Floris
15th August 2004, 12:16 AM
Using the vBulletin Calendar System
A free feature that comes with vBulletin forum software is the Calendar. A great tool that has evolved from version 2 on. Now in version 3 you can have ranged events, daily events and even multiple calendars. If you use vBulletin, or plan to, but you didn't think about the calendar then I invite you to read this indepth by Kyle. He has taken the time to write out his experience and note out the benefits and functionality of the calendar system of vBulletin.
Author: Kyle
Web site: http://www.ohmyhomie.com/
Introduction to vBulletin's Calendar
I have seen a lot of communities that might have done well by using the Calendar to its full potential , but most have not used it, or not used it properly.
Here are some things you can do with the calendar feature:
Organize Community-Wide Events
Make users feel more integrated (birthdays, automatic)
An add-on for hosted forums (if you host other peoples forums on your vBulletin)
Organize Community Contests
Users can setup a reminder to an event
Much much more!
The vBulletin Calendar System is a great tool that comes standard with vBulletin, and is as rich-featured as many stand alone products. It integrates perfectly with vBulletin forum software (obviously) and matches the style and language the user is set to. Despite full integration with the forum software, (personally) I feel that it is still missing integration with threads. For example allowing users to comment on calendar events.
I host a gaming clan's forum as a subforum at my gaming website, and they use vBulletin's calendar to schedule events that happen on the FFXI server, instead of having to manually private- or instant message users about the date / time to be on-line for the event.
Allowing your users be able to post events on the Calendar also integrates them more into the community, having their important date set up for the whole community to see, participate in, or spectate; bringing even more of a 'community' feel to the website.
If you like to have contests, and events in your community, MAKE SURE TO POST IT ON THE CALENDAR. I have been to many boards where users just skipped over the news/announcement forums, but they still read the calendar to see if anything is going on. More informed, more participants, more community!
Inside the Calendar Administration
Under the category 'Calendars', there are four options:
Calendar Manager: Allows management of primary and secondary (additional) calendars. Change calendar names, settings, moderators, display order, date range, Views, Basic Calendar Settings. I recommend you have a moderator if you have a large userbase, to keep track if anything naughty happens to your calendar.
Add New Calendar: This does pretty much what it says. You can create new additional calendars here. (Useful for separate sections of forums, or hosted forums.)
Calendar Permissions: Edit who can do what on forums. (By Usergroup) [Can View Calendar, Can Post Events, Can Edit Own Events, Can Delete Own Events, Can View Other's Events.]
Holiday Manager: Useful if you like to celebrate anniversaries of forum land marks (Hit X amount of posts, page views, members, or anything), or religion based boards (specific religion holidays, eg: Ash Wednesday for Catholics.), or anything else you can think of. Add new holidays or edit ones you've added. You can set the recurrence by First / Second / Third / Fourth / Last Day in Month, or Month Day. (eg: First Sunday in January, or January 1st)
Additionally, do not forget to go through the 'vBulletin Options' to turn on or off options to display (and how to display) events on your forum home page (index.php). And maybe even more importantly, do not forget to go through your 'Usergroups' calendar permissions to setup which usergroups can and can not see / use the calendar.
Resources
vBulletin Calendar System Demo (http://www.vBulletin-Fans.com/calendar.php?)
vBulletin.com On-line Manual : Calendars (http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/calendars)
http://vBulletin.nl/files/calendar.gif
© Copyright 2004 Kyle & http://www.vbulletin.nl/
You can discuss this guide here (http://www.vBulletin-Fans.com/showthread.php?t=6110)
Floris & Staff
A free feature that comes with vBulletin forum software is the Calendar. A great tool that has evolved from version 2 on. Now in version 3 you can have ranged events, daily events and even multiple calendars. If you use vBulletin, or plan to, but you didn't think about the calendar then I invite you to read this indepth by Kyle. He has taken the time to write out his experience and note out the benefits and functionality of the calendar system of vBulletin.
Author: Kyle
Web site: http://www.ohmyhomie.com/
Introduction to vBulletin's Calendar
I have seen a lot of communities that might have done well by using the Calendar to its full potential , but most have not used it, or not used it properly.
Here are some things you can do with the calendar feature:
Organize Community-Wide Events
Make users feel more integrated (birthdays, automatic)
An add-on for hosted forums (if you host other peoples forums on your vBulletin)
Organize Community Contests
Users can setup a reminder to an event
Much much more!
The vBulletin Calendar System is a great tool that comes standard with vBulletin, and is as rich-featured as many stand alone products. It integrates perfectly with vBulletin forum software (obviously) and matches the style and language the user is set to. Despite full integration with the forum software, (personally) I feel that it is still missing integration with threads. For example allowing users to comment on calendar events.
I host a gaming clan's forum as a subforum at my gaming website, and they use vBulletin's calendar to schedule events that happen on the FFXI server, instead of having to manually private- or instant message users about the date / time to be on-line for the event.
Allowing your users be able to post events on the Calendar also integrates them more into the community, having their important date set up for the whole community to see, participate in, or spectate; bringing even more of a 'community' feel to the website.
If you like to have contests, and events in your community, MAKE SURE TO POST IT ON THE CALENDAR. I have been to many boards where users just skipped over the news/announcement forums, but they still read the calendar to see if anything is going on. More informed, more participants, more community!
Inside the Calendar Administration
Under the category 'Calendars', there are four options:
Calendar Manager: Allows management of primary and secondary (additional) calendars. Change calendar names, settings, moderators, display order, date range, Views, Basic Calendar Settings. I recommend you have a moderator if you have a large userbase, to keep track if anything naughty happens to your calendar.
Add New Calendar: This does pretty much what it says. You can create new additional calendars here. (Useful for separate sections of forums, or hosted forums.)
Calendar Permissions: Edit who can do what on forums. (By Usergroup) [Can View Calendar, Can Post Events, Can Edit Own Events, Can Delete Own Events, Can View Other's Events.]
Holiday Manager: Useful if you like to celebrate anniversaries of forum land marks (Hit X amount of posts, page views, members, or anything), or religion based boards (specific religion holidays, eg: Ash Wednesday for Catholics.), or anything else you can think of. Add new holidays or edit ones you've added. You can set the recurrence by First / Second / Third / Fourth / Last Day in Month, or Month Day. (eg: First Sunday in January, or January 1st)
Additionally, do not forget to go through the 'vBulletin Options' to turn on or off options to display (and how to display) events on your forum home page (index.php). And maybe even more importantly, do not forget to go through your 'Usergroups' calendar permissions to setup which usergroups can and can not see / use the calendar.
Resources
vBulletin Calendar System Demo (http://www.vBulletin-Fans.com/calendar.php?)
vBulletin.com On-line Manual : Calendars (http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/calendars)
http://vBulletin.nl/files/calendar.gif
© Copyright 2004 Kyle & http://www.vbulletin.nl/
You can discuss this guide here (http://www.vBulletin-Fans.com/showthread.php?t=6110)
Floris & Staff