If your organization publishes multiple calendars and a number of publishers and editors share the responsibility for keeping those calendars up to date, establishing an effective workflow is key. By taking advantage of a number of built-in Trumba® Connect features, you can set up a process that will meet your organization's specific workflow needs.
Trumba has built-in features that support workflow.
In this topic, you learn about the features that support setting up a workflow and find links to more information about each one.
You can also walk through three strategy examples that illustrate workflow features in action.
Whatever workflow you set up will involve some combination of the features described below. Before plunging into the features list, consider these tips:
Calendar sharing is at the heart of the workflow process.
Sharing makes it possible to centralize the creation of calendars, templates, and custom fields while distributing the responsibility for creating or approving events and managing calendar content.
As a publisher, you can share the calendars you create with any number of editor accounts. You can grant each editor one of three permission levels ranging from view-only permission to full ability to publish. This gives you the flexibility to set up precisely the kinds of sharing relationships your workflow processes require.
You can share calendars with as many accounts as you want and tailor permissions for each account.
Where can I learn more about sharing and permissions?
What's the difference between publisher and editor accounts?
Often, the people who add events to calendars are not the same as the people who approve events for publication. An effective way to handle this split is by creating calendars for internal use only.
Because events on internal calendars are not available to the public, event submitters can add events there without risk of premature exposure. At the same time, events on internal calendars can be reviewed and modified by approvers, who then move the ones suitable for publication onto live calendars.
It's often important to preview events while creating or approving them so you may want to publish (but not embed) your internal calendars. While published calendars are hosted on the Trumba website, they're not searchable and you can password protect them.
Tips
I could use a refresher on how to publish calendars.
How do I password protect a calendar?
How do I preview events using the hosted view?
What is an event submission form?
Hidden fields are custom fields that event creators see on add/edit event forms but that do not appear in published views. You can hide any custom field you create by clearing the Allow this field to be published option.
Option on Create a New Custom Field form for hiding a custom field
Publishers and editors can use hidden fields to communicate with one another as events move through the workflow process. For example, you might create a hidden Approval Notes field for editor-publisher communication during the submission/approval process.
Tip If you use an event submission form to solicit events, the form automatically includes two hidden fields for submitter name and email address (or three hidden fields, if you require a submitter phone number). These fields are available to approvers who open the events in the editing environment but submitter information never appears in published views.
How do I create custom fields?
What is an event submission form?
Many workflows involve moving events. For example, editors might move approved events from an internal Submitted Events calendar onto a live calendar. Publishers might move events proposed by editors back and forth between Proposed and Final Approval calendars until the events are ready to go live.
You move an event by changing the event's owning calendar. This takes the event off of its original calendar and places it on the destination calendar. To change an event's owning calendar, you open the add/edit event form.
Moving an event from the Biology department to the Chemistry department calendar
Tip To move an event, you must be the destination calendar's owner or have been given at least Can add, delete, and change events sharing permission by the calendar owner.
What are the sharing permission levels?
In some organizations, departmental calendar editors might have the option of adding or requesting to add selected departmental events to other organizational calendars. In this workflow, the editors use Also Shows On.
A Chemistry department event will also show on the Biology department's calendar
With Also Shows On, an event is still owned by the calendar where it originated. It receives increased exposure by also appearing on other relevant calendars.
Where can I learn more about Also Shows On?
Can I use Also Shows On while adding an event?
If you want to solicit event submissions from the public or members of your community, you can create a custom event submission form and publish it on your website.
By default, event submission forms are set up for approval, which means that you have the opportunity to review and approve all submitted events before they go live. Each submitted event is automatically placed onto an internal holding calendar. After reviewing these submissions, editors can move events they approve from the internal to the live calendar.
How exactly does the event submission process work?
How do I get an event submission form?
Typically, you use calendar email as an external communications tool to keep a published calendar's subscribers informed about new and upcoming events. Publishers and editors responsible for approving events can turn calendar email into a workflow tool by subscribing to an internal approval calendar's email.
For example, suppose a publisher creates a Request to Show On calendar and shares it with editors. The editors, who want selected departmental events to also appear on the main calendar, show those events on the Request to Show On calendar. The publisher reviews the added events and moves the approved ones onto the main calendar.
Instead of constantly checking the Request to Show On calendar, the publisher sets up a daily calendar email that lists all future events and adds herself to the calendar's distribution list.
Each day an email message arrives in the publisher's inbox that lists events the editors have shown on the Request to Show On calendar.
The calendar email message the publisher receives will look something like this.
What exactly is calendar email?
How do I set up a calendar email?
The Recent Activity panel displays a list of changes made by other account holders to shared calendars in your account.
In the editing environment, the Recent Activity panel appears at the bottom of the shared calendar you're displaying.
A publisher who shares a Request to Show On calendar with a number of editors can use the Recent Activity panel to quickly see a list of events the editors recently proposed.
Changes other account holders make appear in the Recent Activity panel at the bottom of a shared calendar.
After reviewing and moving the proposed events, the editor can click Dismiss to clear the Recent Activity list.
To see a details page, the publisher can click Details at the bottom of the panel.
Recent Activity details
Tip The symbols in the panel and the details page provide information about the events. For example, the asterisk indicates a new event. The clock symbol with the date/time field underlined indicates an update to the event's date and/or time.
Can I find out more about the Recent Activity panel?
Where can I learn more about the symbols?
Tip If the strategy description refers to a feature you don't understand, find the feature in the Workflow features list.
The Center for Humanities at a university publishes a calendar on its website. Members and supporters of the academic community want to publicize their university-related events by having them appear on the Center's calendar.
The Center needs a workflow that makes it easy to receive and review event submissions and add the approved events to the live calendar.
The university centralizes the creation of calendars, submission forms, and editor accounts in one administrative publisher account.
The administrative publisher:
Color coding the published calendar and submitted event sub-calendar in the editing environment makes it easy for the editor to identify submitted events.
The editor moves an approved event from the Request to Show On sub-calendar to the Center's live calendar. The event goes live immediately.
Tip If the strategy description refers to a feature you don't understand, find the feature in the Workflow features list.
A large organization publishes a main calendar and several departmental calendars.
While the organization centralizes the creation of calendars and editor accounts in one administrative publisher account, editors manage the content of departmental calendars.
The organization needs a workflow that allows editors to recommend some departmental events for inclusion on the main calendar and gives the main calendar's publisher a chance to review and approve these recommended events before including them.
The administrative publisher:
This internal calendar is not published or mixed in to any published calendars.
To also show the recommended event on the Request to Also Show On sub-calendar, the editor selects that calendar's check box.
Tip The publisher is not automatically notified by email each time an editor adds an event to the Request to Also Show On sub-calendar so the organization set up its own email protocol. When departmental editors add events, they also send event added email messages to the publisher that include brief event details.
To stop showing an approved event on the Request to Also Show On sub-calendar, the publisher clears the Request to Also Show On calendar check box. To start showing the event on the main calendar, the publisher selects the Main calendar check box.
Tip If the strategy description refers to a feature you don't understand, find the feature in the Workflow features list.
A state department of labor publishes a career events calendar. The events take place in ten regions across the state.
The department needs a workflow that makes it easy for regional editors to recommend events for publication on the career events calendar and for the publisher to review, modify, and approve all recommended events before they go live.
The department centralizes the creation of calendars and editor accounts in one administrative publisher account.
The administrative publisher:
The view events permission level means that the editors, when signed in to their accounts, will be able to display the main and relevant regional calendars but will not be able to add, delete, or change events.
Both internal calendars are shared with all the editors, who are granted Can add, delete, and change events permission.
Both internal calendars are published but not embedded or searchable. Publishing these internal calendars allows the editors and publisher to preview events internally the way they'll look when they go live.
After previewing an event, selecting the appropriate regions from the hidden Market My Event In list field, and adding any notes to the hidden Approval Notes field, the editors move the event to the Final Approval calendar.
To move a proposed event to the Final Approval calendar, an editor changes the event's owning calendar.
Tip The publisher is not automatically notified each time an editor adds an event to the Final Approval calendar so the department set up its own email protocol. When editors add events, they also send event added email messages to the publisher that include brief event details.
If necessary, the publisher adds notes to the hidden Approval Notes field requesting additional information and moves the event back to the Submitted calendar.
To alert the editor, the publisher replies to the editor's event added email (described in a tip in step 1).
For example, if, in the Market My Event In field, the editor lists Region 3, Region 5, and Region 6, the publisher will move the event onto the Region 3 calendar and also show the event on the Region 5 and 6 calendars.
The publisher consults the Market My Event In field to decide which calendar to move the event to and which calendars to also show the event on.
