A calendar widget displays events from your Webtools calendar on your website. You maintain the event information in your calendar, and the widget displays it on your website, so you don’t have to enter the same information twice.
Before you begin
You’ll need:
A Webtools calendar with published upcoming events.
Access to the calendar’s Widgets tab in the calendar's setup area. If you manage events but don’t see the Widgets tab, you may need to ask your calendar administrator for help setting up the widget.
Access to edit your website, or someone on your website team who can help.
1. Choose a widget
Open your calendar in the calendar setup area.
Select Widgets.
Select See examples to explore the available designs.
Under Available Widgets, select the checkbox next to the design you want.
Under Selected Widgets, select the widget’s name to open Widget Edit.
2. Customize what visitors see
On Widget Edit, change the settings you need, then select Save. You can leave other settings at their defaults.
Available options depend on the design you choose. Common settings include:
Number of events: Sets the maximum number of events to display.
Day of Week, Date, and Time: Controls how dates and times appear.
Summary: Displays the event’s short summary.
Descriptions: Displays more detailed event information. Longer descriptions can make the widget take up more space.
Location, Cost, Speaker, Sponsor, and contact details: Displays this information when it has been added to the event and the design supports it.
Registration link: Displays a registration link when the event includes one and the design supports it.
Add "See all events" button: Adds a link to the full event list.
Open in a new browser when events are clicked: Opens event links in a new browser tab or window.
You may also see a CSS box. CSS controls the widget’s visual appearance. You do not need to change it. Leave it as supplied unless your website team is helping you customize the widget.
3. Choose which events appear
Choosing a widget design and choosing which events appear are separate steps.
Widgets use published, visible events that have been selected for widgets on that calendar. Upcoming events are provided in start-date order, and the widget’s Number of events setting determines how many can appear.
Automatically include new events
If you want new events to be selected for widgets automatically:
Go to the Widgets page.
Check Automatically add all new calendar events to widgets.
Select Save.
This option is useful if your website should regularly feature new events from your calendar.
This setting applies to new events. Review existing events separately to make sure the events you want are selected. Turning off automatic inclusion does not change selections already made for existing events.
Handpick your events
To choose individual events:
Open the calendar’s My Events list in the event management area.
Find the Widget column.
Check the events you want to include, and uncheck the events you don’t.
Select Save before leaving the page or moving to another page of results.
The Widget checkbox is available for published events. If an event does not have a checkbox, check whether it has been published.
Unchecking Widget removes the event from the widget selection. It does not delete the event or remove it from your calendar.
Event selections are shared by all widgets on the calendar. Different widget designs can show different details or different numbers of events, but they use the same group of selected events.
If you want to feature only a few handpicked events, turn off automatic inclusion and review the Widget checkboxes in My Events.
Add a message when there are no events
On the Widgets page, use No events scheduled message to enter a message such as:
No upcoming events are scheduled. Check back soon.
Select Save, then check how your widget displays the message when no events are available.
4. Add the widget to your website
Webtools provides embed code — a short piece of code that displays the widget on your webpage. You don’t need to write or change this code yourself.
Under Selected Widgets, select your widget’s name.
Save any changes to its settings.
Find Script to paste into webpage and select Copy.
Open your website’s page editor.
Paste the complete code into an HTML, custom code, or other area that accepts scripts.
Preview the page to make sure the widget appears correctly.
Save or publish the page using your website’s usual process.
5. Keep your widget up to date
Continue updating event titles, dates, summaries, images, and other information in your Webtools calendar.
For routine event updates, you do not need to add the embed code to your website again. The widget will display the updated calendar information.
To change the widget’s display settings:
Return to Widgets.
Select the widget’s name.
Make your changes.
Select Save.
If the same embed code is used on several webpages, changes to the widget will affect all of them. Coordinate with other page owners before changing shared settings.
Change to a different widget design
Select and configure the new widget design. Then replace the old embed code on your webpage with the code for the new widget.
Remove a widget from a webpage
Remove the widget’s embed code from the webpage, or ask your website editor to remove it.
The Delete option under Selected Widgets deletes the widget setup from the calendar. It does not remove embed code that has already been added to webpages.