Tuesday, January 29, 2008
EndUserSharePoint.com: How can I display the same calendar on multiple sites?
The question of the day comes from Carol:
How do I display a calendar on multiple sub sites so that they are linked to the parent site? I have used a Content Query Web Part but that only gives me a Link to the Title of the Meeting. I want to display a filtered view of my calendar on all the each sub site e.g. showing, Meeting Title, start and end time, attendees, etc How can I do this?
That’s what’s lame about the CQWP… you can only see the title field. There is no OOTB solution for your problem, but if you want to hack the web part and rewrite the XSLT, you’d probably get what you’re looking for.
Do a google search on CQWP and XSLT and see what you come up with.
Regards,
Mark
on
Depending on the specific implementation, the Bamboo Calendar Plus web part should do what you are looking for. If you combine that with their List Rollup webpart you can even combine calendars into a single master calendar.
jr
I had this same problem. I was able to find a solution which worked for my folks – they didn’t want the calendar displayed directly on the homepage, just a link to the calendar.
So I made a subsite which only had a calendar in it so several sites could use the same calendar –
clumsy but I couldn’t get authority to install a paid-for web part, my IT dept is way particular about outside software and wants to test it to death (let this be a lesson never to have a huge company on one top-level web site – beleive me).
While all of the above will work, my solution was to import my master calendar, in this case the departmental on-call calendar, and then diced it into various views based on teams. This master calendar (and all associated available views) is accessible from the departmental home page via links. Then when the Telecom team just wanted to display their on-call calendar, I just linked to it via a Summary Link web part (as I had other links to display). In this way, the departmental calendar is maintained by one individual, yet all teams can see/access their own team calendar on their own team sites. I have also displayed the master on-call calendar on other site via links. The user could use the back button to return to the original page, but I solve that by using the Summary Link web part edit tool and choosing to “open link in new window” for the calendar URL. That way the user just needs to close the calendar window and retains the original page. So far, no complaints from users!
Also, you can display the calendar on the home page, but not as the calendar view. By using the “current events” view, you can show a list of events, which is usually shorted and easier to read quickly.
Hey there…I came across this same problem at my company. They really wanted the calendar to populate throughout each 2nd tier site and there really is no OOTB solution so I fished around…got a little creative and here’s what I did.
My work around was to create the master calendar on our Main site with Custom Site Columns for each Area and Region of our business.
A new Event Content Type was created for the calendar…To create the new Event Content Type, I recommend visiting the following link for instructions on this since the Event Content Type is hidden OOTB:
http://www.bobmixon.com/articles/Pages/2007-10-17-WorkingWithSharePointEventsLists.aspx
Once you have created your new Event Content Type and the calendar is created, go to the new calendar’s List Settings
Under Advanced Settings, change the “Allow management of Content Types?” to YES, then click OK
Under Content Types, click on “Add from existing content types”. Look for your newly created Event Content Type, click Add then click OK
Change the button order to make your Event Content Type first, then uncheck the Visible box on the old type so only yours is visible
Ok, now you’re ready to use your calendar and have it flow to other sites.
Create a new site and edit it in SPD (SharePoint Designer). Click on Data View from the menu and then click Insert Data View.
In the Data Source Library, you will need to connect to another source since your calendar does not reside on this page. Click on connect to another library and click Add. Find your source site and click OK.
Your site and all of it’s lists and libraries will populate. Find your Calendar and as you hover over it, click on the down arrow to the right. Choose Show Data. The data fields will populate to show Start Time, End Time, Recurrence, etc.
Hold down the CTRL key and choose the fields you want displayed. Once you’ve chosen your fields, click on Insert them as Multiple Item View.
Now your calendar has populated into the site.
At this point you can either save and close SPD or you can do what I did…
Each Area and Region of our company wanted to see only their calendar events. In order to do this, while still in SPD, I clicked on the arrow box in the upper right hand corner of the data view webpart. I adjusted the filter to include the Area and Region appropriate for the site. I also grouped them by Region so when someone logged in they could better find what they were looking for.
Once the filtering and grouping was done, I saved SPD and refreshed my site page. Now the Calendar is out on the page. Last thing to do is to link the calendar title to the master calendar on the Main site. Go into Modify Webpart and add a link to the title so it goes back to the master calendar on the main site so those that need to add events can.
I know this was lengthy, but I struggled with this for weeks with no help other than google, my imagination, my SharePoint Designer Book, and the friendly bloggers out there!
So I hope this helps at least one person who’s company doesn’t want to fork out the dollars for 3rd party webpart additions.
Good luck and if you have any questions, please let me know and I’ll do my best to help you!
Kristine
Correct me if I’m wrong Kristine, but you are not able to display the calendar in a calendar view fashion, right? Your events are displayed in a list view. That seems to be the limitation (without Bamboo) when trying to aggregate calendar from different locations, whether you use your proposed solution, or in the opposite way, the CQWP.
I am still in search for a better solution…
My calendars show on the site. They may not be in not the “traditional OOTB calendar view” but you still get the Title of the Event, the Dates to and from along with any other information from the “master” calendar you choose when setting up the data view.
I’ll post screen shots to Mark so he can post it if you would like to see them.
Hey Kristine, could you send me the screenshots by using my email from my website (bottom left), just click on my name from this post. Could I use your method to aggregate different calendar into on Data View?
Kevin,
I don’t see why you wouldn’t be able to. You would just need to connect to the data sources and add the items you want as multiple items.
I emailed you some screen shots…my phone number is on the bottom if you need to chat about it with me. I’ll be more than happy to help you!
Hey Kristine, can you possibly email me the screenshots at [email protected]?
Thanks,
Simply alter the permissions for the calendar so you can whoever you wish. Then take the web address of the calendar you wish to view and create a link on the quick lauch index using the web address hey presto anyone can view that calendar. You can then customise the view so that different elements can be seen depending on security.
Was onboard with Kristine W’s solution until she went to SPD. Since I don’t have it (am not trained in yet) is there another way of displaying this solution without rearranging code?
I have had similar questions about Master Calendars. I understand Creating 1 calendar with all events. Then just create a different display. If you want a calendar display that is also possible (just keyword the events then create the view specific for that key word). you can see the calendar instead of the list. But has anyone looked into being able to do this and keep individual workspaces for each view? I am stuck. I have 11 sites now and it’s growing (that want a view / workspace for their particular area) – but then I have another high level group that would like to see all merged events merged into one Master Calendar.
Mary Ann – You’ve come to the party just in time! I have just completed a series on master calendars with subcalendar access. You can view the series here:
http://www.endusersharepoint.com/?s=Create+a+Master+Calendar+in+SharePoint
There is a hands-on, online workshop next Tuesday if you are interested:
http://www.endusersharepoint.com/?p=892
I just viewed the second link that you gave and it covers what I have done for each of my sites. I added a display view (by key wording the description box in each of the events I added). But my problem is still the workspace for each of the views. I am under the impression that we can only do a one to one relationship, right? Master Calendar can only pull from one workspace? I need the master calendar to pull from different workspaces that are associated to the meetings in each site.
I am interested in the hands-on workshop. What time next Tuesday will it be on and what are the steps to get linked to it.
I will go off and review the first link you gave me.
Thanks for the quick response.
Mary Ann – The Master Calendar is not pulling from anywhere… that’s the point of the screencast. The Master Calendar holds all of the events for all workspaces, in your example.
When a calendar is displayed in a workspace, it’s a fake. The calendar displayed is really the Master Calendar with a customized view just for that workspace.
Here’s the info on the workshop:
http://eusp-20081111.eventbrite.com/
Regards,
Mark