Using the UIC Events Calendar Web Page

The UIC Main Events Calendars Web page, http://events.uic.edu, lists not only the upcoming Events at UIC but also has searches for Classified ads, replacing the UIC Announce system. Selected events from the UIC Events Calendar are listed on the UIC home page, and the More Events link goes directly to the UIC Events Calendar.

Anyone with a UIC netid and password can post to the UIC Events Calendar. Events posted to this calendar must be sponsored by University departments, units, or University recognized organizations. Some types of Classified ads do not have to associated with a UIC department, unit, or organization; they can be personal -- Lost and Found, Roommate Wanted, Buy Sell Want, for example. Both Classifieds and Events must be appropriate; the University reserves the right to edit or remove any entries.

This Web page explains how to use the UIC Events Calendar Web page, including adding Events and Classified ads to the Events Calendar, finding entries in the Events Calendar, and adding entries from the Events Calendar to your UICalendar agenda or other personal calendar software.

Want to add the Events Calendar to your iCal or Google Calendar? We have a general public import link:

http://ical.uical.uic.edu/uicalbin/uicalTOical?cal=eventcal

See UICalendar Utilities: iCal Web Links for instructions on how to use this URL.

• Using a UIC Events Calendar
• Finding Events
• Finding Classifieds
• Using the Event or Classified Display
• Adding an Entry
• Editing or Deleting an Entry
• Adding the UIC Events Calendar to iCal, Google Calendar, or other calendaring software
• Web References

The UIC Events Calendar Web page is a one stop shop : http://events.uic.edu
You go there to look at the calendar, to search for entries, to add entries, and to modify or delete entries you have already added.

An Event is an entry with a day and perhaps a time. Since Events occur on particular days, you will probably be interested in seeing the Events that will occur on specific days, or you could be interested in looking for a specific Event. To that end, there are four types of searches for Events on the Events Calendar.

Events on a particular day:

Click on a particular day in the calendar at the top of the left sidebar. Clicking the single arrowheads on either side of the name of the month will move you to the next (right) or previous (left) month. Clicking on the double arrowheads will move you 6 months into the future or past.

Events in a date range:

Select the date range in the box in the left sidebar, immediately below the calendar, then click SEARCH. The default is from the current day to the same day in the following month.

Events in a date range, with keywords:

If you wish, you can type keyword(s) in the box beside the SEARCH button; these keywords are then added to the date range search. If you empty the keyword box before you click SEARCH, no keywords will be applied again. The keywords are any words you expect to be in any field in the Event's -- or Classified ad; this searches Classifieds also -- description. They don't need to have been entered by the person who created the Event. For example, you might want to use the keyword: music
to search for entries relating to music.

Search by Category:

Click on one of the Categories under Search by Category in the left sidebar, from Alumni Events to Other. These are the Categories that apply to Events. Search by Category searches will return all the events in these categories that occur in the future, regardless of the date on which they occur.

A Classified ad is an entry without a day or time. So obviously the searches that involve dates do not apply to Classifieds. There are two ways to search for Classified ads and can also you can list all the Classifieds if you want.

Search by keywords:

Type keyword(s) in the box beside the SEARCH button, then click SEARCH. The keywords are any words you expect to be in any field in the Event's or Classified's description. Keywords don't need to have been entered by the person who created the entry. For example, you might want to use the keyword: music
to search for entries relating to music.

CLASSIFIED Search by Category:

Click on one of the Categories under CLASSIFIED in the left sidebar, from Lost and Found to Informational. These are the Categories that apply to Events. These searches will return all the events in these categories, regardless of date.

List all the Classifieds:

Want to browse through all the Classifieds? Click CLASSIFIED in the left sidebar (the heading of the list of Classified ad's categories); this returns a list of all current Classified ads.

For More Information about an Event or Classified Ad: Click on the name of an entry to see more information about it. Click the Web site: link for more information about the entry, or click the Contact: email address to send an email message asking for more information about the entry. The Email: section allows you to Email this to a friend. The Options: section allows you to Add this event to your personal UICal Calendar (you have to have a UICalendar account to use this) or to Export this event in ical format, which creates a .ics file that you can then import into your other calendar program.

How to Import Exported iCal Files

The Options: section in the details of an Events Calendar event includes an Export this event in ical format link. When you click this, a file named eventinformation.ics will be created. There are a number of things you can do with this file:

You might be about to open it directly from the Web with your calendar program; this works on Macs with iCal, for example.

If that doesn't work, you can import it into your calendar.

Google Calendar:

1. Open Google Calendar.
2. Click the Add link in the bottom right corner of the Other Calendars box in the left sidebar.
3. Select Import Calendar from the dropdown list.
4. In the Add Other Calendar dialog:
   1. Step 1. Click Browse and find the eventinformation.ics file you downloaded. Select the file.
   2. Step 2. Choose the Calendar you want the event to be imported into. This is if you have more than one calendar.
   3. Step 3. Click Import.
5. Google Calendar will say whether the event was imported or not.
6. Click Back to Calendar.

Outlook 2003:

I was able to open the eventinformation.ics file directly in Outlook 2003. Use Save and Close to save and close it. I was also able to double-click on the icon of the downloaded file, then Save and Close.

But if that doesn't work for you, you can import the file.

1. Open Outlook.
2. File Import and Export Import an iCalendar or vCalendar File.
3. Click Next.
4. Find and select your downloaded eventinformation.ics file.
5. Click OK.

Anyone with a UIC netid and password can post to the UIC Events Calendar.

• Events posted to the calendar must be sponsored by University departments, units, or University recognized organizations.
• Some Classified ads do not have to associated with a UIC department, unit, or organization; they can be personal -- Lost and Found, Roommate and Housing, Buy Sell Want, and Surplus Have or Want.
• Both Classifieds and Events must be appropriate; the University reserves the right to edit or remove any entries.
• 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.

See also UIC Events Calendar Policy.

1. Go to http://events.uic.edu
2. Scroll down and either click Add Event or click Add Classified Ad.
3. Login with Bluestem with your UIC netid and password.
4. The Add a new Event or Add a new Classified Ad 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: This is the only part of the forms that is different for Events and Classified. Events have required Event Dates (and optional Notification Dates) and Classified do not have Event Dates at all, but for them, Notification Date(s) are required.
     • EVENT DATE(s):
       • Event Dates are required for Events and not available for Classified Ads.
       • 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 DATE(S) are optional for Events but Required for Classified Ads. These are the dates that announcements of your Event or Classified ad 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 or Classified ad. This is required. The Categories are used for search criteria on the Events Calendar; you can choose as many as apply. See UIC Events Calendar Policy for more information on the Events Calendar categories and who should use them.
     
     
   • Audience: This is also required. If your entry 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 would be interested, 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: While Events from the Main UIC Events Calendar can be displayed in other Events Calendars, you cannot enter them into any other calendar using the Main UIC Events Calendar's Add a new Event page. If you want your event to go into multiple calendars, you must use the departmental Events Calendar's Add a new Event page..

   Below is an annotated image of an Add a new Event Web page. It was shrunk to fit in this page; click on it to see the full version in a new window. The Add a new Classified Ad Web page looks almost the same; the major differences are it doesn't have the section to add EVENT DATES; and Classifieds have a different set of Categories..
   

5. Click Submit Event when you are finished. Don't worry if you make a mistake; you can edit or delete the entry, because you created it.
6. You will then see a page that will tell you if your entry was successfully added to the calendar and will display the new entry. The actual Event in the image below was added to a test Events Calendar (using the test Events Calendar Add a new Event Web page in the image above), but adding an Event or Classified ad to the Main UIC Event Calendar would be the same.
   

You can only edit or delete an entry that you made yourself.

1. Go to http://events.uic.edu
2. On the Event Calendar page, Search for the entry that you created that you want to delete or modify using the Search by month or day, Search by date range or keyword, or Search by Category functions. In this example, I searched for by a date range 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. At the bottom of the description on the right-hand side, in the Options: section, it will say You are authorized to delete or modify this entry. on those entries that you can delete or modify.
   
5. Click on either the delete or modify link below the event description. You can now edit any type of event, including repeating events.
   
6. Login with Bluestem with your UIC netid and password.
7. Modifying an event is just like creating it.

Want to add the Events Calendar to your iCal or Google Calendar? We have a general public import link:

http://ical.uical.uic.edu/uicalbin/uicalTOical?cal=eventcal

See UICalendar Utilities: iCal Web Links for instructions on how to use this URL.

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

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