Events 5

The Events #5 Layout is our first to offer a true mobile calendar experience, and it provides a number of attractive, engaging "views" in a single package. You can choose to show an interactive calendar of events, a scrollable list of events, or even a combination of the two—and you can designate one format for your desktop users, another for those on mobile devices.

High-priority, featured events will show up in a rotating slider near the top of the page (a great place to highlight new initiatives, all church events, or live services), followed by a large search bar and plenty of filtering options, so members can quickly find the information they need.

The Events Template does need to make use of one page inside of the Pages Module (Content > Pages). Make sure to assign the Events #5 Template to a page, using the Template field in the page editor, to ensure the events layout is visible on your site.

Managing Events

To make changes, navigate to Content > Events

Detailed event help can be found at http://help.ekklesia360.com/module/events/

Manage Events
  1. Events: This is a list of all events in the system with some basic information about each. Events can be organized by Event, Start Date, and Status.
  2. Calendar: This is a calendar view of all events. You can use this view to edit specific event occurrences (for example, to cancel "Youth Group" for a single night). 
  3. RSVPS: This gives you a list of all the RSVPS for your events and can be organized by name, event, email, guests, or RSVP date. A member of the Ekklesia 360 team will need to enable this for you if you wish to use the RSVP functionality.
  4. Discounts: This tab is only used if RSVP is enabled.
  5. Categories: As an event is created, it can be assigned a category (or many categories)—those categories are used to provide "filtering" options in the layout, which help your members to easily find the right information. NOTE: Events must be assigned to the parent category of "Events" OR one of its child categories, in order for them to show up in the layout.
  6. Coordinators: This lists the event coordinators in your system and details how many events are assigned to each of them. If you need to link a Coordinator to their corresponding Member Profile, you can do that here as well.
  7. Edit Selected Events: This allows you to edit or delete any selected event, and it's especially helpful if you need to edit events in bulk.
  8. Add A New Event: Allows you to add a brand new event to the system.

Event Images

All event images should have a 16:9 aspect ratio (1,200px by 675px is the recommended size).

Events images will normally display in the Featured Event Slider (IF the event is published as featured), and event images will also show up on event detail pages. 

While recommended, it is not required that all events have an image. If you do not have images for all of your events, you can set up a "default image" that will be used in the Featured Event Slider, to display events that do not have an image of their own. Using the link list, "Events #5 Default Image," simply add an image to the Default Image entry (link lists are found under Content > Link Lists).

Stock images can work great for events; check out our resource page: https://help.ekklesia360.com/article/stock-image-resources/

Setting Up the Page

Once your events are created and organized with the appropriate categories, all of your events can be seen by visiting your Events page (normally found in your site's navigation). 

The Featured Events Slider at the top of the page will show up-to-10 of the most recent events published as featured. You do not need to have 10 events in this section; the layout will display from 1-10 events. 

This Featured Slider always remains at the top of the layout and can be navigated with the large arrows on either side (or by swiping across on mobile).

Event Categories

Events must be assigned to the parent category "Events" or one of its child categories in order to display on this layout.

Additional categories can be added as needed under the parent category of "Events," and these will be used to create filtering options in the layout (more on this below). NOTE: the "Childcare" category name should not be changed. If you do not intend to show event childcare information, then simply delete this category

Campus Filtering

If your church has multiple campuses, you can set up a group for each campus (People >  Groups).

When publishing your event, be sure to add the campus group to the event.

Your campus filter will auto-populate when you have events published to campus groups, allowing users to filter by campus. 

Event Filtering

The categories that you create and assign to various events will allow users to easily filter events, so they can quickly "drill down" and access specific information. The name of the category filter button can vary to suit your church's needs—for example, you might want to call it "Ministry Area" rather than "Event Type," as seen in the example below. Use the link list, "Events #5 Category Filter Title," to change the name of the filter button.

NOTE: as mentioned earlier, the "Childcare" category name is important and should not be changed—if you do not intend to include childcare information for events, then simply remove the category completely.

View Options - Desktop & Mobile

Events #5 can be tailored to present a number of different event layouts—we call these calendar "views," and there are three view options that you can choose from for Desktop users, two for Mobile:

Desktop Views

  • Split: calendar + a small list of events (the default Desktop view)
  • Hybrid: full-width calendar + a small list that appears when a calendar day is clicked
  • Traditional: full-width calendar + user controls to switch between calendar and list

Mobile Views

  • Split: full-width calendar + a small event list directly beneath (the default Mobile view)
  • List: full-width list that loads in events as you scroll down

Calendar views are managed using the link list, "Events #5 View Options." Enter the name of the desired view into the description field for the Desktop or Mobile link list item.

Event Details Page

When an event is clicked, the event detail page will load and show all the information available for that event. (If there are fields within the event editor that are not pertinent to a specific event or ministry, then simply leave them blank; don't use what you don't need!) The Event Details page will also show buttons for Event Registration, if applicable.