6.2. Events in a Series

On this page:

  • Recurring Events – recurring events are those that follow a schedule
  • Series, and Series Pages – may be recurring events but might also include individual events
  • Pattern-based Series – such as Storytimes that occur regularly every week, same day & same time
  • Non Pattern-based Series – such as Poetry Events that occur on irregular dates over time
  • Exclusions – exclude dates in Pattern-based events for library closures, etc.

Recurring Events

  • Time & Date – With recurring events, the first occurrence of your event will reflect the options chosen for Start/End under this heading. That is the same as creating a single event.
  • Note!! Events cannot be excluded for the first instance in a series! And, when setting an end date for a series, it will NOT include the last day so make sure to have the end date be the day after! (ie. Series happens every week on a Friday — don’t set the last day to be a Friday, make it for Saturday)
  • Click the Schedule multiple events button to display the first set of options for your additional events.
  • For recurring events that conform to a regular pattern, select the option that applies to your recurring event (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly). If your event occurs on specific dates without following an established pattern, select the Once option for your event. We’ll go over the options for both pattern-based and non-pattern-based recurrences below.

Series and Series Pages

Series provides a powerful way to group, organize, and manage events, completely customizable and can contain any single or recurring events. Each Series also has a landing page where users can see all related events in one place. Events in a Series can have individual attributes, such as different locations (think: various branches, or Outreach, as examples). There is also an easy way to clone events using the Duplicate Event tool to avoid rewriting text over and over.

Create a Series:

  1. Create a recurring event as above, whether in pattern or non-pattern – a Series will be created automatically. (A Series is NOT automatically created unless there are recurring events, however you can Create a new Series in the Series box on the Events Editing view.)
  2. Now you’ll be able to find the Series listed, by clicking on Series in the left navbar.
  3. If you wish, choose a Series, then view all the Events associated with it: you can now edit each one individually and have these exist within the series!
  4. Otherwise, you can add a newly created event to a Series by using this box:

 

Editing an Event in a Series:

  1. Navigate to the Series that was created with your recurring event, by clicking on Series in the left sidebar.
  2. From the list, choose the Series you want to edit.
  3. On the Series editing page, scroll down and edit any or all events you would like to customize – the series won’t be broken!

Series Pages

Unique “pretty” URL, example: maple.bc.libraries.coop/series/outreach. From this page, each event that is associated with the Series is linked. Each event might have a different location, event organizer, and start and end times!

Important notes:

  • If your site subscribes to Event Registration, RSVPs created for events will not be duplicated when an event is duplicated. RSVPs will need to be manually re-created.
  • If you are duplicating a recurring event, the additional occurrences won’t be generated until you save the duplicate.

 

Pattern-based Recurring Events

Events that occur weekly on the same day of the week at the same time (or in a pattern) such as Storytimes.

Choose if the series ends:

  • At a future time–You may have to select the date after the last date of an event, so that the series will include it.
  • After a certain number of events, say if you have a set of meetings that will occur on the same day after 3 sessions.
  • Or never–this will generate events into the future for a year or up to three years depending on your settings.

 

Non-pattern-based Recurring Events

Example: A program series, such as “How to Write a Novel in 3 Parts.”

The above program might be at different times and on different times depending on guest-author availability. This would be a non-pattern-based recurring event.

You can add these events to your recurring event by using the Once recurrence type. Clicking this button when adding a recurrence rule to your event will display the following options.

Enter the date for your event into the On field by typing or by using the provided date picker. You can also specify whether this event will occur at the same or different time as the original event. Once you’ve finished providing the details for your first event recurrence, you may add other rules as needed. Just select the Add more events button. You can remove a set of recurrence rules at any time by clicking the trash can icon to the right of the desired row. After you’ve entered the recurrence rules for all of your event dates, you can save your changes by scrolling up until the Publish pane is visible on the right side of the page, then clicking the blue Publish or Update button.

Exclusions

An Add Exclusion button will appear as soon as you add any other recurrence rules. Clicking this will display a row of buttons matching those that appear when adding a new recurrence rule. You can use the Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly exclusion options to exclude events in a pattern-based recurring event.  You can use the Once exclusion option to exclude a single event on a specific date.

 

NOTE! You cannot exclude an event if that’s the date that you are starting the series. Adjust your dates accordingly.