email address
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Which roles can register for this series? - check the box beside the role(s) that can register for the event
- Leave all boxes blank to allow anyone to register for the event
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Registration Dates
- Select whether registration is open or can only be made within a specified period
- Note: if Open Registration is selected, people can register up until the start time of the event
- Select whether registration is open or can only be made within a specified period
- Total Number of Spaces - enter a numerical value for the number of people that can attend the event
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Enable Waiting List - check this box to enable a waitlist for people who register after an event's registration has reached its total number of spaces
- Users added to the waitlist will automatically be promoted to the "registered" list if space(s) become available
- Registration Notification - check this box to enable notifications to be sent to the event creator notifying them of registrations for the event
- Enable Registration Reminders - check this box to enable registration reminders
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Contact Info
- Name - enter the name of the contact person
- Phone - enter the phone number of the contact person
- Email - enter the email address of the contact person
- Click Add Contact, to open another set of the above mentioned fields to add the details for an additional contact, repeat as needed
- Click Remove, in the top right corner of each contact to remove that contact from the event listing
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Event File
- Click Upload/Select File to browse your computer to upload any files that may be relevant to the event
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Event Image
- Click Upload/Select File to browse your computer to upload an image to display with the event details
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Event Category
- Click into the field to search for and select the appropriate category for the event, this will allow your users to filter events by category, which can be helpful if you have many events
- Note: the Event Category, Event Topic, and Event Type values come from the Filter Vocabularies, if the appropriate category does not exist, you can save the event, then go to the filter vocabularies to update the list, then come back and edit the event to update this field
- Click Add another item to add another applicable event category value, repeat as needed
- Click into the field to search for and select the appropriate category for the event, this will allow your users to filter events by category, which can be helpful if you have many events
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Event Topic
- Click into the field to search for and select the appropriate topic for the event, this will allow your users to filter events by topic, which can be helpful if you have many events
- Note: these values come from the Filter Vocabularies
- Click into the field to search for and select the appropriate topic for the event, this will allow your users to filter events by topic, which can be helpful if you have many events
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Event Type
- Click into the field to search for and select the appropriate type for the event, this will allow your users to filter events by type, which can be helpful if you have many events
- Note: these values come from the Filter Vocabularies
- Click into the field to search for and select the appropriate type for the event, this will allow your users to filter events by type, which can be helpful if you have many events
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Location
- Click into the field to search for and select the appropriate location for the event
- Note: these come from the locations created in the Location and Hours area of the Dashboard
- Click into the field to search for and select the appropriate location for the event
- Click Save to save and complete the creation of the event
Event Settings
On the Event Settings tile of the Events Management area of the Dashboard, administrators can configure the default display of events on the '/events' page in either a calendar or as a list.
- From the Dashboard, click the Events Management tile
- Click the Event Settings tile
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Default Display
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Calendar, check this box to display a calendar view of events as the default view
- It is recommended to leave this box unchecked, use the /calendar path for links to your events to display the calendar view of events
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List , check this box to display a list of events as the default view
- It is recommended to leave this box unchecked, use the /events path for links to your events to display the list view of events
- Note: Users/patrons will still be able to toggle the list/calendar views by clicking the associated button in the top right corner of the events page
- Users/patrons are still able toggle the view between either the list or calendar view
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Calendar, check this box to display a calendar view of events as the default view
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RSS feeds for Events, check this box to enable a RSS feed users/patrons can subscribe to which contains a list of upcoming events
- An RSS icon will appear on the /events page, but only when viewing events as a list, click the icon to access the feed via a RSS capable reader or use with third party tools compatible with displaying RSS information to see the list
- Click Save Configuration
Display Settings for Events
There are a few settings that can be configured to control the appearance list and detail views when viewing articles.
- The Listing View will be the default view users/patrons will see when navigating to the /events page of your Stacks site, where they will see a list of all published news articles
- The Details View will be the view users/patrons will see when they click on any one article to read/view the full article
- From the Dashboard, click the Events Management tile
- Click the Events tile, then click Settings tab near the top of the screen,
- Click the Listing View sub-tab
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Enable Listing View, when checked this enables access to the listing view for the content type
- If disabled, when a user attempts to load the URL for this content, they will be redirected to the homepage
- Title, edit the title for the page if desired, the default value is Events
- Description, enter a description for the page if desired, this will be visible to users/patrons
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Display section
- Expand First Group by Default, check this box to expand the items, when they are grouped
- Display search form, check this box to display a search bar for news articles
- Display A-Z Link Index, check this box to display a link on the list view when "Group by None" is selected
- Enable Add to saved list button, check this box to enable a save to list button
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Defaults section
- Default Page Limit, select the number of events to be displayed before pagination is enforced
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Default Grouping, select the default value events should be grouped by
- Note: users/patrons can change this when viewing the list of events
- Default Sort Field, select the default value events should be sorted by
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Default Sort Order, select the default order in which events should be sorted
- Note: users/patrons can change this when viewing the list of events
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Field Visibility section
- Check the box beside each field that should be made visible to users/patrons when viewing the list of events
- Click Save configuration when finished
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Enable Listing View, when checked this enables access to the listing view for the content type
- Click the Details View sub-tab
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Field Visibility section
- Check the box beside each field that should be made visible to users/patrons when viewing the list of events
- Enable Add to saved list button, check this box to enable a save to list button
- Click Save configuration when finished
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Field Visibility section