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Adding Maxwell calendar events in Sitefinity

Adding Maxwell calendar events in Sitefinity

Introduction

Creating events in Maxwell's Sitefinity calendar system will be similar to how this was done in our previous CMS but we now have incorporated better integration into SU's Events Calendar from Sitefinity.   Because of this integration, we have also added an approval process to all events to ensure content is complete and correctly formatted for display on both Maxwell's and SU's calendar tools.  

Weekly events digest

Public Maxwell events will also be included in a weekly events digest email which is sent out Friday afternoons during the fall and spring semesters.  Each event in this digest will include:

  • Title

  • Time and location details

  • Summary field

  • Event contact and phone number


Example

 

 

Logging into Sitefinity

 

Creating an event

  1. From the Dashboard go to Content > Events

     

    events section



  2. Click the green "Create an event" button on the right side of the page:

    Create an event screen and button

     

  3. Enter event details into their respective fields.  These fields include the following types of information.  

 

Required fields

The following fields MUST be filled out prior to trying to save or send the event for approval:

  • Title

  • Full Event Description

  • Summary

  • Add Event to Unit Calendars

  • Contact email, name and phone number

  • URL (automatically generated from the event title)

 

Sending for Approval

Given the extra complexity of integrating our Maxwell events into the SU events calendar, all events will go through an approval process being reviewed by the Deans Office before they are published to either the Maxwell or SU calendar.  This approval process begins by clicking the Send for Approval button on the top-right of the page.    

Click the send for approval button

Next, you will be presented with the option to add extra notes regarding your event to have the Maxwell Deans office review as part of your event submission.  These notes will NOT become part of the event details when published.

Extra notes for review process

 

Deleting events

Currently there is a bug in Sitefinity that prevents website maintainers from deleting content (such as events) that are part of a workflow approval process.  If you need to remove or cancel an event, please email maxcomms@syr.edu with the event's title and date.

 

Individual field descriptions 

Title

This will become the clickable link into more details of the event and is limited to 100 characters.   This limitation is to ensure that it will fit across all Maxwell digital platforms (web site, newsletters, digital signage, etc).   Do not put the sponsoring department in the title.

Caste in the United States: Overview of the Civil Rights Movement for Caste Protections

 

Full Event Description

This is the "body" of the event that people will see when clicking on a link to view more details regarding the event.  Please do not use ALL CAPS and limit use of bolding. 

The Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs’ South Asia Center presents:

Caste in the United States: Overview of the Civil Rights Movement for Caste Protections with Thenmozhi Soundararajan, Director of Equality Labs

This talk will explore the history of caste civil rights, urgent cases, and campaigns that Equality Labs is leading around the United States.

About the speaker:

Thenmozhi Soundararajan is a Dalit rights artist, technologist and theorist. Currently, Thenmozhi is the co-founder and executive director of Equality Labs, a Dalit Civil Rights organization that uses community research, cultural and political organizing, popular education and digital security to build power to end caste apartheid, white supremacy, gender-based violence, and religious intolerance.

 

Summary

This field appears below the event title when presented in the main Maxwell calendar.  The summary should be written to complement, but not be redundant with the title.  The use of acronyms should be avoided. 

As in the example below, the summary should include who is speaking or presenting, and any additional contextual information.

Thenmozhi Soundararajan, executive director of Equality Labs, will provide an overview of the civil rights movement for caste protections in the U.S.

 

Calendar

Ignore this field.  The "Default Calendar" is the correct and only choice.

 

Event start, end and time zone

Use the icons which are adjacent to the date and time fields to choose and enter the proper starting and ending times.   Only change the time zone for events that take place in other time zones.

Times dates and timezones

Add Event to Unit Calendars

Click the "+" icon to choose which pages this event should appear on.  Multiple units can be selected.

 

Click on "Show all units and programs" to see unit options:

Click on show all units and programs

Browse to the desired (academic) Department or Research unit.  Alternatively, you can use the search to "Narrow by typing".  Please ignore the Administration and Certificates options in this context.

Browse to department or research section

 

Check the box adjacent to the department.   For some research units (i.e. Moynihan), you may need to go deeper into the hierarchy to select the correct unit.  

Select unit

 

Here the "Center for European Studies" is selected which is under Moynihan:

Selecting a sub-unit

 

Channels

This section is for the Communications Team only.  

 

Topics and Issues

This field is primarily used for News Article content, but has been added to Sitefinity events to allow for categorizing events that part of Maxwell's Centennial celebration (Audience interests >> Centennial). 

 

Region

Use the dropdown menus to select the proper Region and SU Location.  When entering the Room Number, do not include the building name or abbreviation.  

Note: there is another location field lower in the form for entering specific addresses outside of the main SU campus. 

image-20250805-180613.png

 

Event category, type and audience

These selections will be used in the Maxwell and SU calendars as filters to help site visitors find relevant events.  If no audience options are selected, then a generic message will be presented saying that the event is simply open to the public. 

Select category, type and audience choices

 

Accessibility 

Depending upon the size of your event, specific accessibility accommodations may be required.   Please see this site for the University's live events policies.  Check the boxes for the specific services that will be offered at your event. If none of the accessibility options are selected, the event contact name and email will be displayed.

image-20250805-180727.png


Cost and registration

If you are charging an entrance fee or asking people to register for your event, enter the cost, choose the appropriate wording from the Registration Label dropdown and enter the link to your registration page.

cost and registration fields

 

Departments and Learn More link

Choose the appropriate Maxwell department(s) (also sometimes referred to as “Units”) who organize or co-organize the event.   

If you want to link to another web page for event viewers to learn more about your event, enter the full url into the Link to Learn More field. 

image-20250805-181016.png

Click the "+" icon below the Departments heading to reveal a list of recently selected departments.  You may click into the blue box to search for the organizer name  or click "Show all Calendar Departments" to see a full list of available choices.  Please note that this list is very long since it pulls its choices from the SU  Calendar's list of organizers.  

The first organizer that you add will be the main event organizer.  Any  additional organizers will be considered "co-organizers".  

image-20250805-181512.png

 

Parking information 

Use this field for specific parking instructions.  If needed, reference SU-hosted information from the https://parking.syr.edu/ web site.  

Parking information

 

Minors Present

Indicate if you know if minors will be present at the event. 

Indicate if minors will be present at the event.

 

Publish to Maxwell School and Syracuse University calendars

Check box to indicate if your event is to be  also published to the Syracuse University Community Calendar.  When you choose to have your event be published on the SU calendar (https://calendar.syracuse.edu/events/) the event is considered public and will be also be put on Maxwell's main calendar.

 

 

Location (specific map address)

If needed, please enter the specific address of the event. 

map address

 

Contact information

Enter contact information for someone who can answer further questions regarding the event.   This must be a individual with working knowledge of the event.  This person will also be listed as the contact for any accessibility accommodations.   For this reason, this MUST be actual contact information.   Please enter phone numbers with dots and not hyphens (315.443.XXXX)

email, contact name and phone

 

More options

You can ignore the contents of this field grouping.

 

Custom fields

You can ignore the contents of this field grouping.

 

Search engine optimization and Social media

These fields are automatically populated from the event’s Title and Full Event Description fields. The Search engine optimization “Title” and “Description” fields are used to provide Google and other search engines custom information to better index and understand your page.

You may need to trim the text in these fields to meet the length restrictions of each section. Please note that none of the information entered into these fields is visibly displayed on the published page.

Likewise, the Social media fields work the same way pulling information from the event’s Title and Full Event Description fields. Information you enter into these fields will be used if this content is shared on social media channels. Specific images and videos can be added. Expect results to be imperfect given the different size and other criteria used by different social media platforms.