Solutions
Share events details
Overview
Creating an event in AddEvent allows you to share that event with your users. This page outlines how to create an event, how each of the sharing methods works, and technical details about events in AddEvent.
Creating an event
Before sharing your event, you must create your event in AddEvent. There are four ways to create an event:
- Create an event in the dashboard manually.
- Create an event using the API.
- Create an event using the Zapier integration.
- Import an event by synchronizing with an external calendar
Regardless of which method you use to create your event, you will be required to enter certain event details.
When you create an event, you must enter the following event details: event title, time, and date. We also recommend setting a timezone for your event to ensure the event time gets converted to each user's timezone correctly.
You can also choose to enter additional event details such as a description, a location, the event organizer, calendar notifications, and more.
When creating an event, you also have the option of making it a recurring event or creating an event series.
Recurring events are events that repeat according to a rule that you set. When you share a recurring event, all instances of the recurring event will be added to the user's calendar. The recurring rule allows you to define how often the event repeats, the days, dates, or weeks the event should repeat, and how many instances of the event should occur before the recurring rule ends.
AddEvent does not support “exclude” rules that work in calendar services such as Google Calendar or Outlook. With an exclude rule, you can remove or edit one instance of a recurring event while the other instances of the event remain unchanged. AddEvent does not allow “exclude” rules because not all calendar services support these rules, and therefore the event would be inconsistent across the different calendar services.
A recurring event in AddEvent is treated as a single event which means that you can’t edit an instance of the event individually. If you need to create multiple copies of an event and want to edit specific instances of those events, you should use an event series.
An event series allows you to create multiple events that have similar details or that follow a repetitive pattern at once. This saves you time by allowing you to create multiple events quickly without having to copy and paste event details or duplicate the event and change the date manually. An event series differs from a recurring event. A recurring event is a single event with a recurring rule, whereas creating an event series means that you create multiple separate events.
When creating an event series, you can choose which days or weeks you want the event to be duplicated on, as well as manually selecting days one-by-one. You can also set a start and end date for the event series to control how many times the event is duplicated. You can only create an event series when you are first creating an event - you can’t edit an existing event to turn it into an event series.
To share all the events in an event series at once (i.e. using a single "add to calendar" button or a single set of add to calendar links) you should use a subscription calendar.
Sharing an event
Once you have created an event, the next step is to share the event with your users. The sections below provide more information about each of the sharing methods and which situations they are best suited.
An "add to calendar" button is a great way to share an event on your website or landing page. AddEvent’s "add to calendar" button works perfectly with most website and landing page builders, as well as with custom-built websites.
When an end-user clicks an "add to calendar" button, they are presented with a drop-down list of our supported calendar services. The user can select which calendar service they use and then save the event to their calendar. The exact process for adding an event to a user’s calendar will depend on the device used and the calendar service they choose. Once a user saves an event to their calendar, the event (including all the event details) will be shown on their calendar.
How to use it
To install an "add to calendar" button on your website, simply copy the code snippet from an event page in the AddEvent app. Then paste this code into your website where you want the "add to calendar" button to appear. If you are using a website or landing page builder, you will probably need to use the “Custom embed”, ”HTML embed”, or similar option to allow you to paste the code into that section of the website.
Customization
The "add to calendar" button is fully customizable, including the text and icon that is displayed, language, calendar services that are included on the drop-down, etc. For more information about customization and various default templates that you can use, go to our "Add to calendar" button documentation page.
Add to calendar links use simple image or text links to offer the same functionality as our "add to calendar" button. The "add to calendar" button uses JavaScript which is not permitted in certain media like emails for security reasons, but our add to calendar links work perfectly instead.
When an end-user sees a set of add to calendar links, they can click on the link corresponding to the calendar service that they use and then save the event to their calendar. The exact process for adding an event to the user’s calendar will depend on the device used and the calendar service they choose. Once the user saves the event to their calendar, the event along with all of the event details will be shown on the user's calendar.
How to use it
To use add to calendar links in an email or another place, simply click the “Copy” button next to the add to calendar links on an event page in the AddEvent app. Then paste the links in your email editor or wherever you want the add to calendar links to appear. In some email campaign tools, the image-based add to calendar links will not work, and you will need to use the text-based add to calendar links instead. There is also an option to view the HTML code for the add to calendar links and copy and paste this into your email which is useful if you are using an HTML email template.
Customization
The add to calendar links have 2 default templates: image-based add to calendar links which display the logo of each calendar service, and text-based add to calendar links which display the name of the calendar service as a clickable link.
The add to calendar links are simply images or text with hyperlinks to add the event to the user's calendar for the particular calendar service. This means that they are fully customizable by editing either the images or the text that is displayed. The HTML option also provides additional customization options if required.
An event landing page is an ideal way to share your event on social media or when you want to display additional information to your users about the event before they add the event to their calendar. There are also extensive customization options available so that you can make the landing page your own.
When an end-user clicks on a link to an event landing page, they are brought to the landing page, which, by default, displays the event name, time, location, description, and other event details. There is also an "add to calendar" button on the event landing page, which allows the user to select which calendar service they use and save the event to their own personal or work calendar.
How to use it
Event landing pages are hosted by AddEvent and are automatically created for each event that you create in AddEvent. There are two unique links available for each event: a standard link, and a short link that is useful for social media, SMS text messages, or other places that you might need to share your event landing page with a character limit.
There is no configuration or set-up necessary to use an event landing page for your event. Simply copy the appropriate link to your event landing page and share it with your users however you want.
Customization
Event landing pages are fully customizable, with full access to the HTML and CSS for the page. This means that you can change everything on the page from time and date format, to font, language, colors, and more. You can include images such as logos or background images, and add additional elements that you want to display.
An embeddable event is a great way to share your event on your website and increases the visibility of the event compared to an "add to calendar" button. The embeddable event displays all of your event details and also contains an "add to calendar" button so that your users can quickly and easily add the event to their calendars.
When an end-user clicks an "add to calendar" button, they are presented with a pop-up that includes a list of our supported calendar services. The user can select which calendar service they use and save the event to their own personal or work calendar.
How to use it
To install an embeddable event on your website, simply copy the code snippet from an event page in the AddEvent app. Then paste this code into your website where you want the embeddable event to appear. If you are using a website or landing page builder, you will probably need to use the “Custom embed”, ”HTML embed”, or similar option to allow you to paste the code into that section of the website.
Customization
The embeddable event is fully customizable from time and date format, to font, language, colors, size, and more.
Technical details
Before creating or sharing your events, you may want to review the following sections for specific technical information about events and the various sharing methods. If you need help getting set up, or if you have any questions about the content on this page, please contact support@addevent.com and our wonderful support team will be happy to help you.
Updating event details
When a user adds an event to their calendar, the event gets saved to their own personal or work calendar. The event in their calendar contains the event details as they were in AddEvent at the point in time the event was added to their calendar. This means that if you later change or update the event details, these changes will not be reflected in the calendars of users who have already added your event to their calendars. If you have already shared an event with your users and you need to edit or update the event details, you will need to share the new or updated event with your users again. You should also ask them to remove the previous event from their calendars to avoid confusion.
If you know ahead of time that you will need to update the event details after it has been shared, you should share a subscription calendar instead of sharing an event. Sharing a subscription calendar with your users creates a dynamic link between your users' calendars and AddEvent, which means that any changes to your AddEvent calendar will be reflected in your users' calendars. This also means that you can share multiple events at once, rather than a single event at a time.
Sharing multiple events
To share multiple events at once using an "add to calendar" button, add to calendar links, or any of the sharing methods above, you should use a subscription calendar. The subscription calendar allows you to add multiple events to a user's calendar at once and creates a dynamic link between your user’s calendar and AddEvent. This means that any changes to your AddEvent calendar will be reflected in your users' calendars. Once a user subscribes to your subscription calendar, all of the events on that calendar will be added to the user’s calendar.
Event/calendar notifications
Events in AddEvent have an option to include a push notification from the user's calendar service to remind them of the upcoming event. You can set the timing for when the notification is sent before the event takes place. Only one calendar notification is available for each event.
For more control over notifications and to send email notifications (including automatic confirmation, reminder, and follow-up emails) for your event, you can collect RSVPs for that event.
Timezone support
Events in AddEvent have timezone support, which means that events are automatically converted to the correct time and date based on the user's timezone when they are added to the user's own calendar.
Daylight savings time support
Events in AddEvent also have support for daylight savings time (DST) rules. We automatically convert all events to the correct time and date based on the 17+ different DST rules that exist worldwide.
Analytics & attendee information
When you share an event, AddEvent records the number of people who have added the event to their calendar (we call these “event-adds”) as well as various details about each event-add. Because of privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA, we don’t track who has added the event to their calendar, just the total number of event-adds. If you need to know who has added the event to their calendar, you can collect RSVPs for your event. This means people must enter their information before adding the event to their calendar. More information about analytics for your events is available on the Analytics solution page.
Access code
AddEvent supports the use of an access code which prevents unauthorized users from viewing your event details on your event landing page. If you enable the access code for an event landing page, users will be required to enter this access code on the event landing page before viewing the event details and adding the event to their calendar. Note that the access code applies to the event landing page sharing method only - users will still be able to add the event to their calendar using another sharing method if you share your event using those methods as well.