The Events settings allow you to change the Time zone, the default view and change when the week starts in relation to events (this also applies for Tasks). You can also import and subscribe to other users calendars.
Configuring events
The Events module is for maintaining a calendar of important deadlines, meetings and other milestones relating to any matter. Below are descriptions of each available configuration setting within the admin screen:
- Time zone - The Time zone setting applies only to the Events module of this site and is used for synchronising events to an Outlook Calendar or any imported calendar. This setting does not change the default time zone of the site or instance of Collaborate.
The default time zone for the Events module is set to the default time zone for the instance.
- Default view - You can change the default view of the Events module via this dropdown. Select either List, Day, Week or Month as the default view.
- Week starts on - You can select either Sunday or Monday as the start of the week for the Events module. This setting also applies to the Tasks module.
This changes the default start of the week set in System settings.
- Allow comments - This setting determines whether or not comments can be added to any events within a site. If allowed, an event poster can still choose whether to allow comments for a particular event. If comments already exist on any events and this setting is deselected, the existing comments will be hidden but not deleted.
- Allow PDF export - This setting determines whether or not any of the events can be exported to PDF.
- Enable approval workflow - You can use this setting to require publishing approval for any new events or changes to any existing events made by anyone other than an Administrator. When an event is created or edited with the approval workflow enabled, it will not be published immediately. Instead, Administrators for the site will be given the opportunity to accept or reject the event and once accepted, the event will be immediately published. Use the Set Notifications link to select which Site and Content Administrators have the right to approve or reject a new page. The default is for all Administrators to have these permissions. View the separate discussion on approval workflow here.
- Enable tasks category - Selecting this checkbox will enable the Tasks category within the Events module. This allows tasks to be filtered and displayed within the Events module.
- Hide left navigation panel - Click this to hide the left navigation panel from users.
- Import - You can import calendars from Outlook and other calendar applications (such as Google Calendar) that can be exported to the iCalendar (ics) format. Follow the directions for creating the .ics file in the external calendar application and save the .ics file locally. Click Import, navigate to the file location, and then assign the events in the .ics file to one or more of the event categories that have been created.
This is a one time import and any newly added events or updated events in the external calendar application will not be added or updated in the Events module.
Any changes made to the imported events in Collaborate will not be synchronized back to the external calendar application. If the same calendar is imported again, there may be duplicate events in the Events module
- Subscribe - Subscribing to an external calendar will result in new events from the external calendar being added to the Events module and future changes made to the external calendar will be applied automatically - all that is required is the URL of the calendar. To access the calendar, either make the calendar public and use the calendar's public address (although this option is not advised if the calendar contains sensitive information) or use the private URL address of the calendar. Changes made to the main calendar are synchronized to the Events module automatically. However, any changes made to these events from Collaborate will not be synchronized back to the external calendar, nor will new events added in Collaborate be added to the external calendar. Events synchronized from another calendar must be assigned to one or more categories.
- Categories - Event categories serve two related purposes - first, categories make it easier to identify and navigate to events related to the same subject. Categories can also be used to limit a group's access to certain events, by associating access rights with a category. For example, clients may be prohibited from viewing any events associated with a Confidential category. By default, a Default category will be created and all events will be assigned to that category. (Once another category has been created, the Default category can be removed from the event if required.) An event can be assigned more than one category, but must be assigned to at least one.
Click Save to save your changes.
Configuring event categories
To add a new Event category, click Add:
The New category screen is displayed:
Enter a category name in the Name field and select a background colour for that category. Click Add to add the new category.
The name of the new category must be unique within the site. A new row containing your new category will be displayed in the list of categories.
Now you can set the categories permissions via More actions > Set permissions:
This displays the Category permissions screen, where you can set the categories permissions.
Only groups that can access the Events module, as described in the User Permissions > Groups administrative page, can be given any access rights to an Events category.
All of these groups will be listed within the Category permissions window, preconfigured with each group's access rights to that module. Any group that is listed can be given either no access rights, read access rights or full (edit) access rights to a category and the associated blog posts. A group that was granted View only access rights to the Events module can be given Edit rights to a particular category. Click Save to save your changes.
Here you can change the category's name. background colour and text colour.
To delete an Events category, click Remove within the More actions menu:
Before a category can be deleted, you will be required to either delete all of the events associated with that category or associate the events with at least one other category.
