Bard College at Simon's Rock: the Early College
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Events

Events Listings Database

Event information is stored in the Helios Database. This information is styled and parsed when displayed on /events section of the website as well as on widgets on other parts.

There are user guidelines for submitting events.

Of particular note:

  • Event titles should 42 characters or less. Longer titles run the risk of breaking the design in the calendar asset at the bottom of the pages.
  • Event categories should be short or run the risk of overrunning the ribbon on the widget
  • Event locations names should be short or run the risk of running into the description.
  • Event locations must include address, city, and state or else the page layout may break and information won't display.
  • Event locations must be selected from the list in order to display correctly on the website.
  • Event descriptions with punctuation should be pasted as plain text. Alternatively, "escape" the punctuation by writing it in HTML. Sometimes punctuation will be read as code and break the RSS feed in the Event Carousel.
  • In Event Descriptions, avoid adding classes to <p> and <div> tags. Adding a class may cause bad punctuation in the Event Carousel. Avoid classes by pasting as plain text or using HTML view to edit.
Proper Event Description code 
<p>The first paragraph<p>
<p>The second paragraph</p>

 

Bad Event Description code 
<p>The first paragraph<p>
<p class="s1">The second paragraph</p>

 

Categories and Ribbon

Only one category displays in the ribbon. Control which category displays first by changing it’s name in the database. Each category is preceded by numbers which are truncated on display.

Images

Images that are pasted into the description window of the submission form do not display on Internet Explorer. For more universal images, we should paste the image from the submission into Photoshop (or similar) and then create a separate image file.

Custom Events Widget

Many of the templates have event listings at the bottom of the page. The filter of this listing can be customized.

  • When editing a page, insert the calendar asset at the bottom.

Category Filter

  1. Change the categories by updating the number list in http://simons-rock.edu/events/rss/wnl.php?l=24,26,25,27,28,32.
  2. Get the category number id by using: http://simons-rock.edu/events/index.php?com=tools&t=1

View More Link

  1. Change the link by updating this link: http://simons-rock.edu/events/index.php?com=searchresult&amp;r=0&amp;t=24%2C26%2C25%2C27%2C28%2C32
  2. The link is very similar to the link you would get from: http://simons-rock.edu/events/index.php?com=search
    1. but replace & with &amp;
    2. but remove date search criteria: s=[timestamp]&e=[timestamp]
  3. Turn off recurring events with r=1. Also the advanced search can toggle off or on recurring events.

Number of Event Listings

Set the total number of events in the carousel by setting the limit. The below example will display eight events. On the carousel, we should try to avoid multiples of 4+1. e.g. 5, 9, 13, 17, 21.Since we have four colors that rotate these numbers will cause two colors to repeat side by side.

limit="8"

 

Go Live

  1. Publish asset
  2. Update asset on page
  3. Publish page to see changes live

Edit Hero Graphic

The /events homepage has a hero graphic.

Custom RSS Feed

There are three scripts that are available for use:

  • feed.php
    • Default output from Helios
    • Not actively used in our installation.
  • databuilder.php
    • Unique output for all events
    • This feed is cached each 24 hour period (every day a new cache file is created) which makes the homepage load faster
    • You can manually delete the cache file and a new one will be generated automatically
    • Not actively used because Kilpatrick events would dominate the list
  • wnl.php
    • Unique output that is similar to the databuilder.php output.
    • This feed is used on all the widgets
    • This feed is not cached

Export

Export into Excel breaks. Use another program. Use escape character for quotes \s

Develop

The PHP files reside in /events.

Local Edits

  • Sync live version to your local repo using scp. This ensures that you are editing the most recent versions. You will need permissions. 
    • Ignore the cache files
    • Commit any changes
  • Customize the theme by editing /themes/simonsrock
  • Some of the text is contained inside a lang/ directory.
  • Some of the functions are contained inside a functions/ directory. 
  • The submission form is largely driven by two files: 
    1. /events/inc/functions/simonsrock.php
    2. /events/inc/lang/english/public/submit.php
  • Commit any changes to repo. 

Publish Local Edits

  • Update single pages through the OU Campus Interface
    • Select production server (/events files are not the CMS server)
    • Navigate to location of file to be overwritten
    • Add file (and select overwrite)
    • Test
  • Update pages in bulk using scp. Be careful not to overwrite other changes.

Edit Database

Connect direclty to the database using a MySQL GUI, such as MySQL Workbench. You will need permissions.