FAQs

This is not full documentation by a long way but should help you get started with JEvents.

New Events Structure

In order to accomodate repeat exceptions, and iCal imports a whole new way of representing events has been implemented. This follows the iCal specification and you will see there is a whole new way of creating events.

ICal Subscriptions

You can either import or create 'calendars' (currently called 'iCal Subscriptions') in one of 3 ways:

1. Importing from a URL
2. Importing from a file on your local drive
3. Created from scratch

Taking these in turn.  If you click on 'Manage Calendars' in the JEvents Control Panel and then click new you can try them out.

The "Unique Identifier( Calendar Name as of JEvents 3.1.20 )" is just a label you will use to identify your calendar.

The "Calendar Owner" is the creator/person who creates/owns the calendar.

The "Default Category" is the category into which events in this calendar will be placed if there are no categories specified within iCal file.

The "Access Level" is the level of user who should be able to access this calendar and it's events. Please JEvents 3.x Permissions for information on Joomla! ALC.

The "Ignore embedded Category Names" does exactly what it says, it allows importing events specifically into one category.

There are some other options depending on selection and they are as follows:

Creating and Event from Scratch - You have the ability to set this as the default calendar and you can also enable the ability for checking if there are any overlapping events when saving events.

Load from URL - When this creation method is selected you are shown a new option called ' Allow anonymous refesh ', with this enabled a 'URL' link will show in the list of calendar in the same row. Right click and copy url will then give you a unique secret url to allow accessing at any point to update the calendar. This method is usually used for creating a cron job to automatically import any new event. For more information on cron jobs please read Setting Cron Jobs - Non Technical Explanation . For more information on importing events, see below:

1. Importing from a URL (Like a Google Calendar URL)

Calendars imported from a URL (i.e. from a Google Calendar) can be 'refreshed' at a later date.  You can reload the calendar whenever you want by clicking the green reload button in the list of ical subscriptions.

Note, to setup automated updating of the import from URL you need to go to the calendars and enable anon refresh. Once enabled, you should see a URL text link right click it and copy address. We now need to setup a cron job as:

/usr/bin/curl -s "http://www.mydomain.com/index.php?option=com_jevents&icsid=3&task=icals.reload" > /dev/null 2>&1

Replacing the http://www.my....... etc with your anon refresh url. Noting to keep the " ". For more information on cron jobs see:
Setting Cron Jobs - Non Technical Explanation

2. Importing from a File

Calendars imported from a local ical File.  These can not be refreshed after the initial import.

3. Native or Raw Calendars

These are empty calendars you create yourself.

JEvents - User authorisation

We have implemented a more advanced user authorisation mechanism since JEvents 1.5/2.0.  If you click the "configuration" button in the admin view of the component you can specify if you want to enable "user by user" authorisation or general user level authorisation.  If you choose to enable "User Authorisation" you will need to assign authorisation to speficic users to enable them to manage events in the front end of the site.  Remember if you enable "user authorisation" any users who will be able to create events will need to be added to the list of authorised users - NOTE: you will also need to add Super Users to this list if it is enabled. 

This is a useful straight to the point Permissions Manager for JEvents if you only have a few users, however since Joomla! 2.5 you have a much tigher controled ACL. Please Click Here for more information on Joomla! ACL

Managing Ical Events in the Frontend

Managing individual events and repeats can also be done in the frontend. If you login to the frontend as a user authorised to manage events you will see handy "edit" icon on each event title bar and also a "add event" link under the calendar. You can also 'Create' a 'JEvents - Manage Events' menu item within the Joomla! Menu Manager, this provide a list of events with a modify, publish, unpublish and delete links.

Managing Ical Events in the Admin Interface

You can look at the iCal events for given calendars and/or categories.  You can click on a round star little icon  in each row to see the repeats/recurrences of the event.

Editing Ical Events

You can click on an event to edit it - the layout is slightly different and the definition of repeats is completely different since it now follows the ical model.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you edit an event from an imported iCal you must save it to a native calendar since a refresh of the calendar as a whole would eliminate your changes otherwise.  If you have a good idea for an alternative approach please let us know.

Editing Repetitions

From the list of repetitions (or when suitably logged in from the frontend) you can edit or even delete individual repetitions .  This is best done the the frontend of the site.