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Group & Department Pages

Group & Department Pages provide users with context around who is hosting your events! Using Group & Departments will add a directory to your calendar homepage so users can search via a particular Group or Department, or as a quick way to obtain extra information. Groups and Departments are used to bring disparate members of your audience together by highlighting events that happen at different places, but share a common host. Functionally, Group and Department Pages are the same, the information is simply hosted in separate directories.

In this article you’ll find:

  • Benefits of Groups and Departments
  • Adding a Group Page or Department Page
  • Assigning an Event to a Group/Department
  • Exporting Group or Department Pages
  • Bulk Add Groups or Departments
  • FAQ

Benefits of Groups & Departments

Beyond just serving as another means to classify events, here are some benefits of using Group & Department Pages:

  1. Users can see both upcoming and recent events on one page.
  2. Group Officers can approve or reject a Group/Department’s followers, edit the description, or send messages to the Group/Department’s followers.
  3. Users can upload photos and add comments to the Group or Department Page.
  4. Users can follow a Group or Department Page so that all events/upcoming events are added to their Localist calendar. Group Admins can decide whether or not to require follow requests by selecting skip officer approval in the Group or Department’s edit page.
  5. Connect and display an RSS feed for Group/Department related news and blog posts.
  6. Finally, simply get more eyes on your diverse list of Groups/Departments and their culture. Group and Department Pages also add another layer to how effectively your calendar can showcase your campus’ active community.

Bonus: Huge SEO boost for your calendar!

Adding Group & Department Pages

To add a Group Page:

1. In the Admin Dashboard, navigate to Classifications > Groups

2. Select + Add Group, fill out the form, then Save Changes.

To add a Department Page:

1. In the Admin Dashboard, navigate to Classifications > Departments

2. Select + Add Department, fill out the form, then Save Changes.

– Note –

If you’re not already using Department Pages and would like to turn them on, email Localist Support at support@localist.com

 

Group & Department Page Fields

  • Name:  This will be displayed as the Group/Department’s name in the directory listing, on the event list, and on event details pages.
  • Description:  No character limit, but only around 150 characters will be displayed before being truncated on the main listing.
  • Group (or Department) Website:  This website will be linked under the Group or Department’s name on the landing page as View Group (or Department) Website.
  • Twitter Username:  This will be linked in a Twitter icon on the right side of the landing page.
  • Facebook Page:  This will be linked in the Facebook icon on the right side of the landing page.
  • Vanity URL:  This will give the group landing page a custom URL.
    • For example “The Fine Arts Cooperative” will be .edu/the_fine_arts_cooperative, but it can be changed to .edu/fac, etc.
  • News Feed RSS URL:  This feed will be displayed under Upcoming Events on the Group or Department Page.
  • Photo:  This photo will be displayed on the listing and landing page for the Group or Department. It may be used as a part of the Fallback Chain when an event does not have a unique photo.
  • Skip Officer Approval:  When checked, users who select Follow Group or Follow Department will automatically be added as a follower.
    • This does not equate to official group membership.

Assigning an Event to a Group or Department

When in an event’s edit/create form, you will see a section titled Classifications. Group/Departments are listed with a corresponding drop-down.

– Note –

The Upcoming Events section of the Group or Department Page displays the five closest future events, starting with the closest.

Managing Live Groups & Departments

For Groups:

1. From the Admin Dashboard, navigate via Classifications > Groups

2. On this page you will be able to:

  1. Search Groups:  By Group name
  2. Edit a Group:  Select the Group’s name from the list.
  3. Remove a Group:  Select the trashcan icon next to a Group’s name.
  4. Add a New Group Officer:  Either search for the user in the From Directory field or select browse + select Group from dropdown + Add Officer
  5. Add a Group: Select the + Add Group Button

For Departments:

1. From the Admin Dashboard, navigate via Classifications > Departments

2. On this page you will be able to:

  1. Search Departments:  By Department name
  2. Edit a Department:  Select the Department’s name from the list.
  3. Remove a Department:  Select the trashcan icon next to a Department’s name.
  4. Add a New Group Officer:
    1. Either search for the user in the From Directory field or select browse + select Department from dropdown + Add Officer
  5. Add a Department: Select the + Add Department Button

Group Officers

Group Officer is a Localist permission level. It is not an administrator permission – which means the user will not be able to access the Admin Dashboard. That said, from the public-facing interface, the Group Officer permission allows the user to:

  1. Use the Public Submission Form to submit events related to that Group or Department for approval
  2. Edit the Group/Department description
  3. Send messages to Group/Department members
  4. Approve membership requests.

– Note –

To view a complete list of all Group Officers and their respective Groups/Departments, navigate from the Admin Dashboard to Classifications > Groups (or Departments) > Officers

Approving Group & Department Follow Requests

Platform Admins and Group Admins can manage follow requests in the Admin Dashboard.

1. Navigate to Groups > Follow Requests OR Departments > Follow Requests

2. This page displays a list of all pending requests and can be filtered per Group or Department by using the drop down.

  • Reject:  This user will not be allowed to follow the group.
  • Verify as Officer:  This user will be allowed to follow the Group/Department and will be a officer for the Group/Department.
  • Verify:  This user will be allowed to follow the Group/Department.

Exporting Group & Department Pages

You can export Groups & Departments via CSV Export or via the API.

Exporting Groups & Departments via CSV:

1. In the Admin Dashboard, navigate to Classifications > Groups (or Departments)

2. Select Export CSV

3. Your CSV download link will be sent to the email address you used to login to Localist

– Note –

The link sent to you via email for the CSV export will only work for 72 hours. Beyond that time limit, you will need to request another CSV export of your Group or Department Pages.

Using the API to Export Groups & Departments:

1. Build an API call.

  • Groups: http://your.custom.domain/api/2/groups?pp=100&page=1
  • Departments: http:/your.custom.domain/api/2/departments?pp=100&page=1

– Note –

This will pull 100 results per page so to access the next 100 you will need to change the 1 in page=1 to 2, etc.

2. Enter the API call in your search bar and you will see the data populate.

3. Open http://konklone.io/json/ in another tab.

4. Copy and paste all data that is on the API results page and paste that information in the first box on http://konklone.io/json/.

5. Once pasted, the information will be added to the second box in a table format.

6. Select Download the entire CSV and in this CSV you will have all available data for the first 100 events.

+ Bulk Add Landing Pages

Downloading a Template:

1. In the Admin Dashboard, navigate to Classifications > Groups (or Departments) > + Bulk Add Groups (or Departments)

2. On this page you will see a link to download a CSV template.

3. To populate a CSV, the field data will need to be entered the same way you would enter it manually in the edit/create form.

Populating a CSV

Field data will need to be entered the same way you would enter it manually in the edit/create forms.

Available Fields for Groups and Departments

  • Name
  • Description
  • Type*
  • URL
  • Photo URL
  • Skip Officer Approval
  • Twitter
  • Facebook URL

*Type is referring to the default Group Type Filters. However, if you create a custom Filter to be applied to Groups then another column with the Filter’s name, such as “Campus,” will automatically be included when downloading your template. After you are finished building your spreadsheet you must export the file as a CSV. On the pages where you downloaded the templates you will see a file button to select your CSV.

– Note – 

Group Types are also assigned to Department Pages and live in the Group/Department directories. The Group Types will rearrange themselves in each directory based on the number of pages assigned to each Filter (i.e. the number in the parenthesis next to the Group Type)

FAQ

Q:  Is there a form for Users to fill out in order to request that a Group or Department Page be made?

A:  There is no public facing group submission form because this goes beyond the scope of what Localist is designed for – an events management system and not a group management system. We suggest including a “contact” link in your wrapper for users to submit such requests or questions.

Q:  Can Group members be added in bulk?

A:  No, as this also goes beyond the scope of event management. Further, “following a Group” does not equate to membership as this function only adds the Group’s events to the user’s Localist calendar.

Q:  Can Groups be marked as non-active?

A:  Groups can only be active or deleted.