Events (The Foundation)

Today I tackled designing the Events table and Manager. With the exception of a few tweaks, I've replicated all the same information that InvenManager stored into their events.

From the main Calendar view, clicking the "Add New Event" button will navigate you to a form page to enter a new event, and it defaults to the current date for the event, and the current "hour" range. You can of course change all the settings. The form utilizes DNN's newer collapsible panel sections that I also used in the Settings Page. There are three sections to the event data entry form page:

• Event Settings Section
1. Title
2. Venue* (Including the "Show MapLink" option)
3. Categories
4. Description
5. TimeZone
6. Start Date/Time
7. End Date/Time
8. Event Owner Name**
9. Event Owner Phone**
10. Event owner E-Mail
11. Publish Date
12. Image
13. Attachments***

* I removed the "Add As New Venue" option because I found (at least with my users) that people were mucking up the Venue list using this feature. Instead I added a non-intrusive "Add" button next to the Venue list (Only Venue Editors can see it). This will open up the Venue Manager page in a new window, allowing you to make any Venue changes you need. When you return, simply click the "Refresh" button next to the venue list to refresh the list with your changes.

** I don't know about you guys, but the way we used our ECR, we have Event Editors that create events, I do not create/manage the calendar, I manage the site as a whole. However, I find that I constantly received E-Mails from clients asking me about details to an event, rather than contacting the department responsible for the event. Mostly due to the fact that there was no information about who the hosting party was. So I added Event Owner Name (Required field), this is the person that should be contacted with questions regarding this particular event; it defaults to the name of the current user creating the event. I also added "Event Owner Phone" (Optional field), so that you can have a phone number displayed as well so clients know who to call regarding this event.

*** Attachments...this is something I had to update because my users were driving me bananas over it. InvenManager's ECR limited you to two (2) attachments. And furthermore there was an extremely annoying bug that tended to "corrupt" PDF files upon upload. There was also an issue with symbols in file names that after several download attempts could cause your IIS to crash entirely, taking down your site. What did I do? Glad you asked... My ECR for starters has no limit on the number of files that can be uploaded...YAY! No restrictions...always a nice thing...well...sometimes (::Wink::). Also, the method of retrieving the files is different, it always displays a dialog box to "save/open" the file, this prevents the bad file-name issue using symbols.

• Recurring Settings Section
1. Uses RADRecurrenceEditor Control*

* In an attempt to make the interface look and behave cleanly, and also for time's sake, I used the RADRecurrenceEditor control. There is a drawback though...in the future when I program the Import routine for InvenManager's ECR, I don't think I will be able to import Recurring Event properly. I know I know...CATASTROPHE! (Sorry, for any with small kids that watch Gaspar & Lisa on Disney Junior channel...you know what I mean). The problem is that again, I do not have access to InvenManager's source code. They use their own way of defining recurring events, and unless I attempted to create every single scenario and check their code in the tables, I have no way of knowing what their method is. Because I am trying to get my ECR out as soon as possible, I do not have the time to devote to such an endeavor. So...it might look like Recurring Events may not be fully importable, just the main event itself, unless someone is willing to share their source code if they have it...???

• Registration Settings Section
1. Allow Registrations
2. Members Only
3. Registration Window (Cleaned  up the look of this area)
4. Maximum Registrations
5. Registration Types* (Cleaned  up the look of this area)
6. Add User To Role
7. Allow Multiple Attendees
8. Once Per User
9. Moderated
10. Event Full Message

* I hated the way "Registration Types" was designed, it was so confusing. The radio buttons AND the dropdown list method. End users always complained. So I changed the behavior a little. Now there is a RADGrid that lists all the registration types, and if none are defined a message stating "This Is A Free Event" appears. Under the grid area, is a small data entry section that allows to you enter the Registration Type, Price, Visible To Role...and now a new feature # Available. This new option allows you to designate how many seats of this type are available to be taken; leaving this option blank means unlimited (to the limit of the Max Registrations allowed of course).

And last but not least..."Event Is Approved" flag at the bottom of the page.