How to create calendars

Calendars publish your agency's events on a portal address that clients and staff can open in a browser or subscribe to from their own calendar app. Each calendar controls which events appear, who can open it, and how each event title reads.

### Overview

- **What it is:** A calendar record under **Events** > **Calendars**. Every calendar has a name, a portal, an access status, and a URL, plus options that decide which events display and how their titles are built.
- **Why it matters:** Sharing one link, or one subscription feed, saves your agency from answering the same schedule questions by phone and keeps everyone looking at the same list of events.
- **Who uses it:** Staff who set up and maintain the calendar, and anyone your agency shares the portal link or the subscribe address with.
- **Expected outcomes:** A filtered, always current schedule at a fixed web address, an iCalendar feed for Office, Google and Apple calendars, and an access level that matches how sensitive the events are.

### Prerequisites

- An eCourtDate account with **Events** available in the top navigation
- Events in your agency for the calendar to display (see [How to Manage Events](/how-to-manage-events))
- A portal to publish on. The portal supplies the web address for both the calendar link and the subscribe address (see [How to Create Web Portals](/how-to-create-web-portals))
- Event statuses if you plan to filter the calendar by status. **Calendar Options** links to **Statuses** when none exist

### How-To Steps

#### Create the calendar

1. Click **Events** in the top navigation.
2. Click the **Calendars** tab.
3. Enter a **Name** in the **Create Calendar** card in the left column.
4. Select a **Portal**.
5. Select a **Status**. Leave it on **Draft** while you build the calendar.
6. Click **Create**. eCourtDate opens the new calendar for editing.

#### Set the calendar details

1. Review the **Name** in the **Edit** card.
2. Select a **Status**. A short description of the access level appears under the menu.
3. Click **Generate** for a passcode calendar to fill the **Passcode** field, then click **Copy** to put the code on your clipboard.
4. Select a **Portal**. An **Edit Portal** link appears under the menu once a portal is chosen.
5. Enter a **URL**. This is the last part of the calendar's web address on the portal.
6. Click **Save**.

#### Describe the calendar

1. Enter your description in **English Description** in the **Multilingual Fields** card.
2. Enter a translation in the description field for each other language your agency supports.
3. Click **Save**.

#### Choose which events appear

1. Click each badge under **Event Types** in the **Calendar Options** card to include that type. Selected badges are highlighted.
2. Click each badge under **Event Statuses** to include that status.
3. Enter a number of days in **Max Past**. The field counts back from the current day and defaults to 14 days ago.
4. Click a field under **Available Fields** to move it into **Calendar Title Fields**.
5. Drag the enabled fields into the order you want them to read.
6. Click **Save**.

#### Share and sync the calendar

1. Click **Open Portal Link** at the top of the page to open the published calendar in a new tab.
2. Click **Office**, **Google**, **Apple**, or **Other** in the **Subscribe URL** card to read the steps for that app.
3. Click **Copy** to copy the subscribe address.
4. Paste the address into your calendar app.

#### Import an outside calendar

1. Enter the address of the outside calendar in **External Calendar URL** in the **Import URL** card.
2. Click **Save** at the top of the page.

### What to Expect

Saving confirms with a "Calendar updated" message, and the month preview below **Calendar Options** reloads with the events that match your selections. Use **< Prev** and **> Next** to move between months. The current day is highlighted, and every event in the grid links to its event record.

Access depends entirely on the calendar status:

| Status | Access |
| --- | --- |
| Draft | Accessible only here |
| Private | Accessible only to logged in clients |
| Passcode | Accessible only with a passcode |
| Public | Accessible to anyone |

**Open Portal Link** appears once the calendar has a portal and the status is anything other than draft. Draft and private calendars cannot be subscribed to, and the **Subscribe URL** card shows a warning when the status is either one. For a passcode calendar, the passcode is carried in the link itself, so anyone you send the full address to can open the calendar.

Event titles are built from the fields in **Calendar Title Fields**, joined in the order you arranged them. With no fields enabled, titles fall back to the event type, description and status, and an event that spans more than one day is marked (MULTI-DAY).

### Best Practices

- Keep a new calendar on draft until the filters and title fields look right in the month preview, since a draft calendar is reachable only inside eCourtDate.
- Build one calendar per audience. A single calendar shows the same event types and statuses to everyone who opens the link.
- Set **Max Past** to a small number of days so the calendar leads with upcoming events rather than finished ones.
- Click **Generate** on passcode calendars instead of typing a code of your own. It produces a 24 character passcode.
- Put the most identifying field first in **Calendar Title Fields**, for example case_number ahead of notes, because the title reads in the order you set.

### Frequently Asked Questions

**Q: Can I embed the calendar on my agency website?**

A: The calendar page does not generate embed code. Share the address behind **Open Portal Link**, or share the address in the **Subscribe URL** card so people add the calendar to their own app.

**Q: Why does the Subscribe URL card say the calendar cannot be subscribed to?**

A: Draft and private calendars do not publish a feed. Change **Status** to passcode or public, then click **Save**.

**Q: How far back do events appear on the calendar?**

A: **Max Past** controls it, in days before the current day. Leave it empty and the calendar falls back to 14 days ago.

**Q: Can clients book an event from a calendar?**

A: No. A calendar only displays events. Self-scheduling is set up separately with **Availability Templates** under **Admin** > **Automations**.

**Q: How do I take a calendar out of circulation without deleting it?**

A: Set the **Status** to draft, or open **Tools** at the top of the calendar and click **Archive**. Archived calendars stay in the list behind the **Archived** filter on the **Calendars** page.

### Troubleshooting

**Issue:** The **Open Portal Link** button does not appear.

**Symptoms:** The top of the calendar page shows only **PDF**, **Tools**, **Save** and **Close**.

**Solution:** Select a **Portal**, change **Status** to anything other than draft, and click **Save**. The button also needs the selected portal to have its link configured, which you can check through **Edit Portal**.

**Issue:** No event statuses are available to filter on.

**Symptoms:** **Calendar Options** shows "No event statuses found." in place of the status badges.

**Solution:** Click **Create statuses here** in the warning to open **Statuses** in a new tab, add the statuses your events use, then reload the calendar page.

**Issue:** The month preview is empty.

**Symptoms:** The month grid below **Calendar Options** shows no events even though your agency has events scheduled.

**Solution:** Clear the **Event Types** and **Event Statuses** selections with the clear button under each group, raise **Max Past** if you are looking for past dates, and use **> Next** or **< Prev** to move to the month that holds the events.

### Related Articles

- [How to share event calendars](/how-to-share-event-calendars)
- [How to Manage Events](/how-to-manage-events)
- [How to Create Web Portals](/how-to-create-web-portals)
- [How to define custom statuses](/how-to-define-custom-statuses)
- [How to create availability templates](/how-to-create-availability-templates)