Applies to: Event Management for SharePoint on premise (SP2010, SP2013, SP2016, SP2019)
Other versions: View the version for Office 365/SharePoint online
For installation instructions please refer to the Event Management Installation
Note: All the screenshots were taken from SharePoint 2013. The Event Management is also available for SharePoint 2010, SharePoint 2016 and SharePoint 2019.
In this article:Create an Event Management site
To create an Event Management site you can
- Create a new site collection in SharePoint Central Administration.
- Create a new website in an existing site collection.
- Activate the feature on an existing website.
Option 1: Create a new site collection
Open SharePoint Central Administration, go to Application Management -> Create site collection and enter the required information. Choose the template “Event Management Site Template” in the sapiens.at tab and click OK.
Option 2: Create a new website
Open the web where you want to create the new sub web, click Site Actions -> New Site. Filter by sapiens.at and choose the Event Management Site Template. Enter the title and the URL of the new web and click on Create.
Option 3: Activate the feature on an existing website
Open the web where you want to use Event Management and click Site Actions -> Site Settings -> Manage site features. Activate the feature Sapiens.at.SharePoint Event Management.
Lists
The Event Management provides the following lists:
Event Catalog: A list of topics.
Scheduled Events: This list contains the actual events. An event can be created from a topic (Schedule Event) or directly in the Scheduled Events list.
Enrollments: Enrollments to topics and events.
Configure the Scheduled Events list
The Scheduled Events list is based on the Calendar with e-mail extension and sends invitations to attendees if they are enrolled or the enrollment is approved. This is why you have to configure the Calendar E-Mail Extension settings.
Calendar E-Mail Extension list settings
Go to the Scheduled Events list and click on the link in the notification bar or open the list settings and click on Calendar E-Mail Extension settings in the Communications section.
E-Mail Address
Now you have to configure an E-Mail Address for the Scheduled Events list. You have 2 options:
- Option 1: Standard – Use e-mail address of the SharePoint calendar
- Option 2: Advanced – Use alternative sender to send meeting requests to people outside of your Exchange organization
Option 1: Standard
Use the calendar’s e-mail address to send meeting requests and receive attendees’ responses.
Option 2: Advanced
Use an alternative sender if your SharePoint’s e-mail domain is private and you want to send meeting requests to people outside of your Exchange organization.
In advanced mode you have to configure an e-mail contact in your Exchange organization using the alias of the alternative sender and set this calendar’s e-mail address as the external e-mail address.
To verify if the e-mail communication works with the configured e-mail address(es), you can click the Verify e-mail communication button. If something is not configured correctly this option helps you identify it.
If the verification is not successful, follow the instructions on the verification page or send an e-mail to support@sapiens.at and include details about your e-mail configuration. We can also help you with the configurations in a GoToMeeting session.
Time Zone
Specify the calendar’s time zone. This is important to get a rule for daylight saving changes if you schedule recurring events.
Prevent Updates through Outlook
Configure if you want to prevent users from creating or modifying events when the SharePoint calendar is connected to Outlook. This can protect meetings from being deleted or modified unintentionally in Outlook.
Item Attachments
Specify whether to send the item’s attachments with the meeting request.
Calendar E-Mail Extension content type settings
In the Calendar E-Mail Extension settings of a content type you can configure the body of various e-mails sent by the system.
Open the list settings of the Scheduled Events list, click on the Event content type and click on Calendar E-Mail Extension settings.
You can use {field} placeholders to include the value from an event. You can also configure an alternative URL if this SharePoint site can be accessed by external users. All URLs to this SharePoint site will be replaced in the e-mail body with this value.
Event Management Settings
To access the Event Management settings you must first go to the scheduled events’ list settings. Then select Event Management settings.
Here you can adjust various options for the waiting list.
It is possible to select whether there should be a waiting list for an event or not and whether a tentative invitation should be sent to these people or not.
You can also automatically enroll the first user on the waiting list if an enrollment is cancelled and delete cancelled enrollments from the enrollment list.
Additional content approval settings have also been added, so it is possible to restrict the number of pending enrollment to the number of seats and so that enrollments can be approved after the enrollment deadline if desired.
Clicking on “Configure e-mail templates” takes you to the Calendar E-Mail Extension content type settings as explained above.
Permissions
List permissions
All the lists created by the Event Management feature inherit permissions from the web. However, you can remove this inheritance and configure individual permissions for each list.
- Allow site visitors to enroll to topics and events: Remove the role inheritance of the enrollment list and grant visitors contribute permissions.
- Only allow site owners to add, update and delete topics and events: Remove the role inheritance of the Event Catalog and Scheduled Events lists and remove the contribute permission from the members group, or
- Create a particular SharePoint Group “Event Organizer” for this purpose
Item-level permissions
Item-level permissions are only configured in the list’s advanced settings. We do not remove the permission inheritance on item level.
In the enrollment list users are only allowed to read and edit items that were created by the user. The other lists uses the default settings, read and edit all items.
The limitation to allow users only to “Create items and edit items that were created by the user” makes also sense in the Event Catalog and Scheduled Events. Especially if all members are allowed to create and edit events (default). You may also change the item-level permission setting for this lists.
Anonymous access
If you want to allow anonymous access to your Event Management Site you have to enable anonymous access on the web application.
Open Central Administration, click Manage Web Applications, select the web application, click Authentication Providers, click on the zone and enable anonymous access.
In the site collection go to Site Actions -> Site Permissions -> Anonymous Access and allow anonymous users to access the entire web site.
Anonymous users can now access your event management site.
If you want to allow anonymous users to enroll in topics and scheduled events you have to change the settings of the enrollments list.
In the advances list settings you have to reset the item-level permission settings to the default.
In the list’s permission settings you have to allow anonymous users to add items.
Now anonymous users are able to enroll in topics and scheduled events.
Permissions FAQ
Who is allowed to enroll in topics and events?
Users with AddItems permissions on the enrollments list.
Who is allowed to enroll others?
Users with ManageLists permissions on the enrollments list or EditItems permissions on the topic or scheduled events.
Who is allowed to manage enrollments?
Users with EditItems permissions on the topic or scheduled events.
Content approval
By default, Topics (Event Catalog), Scheduled Events and Enrollments do not require content approval. If you need content approval you can however enable it in the list’s versioning settings. This means, items are only visible to the author and users with ManageLists permissions until they are approved.
If content approval is configured the approver has to approve the item after every update to make changes visible to all users. This can lead to inconsistencies in the Scheduled Events list, because updates will be sent to attendees immediately. If, for example, the organizer changes the event date, all attendees receive a meeting update via e-mail immediately, but if attendees open the event, they still see the old event date, if the event has not been approved yet.
Approval workflows
You can also add approval workflows to lists if, for example, employees need the approval of the manager to visit events.
Microsoft SharePoint Server already provides a content approval workflow you can use for this purpose.
Activate the Publishing Approval Workflow feature in the site collection features.
You can also configure your own approval workflow or modify the built-in content approval workflow. The only important thing is to update the approval status of the item after the workflow is completed.
If enrollments need approval, add this workflow to the enrollments list and configure to “Start this workflow when a new item is created“.
If you have problems configuring the solution or any other questions, please send an e-mail to support@sapiens.at. We’ll get back to you as soon as we can, usually within a few hours.
