Calendars can be created with any content type with a date field, so there are plenty of possibilities for combined calendars. Combined calendars are when you merge several calendars into one, so that it lists the dates of different content types with specific labels to differentiate them.
Combined calendars help your community see different information at a glance, allowing them to filter to individual calendars, if necessary. This article will go through several examples of combined calendars and the separate single calendars you need to create them.
Calendars work by choosing content types and using content labels to filter the content pages. If content labels are essential to your calendars, remember to train your content authors to use them correctly. We also recommend documenting the content labels you use and their purpose so you can keep track of what labels are used and where content authors should use them.
Events and Meetings
A common combined calendar we see shows council meetings and events on one calendar. To do this, you must create a single calendar each for OC Meetings and OC Events, but you can also create more if you want to be specific with content labels.
For example, you could combine four different calendars listing:
- OC Meetings with the Council-meetings content label
- OC Meetings with the Events-and-rec-committee content label
- OC Events with the Council-events content label
- OC Events with the Community-events content label
You can get as specific as necessary for this calendar and choose to list all events and meetings on your site, or list types of events and meetings separately.
Multiple Meeting Types
Your city or council may hold many different types of meetings, such as ordinary, special, committee, or public town halls. To help your community keep track of these, you can use a combined calendar to list them all together, but still differentiate them with separate labels.
To create a combined meeting calendar, you need separate calendars showing the OC Meeting content type, but with different content labels that specify the meeting type.
Multiple Events
Events calendars can get crowded, especially during festivals and the holiday season. Creating a combined events calendar will allow your community to see all events at once and filter by the content label you set to see, for example, only festival events or family-friendly events.
You can also create and combine event calendars for different sites, so you can separate events held at your arts center from those listed on your public site. You can combine as many calendars as you want, you simply need to assign the correct content labels to your OC Event pages and specify them in the calendars.
Council Projects and Consultations
The OC Project, OC Consultation, and OC EngagementHQ Project content types have date fields so you can add them to your calendars. This can help you communicate your works and projects and community engagement efforts to your site visitors.
Additionally, you can choose to include OC Events and OC Meeting pages with a content label relating to your project or engagement to list the public events and meetings within the consultation. Doing this will help your community stay informed about projects and consultations and keep track of opportunities to have their say.