When to Use This Plugin
This plugin serves the following use cases. If you only need to list a handful of events on a single, static page on your site, consider building a layout with blocks and patterns instead. If you’re not sure if the plugin will fit your use case, please reach out to our CALS Web Services team and we’ll let you know if we think this plugin is a good fit for you, or we can advise on other options.
- Display a list of upcoming events on your site.
- Have complete control over event page layout.
Need campus-wide visibility?
List your event on today.wisc.edu and use the UW Today Events block instead. You can also use this plugin to import events from today.wisc.edu if you want your site to host a more detailed page about an event.
Plugin Features
- List single or multi-day events on your site.
- Import event information from today.wisc.edu.
- Categorize events to make it easy to display a filtered or filterable list.
- Automatically delete past events (optional).
- Uses the WordPress block editor for complete control over event layout (with helpful starter patterns).
How to use this plugin
Add an event
- Navigate to your admin dashboard.
- Select Events > Add New Event.
- You should see a pop-up appear with event fields. If you do not see this pop-up or you accidentally close it, open it from the settings panel by clicking “Edit Event Info”.
- If the event you are creating is also listed on today.wisc.edu, you can import it directly by selecting the “Import from today.wisc.edu” button and pasting the link (https://today.wisc.edu/events/view/000000).
- Add the event details by filling out the form fields.
* Keep the event description short and sweet. The event description can be used in the events list block to display a short excerpt about the event. If you make it too long, you could create an unbalanced layout. You can add additional event information using other blocks and patterns. - Categorize the event as necessary.
- Choose an layout, or start from scratch. Hover over each available pattern for a preview.
- Customize the layout, if necessary. Each event field you filled out corresponds to a block in the editor, and they can be customized, styled, and moved around as desired.
- Publish the event and preview it on the front-end to make sure everything looks right.
Create a list of events
Events can be displayed on your site using the Events Directory or Events List blocks. Both blocks offer advanced filters, allowing you to select which events are displayed.
| Events Directory | Events List | |
|---|---|---|
| Display a list of events from the plugin and (optionally) link to each event page | ✓ | ✓ |
| Sort by upcoming or past events | ✓ | ✓ |
| Filter by category | ✓ | ✓ |
| Select individual events to display | ✓ | |
| Full control over layout and design using the block editor | ✓ | |
| Allow visitors to easily search, sort, and/or filter the events displayed | ✓ |
Events Directory Block*
The events directory block allows you to list events on your site dynamically, allowing visitors to search, sort, and/or filter right on the page. Each event has a fixed layout with some customization options, but it is more limited compared to the customizability of the Events List block.
*Note: The events directory block requires a separate plugin to be activated. If you can’t find it, please contact us to activate the plugin.
Events List Block
The events list block allows you to display a list of events on your page. It can automatically update which events are displayed based on predefined filters in the editor (e.g. all upcoming events with the “Student Events” category), but does not allow users on the front-end to search and filter. However, it allows you to completely customize the post template for each event using the block editor since it is built on top of the core WordPress Query Loop block.
To use the block, add it to your page. You’ll have the option to choose a starter pattern or start blank (you should start with a pattern).
- Customizing the layout
Once you’ve selected a starting point, you’ll be able to edit the “post template” by adding, removing, or customizing blocks inside of it. For events, you’ll want to use the blocks within the “CALS Events” category to display event information (such as date, description, location, etc.). - Configuring what is displayed
You can also configure the sort and filters by selecting the outer “Event List” block in the editor. To better understand the anatomy of the block, review the documentation for the Query Loop block here.