Introduction
The first page you see when creating a new Event or Event Template the first page you see is very similar, the only difference is that on the Event Template page you nahev to enter a Template Title and do not provide start/end dates since these are only relevant to a specific event instance. Some of the fields on the event form are also required/mandatory, whilst they are optional on the template form.
Completing the Info and Settings tab
This is the first page you see when you create a new event/template, and it has to be saved before you can access the remainder of the tabs. Once saved, this page becomes the Info and Settings tab.
The From Template field is used if you are creating a new event from an existing template - this will be covered later in in this article. Let's begin creating the new event entering the Event Type, typically something like “Exhibition”, “Meeting”, “Conference” etc.
Note: It is easy to add your own event types by clicking on the little spanner icon 🔧to the right of the input box, click Add Event Type and then fill in the name of the new event type. Depending on your permissions, you may not be able to edit these options and therefore will not see the spanner.
Next choose the Default Role, which will be automatically assigned to people when they register online for this event.
The Default Role is typically 'Attendee', but it doesn’t have to be and the list of available roles can be added to by clicking the 🔧 icon to the right). Depending on your permissions, you may not be able to edit these options and therefore will not see the spanner icon.
Now decide whether to allow users to see a listing of participants for this event by setting a value on the Participant Listing field. If you set the field to “Disabled” then no participant information will be available, but you could choose “Name”, 'Name and Email', or 'Name, Status and Register Date” in which case that level of detail will be shown via the URL provided in the 'Participant Listing' section of the Configure Event page, assuming that the appropriate Access Control permissions have been set up.
We now move to the core event information. The Event Title will appear on event information pages, registration pages, event listings, and in the Manage Events administrative page, so be sure to choose a meaningful, well-crafted title to represent your event. The next two fields (Event Summary and Complete Description) let you describe your event in more detail, both of which will be included on event information pages. The rich-text editor within the description field allows you to create compelling content including photos, images and formatted text.
You have to provide a Start Date for the event, but Start Time, End Date and End Time are optional (note - these fields do NOT appear on the Event Template Info and Settings tab page)
The next few fields allow you to manage the number of people who can register for your event, and what happens when that number is exceeded. Firstly, you can enter a number into the Maximum Number of Participants field and specify a message to be displayed when that number is reached in the Message if Event Is Full field. Alternatively, you could choose to select the Offer a Waitlist option, in which case you can enter a Waitlist Message to offer people the option to continue registration and be added to the waitlist.
If your administrator has configured a map provider within the CiviPlus system you can include a map presenting the event location on the event information page by ticking the Include Map to Event Location box.
Selecting the Public Event box will cause iCal download and feed links to appear at the bottom of the event information page. This allows users to add the event to their personal Outlook or Google calendars.
Checking the Allow sharing through social media box will cause a section containing social media links for sharing this event to be added to the event information page, the thank-you page, the tell-a-Friend page (if enabled), and in event confirmation emails.
The next tick box is very important - Is this Event Active? Once checked and the event saved, it will be available for people to register on, for example via the Self-Service Portal.
As we said at the beginning of this article there are several other tabs of event information that you might want to complete and so it may be best to leave checking the Is this Event Active field until you are sure that the whole event is set up and ready to be published.
There are just a couple of additional fields to consider. Firstly, if you have a website page for the event you can add the URL to the Main website event page field and the link will appear in the Event Information page. And lastly, in order to get the event displayed within the Members' Area of your portal, not surprisingly you need to make sure that the Display this event within Members' Area field is set to “Yes”.
Okay - that’s it! You’ve entered all the information necessary to create a new event in CiviPlus. Simply click CONTINUE to move to the Event Location tab, where you can click SAVE and continue to enter additional information about the event, or SAVE AND DONE to return to the Manage Events section of CiviPlus.
Note: At any time once the event has been saved you can preview what it will look like to users by clicking the ≣EVENT LINKS button from any of the event configuration tabs and selecting EVENT INFO.
The figure below shows what the new event created above would look like.