Use of layers on unit web sites

[danpass]

In the Next Revision Unit Web Sites Wish List thread of this forum, the idea was brought up of having multiple layers for the unit calendar, like Calendar Creator and Google Calendars have. Being able to turn different layers on or off would make it possible, for members to display as much or as little as they want when maintaining or using their unit calendar. I think this is a great idea and it got me thinking about what I would like to see as part of the design if such a capability were to be implemented in the future.

I would like to see some built-in layers along with the ability for an administrator to create custom layers.

Built-in layers could include:

• Churchwide Events
• Stake Events
• Ward Events
• Scheduled Lessons (this layer could automatically be populated by what has been entered by an administrator in the Lesson Schedules part of the site)

When exporting a calendar, only events in layers currently being displayed should be exported.

Perhaps, in addition to being in a layer, an event could also be assigned 1 or more categories to allow further filtering within layers. (for example, my youngest child is 12, so I might want to exclude events that have a category of Cub Scouts or Primary from my personal calendar)

[WelchTC]

Ideally how this would work is that each "layer" is just a separate calendar that you could subscribe to (.ics file). That way you could use any calendaring program that supports ics files to view your calendar.

Tom

[bhofmann-p40]

I agree. Being in Oklahoma many of the Utah events clog up the calendar. We of course like to know about the broadcasts though. I don't know how that would work.

[JasonG-p40]

I wouldn't expect it to be all that hard to also set up a classification system when posting new events. Being able to select for instance whether this is a Local Meeting, Ward Activity, Broadcast, YM/YW Activity, and so forth.

It might end up being more of a hassle than a help, but it would allow for more customization of data viewed by the users.

[dobrichelovek]

I wouldn't expect it to be all that hard to also set up a classification system when posting new events. Being able to select for instance whether this is a Local Meeting, Ward Activity, Broadcast, YM/YW Activity, and so forth.

It might end up being more of a hassle than a help, but it would allow for more customization of data viewed by the users.

If it was something like Google Calendars and the other layers were available but not displayed by default, it would be helpful if there was some sort of method to indicate that there are events available in a given layer that are not currently being displayed. Much like on this website where the forums that have new messages are in bold or have a different icon. That way you could specify a default view to keep things uncluttered, but it would be obvious enough that there are things that aren't currently displayed and which layers contain them. Perhaps the icon would be denoted with RED TEXT saying as much.

[thedqs]

Also Outlook has the option to go to the next event in all layers. That would be similar to the New Posts page on these forums.

[FullmerCB]

If it was something like Google Calendars and the other layers were available but not displayed by default, it would be helpful if there was some sort of method to indicate that there are events available in a given layer that are not currently being displayed. Much like on this website where the forums that have new messages are in bold or have a different icon. That way you could specify a default view to keep things uncluttered, but it would be obvious enough that there are things that aren't currently displayed and which layers contain them. Perhaps the icon would be denoted with RED TEXT saying as much.

Good idea - we're looking at things like this at HQ as we assemble requirements for a new, much more robust, filterable calendaring function.