Using the Events Calendar Web Page

Using a departmental Events Calendar from the Users point of view:

A departmental Events Calendar is used like the UIC Main Events Calendar Web page, except that (1) they don't have Classified Ads and (2) the public cannot add events to most departmental Events Calendars. Using the UIC Events Calendar Web Page has instructions on using the UIC Events Calendar page from the user's point of view.

Using a departmental Events Calendar from the Department's point of view:

This Web page, however, is about the department Events Calendars from the department's point of view. Departmental Events Calendars are departmental Event Calendars that are authorized to display their public entries on the Web in the format that the all-campus UIC Events Calendar uses. If you use the UIC Events Calendar Web interface to add these items, you can optionally have them included in the UIC Events Calendar itself. Only the public items in an authorized departmental Events Calendar will appear on the Web.

At their core, departmental Events Calendars are standard UICalendar calendars, and they can be edited as any UICalendar calendar is. But to use the special features of the Events Calendar format, items in them must be entered and edited by the calendar's Events Calendar Web interface. This page explains how to do that.

In addition to the departmental Events Calendar Web page having a very attractive appearance and being very easy to use, a major attraction of the Events Calendar system is the ability to add events from departmental Events Calendars to the UIC Events Calendar and other Events Calendars.

Let's assume your department has a departmental Events Calendar. Your department might be affiliated with another department that has an Events Calendar, and your college may have one also. Let's say you are entering an event that is of interest to the entire UIC community. When entering data into your Events Calendar, you can choose to post the entry to any or all of the four of these calendars at once -- the UIC Events Calendar, both departments, and the college. This is assuming that you have access rights to the both departmental calendars and to the college calendar. Policies for Use of the UIC Event Calendar explains what entries can be posted to the UIC Events Calendar. Most likely anything that you would put in your department's Event Calendar would be acceptable for the UIC calendar if it applies to a wider community. See the green section at the bottom of the image in Adding an Entry.

Note: that you can use a Departmental Events Calendar form to add an Event to the UIC Main Events Calendar Web page -- and to whatever additional departmental Events Calendars that you have permission to post to -- but you cannot use the UIC Main Events Calendar Add Event Web page to add an event to any Departmental Events Calendar.

Department Events Calendars that will be tied to the all-campus Events Calendar are created by your department's REACH representative as standard departmental events calendars, and then the calendar's owner "connects" it to the UIC Events Calendar to make it an Events calendar.

How-to instructions are in Creating a Department Event, Room, or Resource Calendar (REACH Only) and Using the UICal Web Utility: Setting Attributes, Changing Calendar Owner, Assigning Designate Rights, and Connecting an Event Calendar with the UIC Events Calendar.

The name of an Events Calendar is the same as it was when it was a standard UICal departmental event calendar; for example: accc_docum.deptcal
is the name of the ACCC's sample document Events calendar. The names of all departmental event calendars end with .deptcal. (Both standard and Events calendars.)

An Event Calendar's name is used in the URL of the calendar's Web interface. For example:

URL for viewing the ACCC's documentation sample Events calendar on campus:

http://events.uic.edu?&defaultcal=accc_docum.deptcal

URL for viewing, editing, and administrating the ACCC's documentation sample Events calendar :

https://www.uic.edu/htbin/eventcal/eventcal.fcgi?&defaultcal=accc_docum.deptcal
(or you could go to the viewing URL, click Add an event from the sidebar, and log in, then click the Back to search screen link. The important thing is to log in.)

Items added through an Events calendar's Web interface are automatically displayed on the Events Calendar's Web page; you have the option at least of including them also in the main UIC Events Calendar also.

This is the Events Calendar for the ACCC's sample documentation Events calendar accc_docum.deptcal. If you scroll down and look on the left, you will see the Admin functions link; this means the viewer has already logged in with Bluestem. You have to log in with Bluestem to add, modify, or delete entries, or to perform administrative functions. The Events listed here are the short list, returned by a search. This is a very long page; scroll down to see it all.

This is an expanded view of a typical Event. Note the Email: and Options: sections, which allow you to email a copy of the event to someone, or add it to your UICalendar Agenda (you have to have a UICalendar account to use this), or to Export the event in ical format, which you can then import into your other calendar program.

The public Events in Events Calendars are generally edited with the Events Calendar Web interface. Permission to use the Web interface is independent from Oracle Calendar delegate rights, so we call using the Web interface administering the calendar and the people who are allowed to do it are called administrators.

Administrators of the Web events on Events Calendars do not have to have UICalendar accounts; they just have to have UIC netids and passwords.

The owner of an Events Calendar connected to the UIC Events Calendar automatically has permission to edit the it with the Web interface and also has the ability to authorize other people to edit it; to do this, the owner will use the calendar's Web interface.

To add or delete administrators, the calendar owner can either:

• Go to the calendar's short Web address: http://events.uic.edu?&defaultcal=deptcalname.deptcal, click the Add Event link in the sidebar, log in, then click the Back to search screen link, or
  
  
• Go directly to the following Web address:
  
  https://www.uic.edu/htbin/eventcal/eventcal.fcgi?&defaultcal=deptcalname.deptcal
  
  and log in. Note the https in this second URL. This is the actual Web address that the short Web address expands to, with an https.

Either method will add a Admin functions link to the Web page's sidebar, in the Submitting Events: group.

1. Click Admin functions under Submitting Events on the left hand side.
   • Type the netid of the person to be added as an Administrator in the Add a new user: netid= box and click Add.
   • Add the special netid public if you want anyone with a UIC netid and password to be able to post to the calendar.
   • The owner can delete administrators here also; click Delete beside the line describing the person.
   • If you have added public, you might find that you want to prevent specific people from posting. Type his or her netid in the Ban a user, netid: box and click Ban to do that.
     

Being added to the list of Administrators allows a person to add or modify the entries in an Events Calendar using its Web interface; it does not give the person permission to edit the calendar in UICalendar.

The Administrator who added a calendar event can modify or delete it.

1. One of the Events calendar's administrators goes to its Events Calendar Web page:
   http://events.uic.edu?&defaultcal=accc_docum.deptcal
   substituting the name of your Events calendar for the accc_docum.
2. Scroll down and click on Add an Event on the left hand side.
3. Login with Bluestem with your UIC netid and password.
4. The Add a new event page opens. See How to Submit or Modify an Event for more information on what each field means.
   • The required fields are noted by a red asterisk on the form: *
   • Dates and Times:
     • EVENT DATE(s) are required; select the YEAR, MONth, and DAY from the dropdown lists.
     • Also required is the time of day; the choice are a specific start and end time, a holiday, or an all day event. You can only choose one.
     • Does this event occur more than once? The default is No. If yes, the options are WEEKLY or DAILY. Daily is every day, including weekends.
     • How many times total? This is optional. If there are no repeats, 0 is fine with this box; if there are repeats, fill the box in with the total number of times the event occurs, including the first.
     • NOTIFICATION DATES are optional. These are the dates that announcements of your Event will be included in the daily UIC Announcement email message. The dates are in the form two-digit month - / - two digit day - / - four digit year, for example 03/05/2009 is March 5, 2009. The dates must be at least 3 days apart.
   • Categories: Type of Event. This is required, but the last one is Other. The types of events go with the search criteria on the Events Calendar; you can choose as many as apply.
   • Audience: This is also required. If your event is aimed at a specific group or groups, select them here. If it is for everyone on campus, select Campus Community, or if the public is invited, select General Public. It is important to limit the campus audience if it is reasonable to do so. This will keep people's announcement email messages uncluttered. If there is too much in them, people will not read them, or, worse, they will unsubscribe to the message.
   • Title, Contacts, Location:
     • Title: Required; select a good, reasonably short, but descriptive, title. The title is the only thing that is included in the announcement email message and will be displayed on the short list in the Event Calendar.
     • Sponsoring Department: Optional.
     • Admission Fee: Optional.
     • Building: Optional. If the Event is on campus, select the UIC building from the dropdown list, and then put the room in the Room/Location field. Please schedule the room before you enter the Event in the Events calendar.
     • Room/Location: Optional. If the Event is on campus, enter the room in this field. If it is off campus, put the location here.
     • Contact Email: Required; it will be filled in with your netid at uic.edu by default. This email address will appear on your event listing for people who want more information about the event.
     • Contact Phone: Optional. This telephone number will appear on your event listing for people who want more information about the event. Be sure to include an area code.
   • Additional information: More information on the event.
     • URL: Optional; the URL of a Web page that has more information on the event.
     • More info: Also optional, a description of the event.
   • Calendars: Select which calendar(s) the event will appear in. One option is always the Main UIC Event Calendar. This is one of the beauties of the Events Calendar system. As department, you might have your own calendar. Your department might be affiliated with another department that has a calendar, and your college might have one also. The event you are entering might be of interest to the entire UIC community. When entering an event into the Events Calendar, you can choose to post the entry to any or all of the four calendars at once (assuming that you have access rights to the both, departmental, and college calendars; you will have rights to the Main UIC Event Calendar by default). In the image below, I also have permission to the ACCC's test calendar (TITLE HERE) and the LAS College calendar. (Note that the image is shrunk; click on the image to open the screenshot full size.)
   • Note that you can only add your Event to additional Events Calendar(s) using a Departmental Events Calendar Web Page. The option to add your Event to other calendars is not available on the Main UIC Events Calendar's Add Events page.
     

   

5. Click Submit event when you are finished. Don't worry if you make a mistake; you can edit or delete the Event.
6. You will then see a page that will tell you whether your event was successfully added to the calendar and will display the new event.
   

1. One of the Events calendar's administrators goes to its Events Calendar Web page:
   http://events.uic.edu?&defaultcal=accc_docum.deptcal
   substituting the name of your Events calendar for the accc_docum.
2. On the Event Calendar page, Search for the event using the Search by month or day, Search by date range or keyword, or Search by event type functions. In this example, I searched for test event to find the events in the ACCC's sample calendar.
   
   
3. Click on the name the event you want to modify to see the detailed view.
4. Click on either the delete or modify link below the event description. You can now edit any type of event, including repeating events.
   
5. Login with Bluestem with your UIC netid and password.
6. Modifying an event is just like creating it.

These Web pages have detailed information on how to use the Events Calendar Web pages:

• Policies for Use of the UIC Event Calendar
• How to Submit or Modify an Event