The View Events page on your Subsite is where customers can browse your events. This article will explain how to configure the View Events page settings on your Spektrix Subsite.
Before reading this article, make sure you’re familiar with:
TIP: You can choose whether to host the View Events page on your Subsite or to direct customers directly from your primary website directly to the Event Availability page (skipping the View Events page). To learn more about different Subsite purchase path configuration options, read What is a Spektrix Subsite?
What is the View Events page?
The View Events page displays your Events from Spektrix.
TIP: By default this page is named View Events but you can rename it under Settings > Navigation Bar.
To appear on your Subsite, an Event must have Instances that are:
- Live
- Visible on the Web
- On sale to Web
Update these settings on the Instance’s Basic Details page.
Here’s an example of a View Events page:
Events are listed by the soonest date.
Each Event will also show:
- Event description: If you add an Event Description when setting up your Event in Spektrix, then it will display here. The first 100 characters will display alongside a show more button to expand. The description appears as plain text.
- Image: If you upload an image when setting up your Event in Spektrix, then it will display here. For Subsites, the image size must be 1056 x 480px. If there is no image then the default Event image will be displayed:
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Date: The first and last Instance dates will display. Events with only one Instance will show a single date.
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Book Now: The Book Now button will take the customer to the Event Availability page.
- More info: The More Info button will only display if you added Website Content for an Event.
Manually Changing Button Text on an Event
To manually change Book Now button of an Event, you can create a new Event Attribute as a Text Field or Dropdown List named:
- SLEventBookNow
The Attribute must be marked as visible in the API.
TIP: The Instance Attribute name must match the SLBookNowText exactly and is case sensitive.
Once you have created the Attribute, populate the Text Field or Dropdown List fields with the Attribute Value which will display instead of the Book Now text.
To add the Attribute Value to an Event, edit the Event in the Admin Interface:
If any Event has a Value against this Attribute, it will override the default text regardless of ticket availability. This means that if an Event becomes sold out, you will need to manually update the text in the Attribute Value because it won’t automatically update.
TIP: You can apply this Attribute to multiple Instances at once using the Bulk Instance Updater Tool
Filtering the View Events page
You can manage which Events display on the View Events page using Custom Filters or Query Parameters. For example, you might want to only include Events with the Genre Attribute of “Cinema” or to exclude certain Events which are part of a festival.
There are three ways to filter the View Events page:
- Custom filter - a filter that can be interacted with by customers.
- Exclusion filter - an Attribute that you can add to your Events to exclude them from your Subsite altogether.
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Inclusion filter - a query parameter that you can add to your page to only include certain Events.
Custom filter
When customers visit your View Events page, they can toggle settings which allow them to filter which Events are displayed:
You can configure which filters are available to customers in the Settings section of your Subsite.
Go to your Subsite > Settings > Navigation Menu and click the red filter button next to the VIEW_EVENTS page.
The Custom Filter menu will allow you to configure the settings available for customers:
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Enable free text search: allow customers to search for Events by entering custom text.
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Enable date range search: allow customers to filter Events by date range.
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Choose calendar week format: choose whether weeks are displayed starting with Monday or Sunday.
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Event Attributes to display for filtering: choose to add Event Attributes as filters on your View Events page. Once added, customers can choose to select Event Attribute values to filter Events. The list of Attributes will appear to customers in alphabetical order.
To be used as a filter, the Event Attributes you set up must be marked visible in the API.
- Free text to display at the top of view events page: enter custom text which displays under the title of your View Events page.
REMINDER: Make sure you click the Save button on the Settings page to publish any changes you make to your Custom Filter.
Exclusion Filter
You can set up an exclusion filter using an Event Attribute to automatically exclude certain Events from your View Events page. The Events you choose to exclude will not appear on any of your View Events pages.
To exclude an Event, set up an Event Attribute as a Check Box and make it available in the API.
The Event Attribute must be named:
SLExcludeFromViewEventsPage
The Event Attribute name must match the SLExcludeFromViewEventsPage exactly and is case sensitive.
Check the box of the Attribute on any Events that you want to exclude from your Subsite’s View Events. Any Events with this box checked will not display on your View Events page.
Inclusion filter
You can filter the View Events page using a Query Parameter. This allows you to determine which Events your page should include.
You can use this type of filter if you have multiple View Events pages with different types of Events. For example, one page for Events with the Genre Attribute value of “Comedy” and another for Events with the Genre Attribute value of “Dance”.
Query Parameters append a string to the URL of your Subsite pages. This string can reference any of the custom Event Attributes that you have on your system.
TIP: Query Parameters for the View Events page work differently to Query Parameters for other pages on your Subsite. To learn more about filtering other Subsite pages, read Configuring Subsite Pages and Navigation.
How to construct a Query Parameter for the View Events page
To create a Query Parameter, you will need an Event Attribute that uses Dropdown List values.
To reference the Attribute in a Query Parameter, use the following formula:
?Attribute_{{AttributeName}}={{AttributeValue}}
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Replace {{AttributeName}} with the name of the Attribute.
For example, if my Event Attribute is named "Genre”, I would update the URL to:?Attribute_Genre={{AttributeValue}}
- Replace {{AttributeValue}} with the Attribute value.
For example, if my Genre value is "Dance Ballet”, I would update the URL to:
?Attribute_Genre=DanceBallet
To reference multiple Attributes in your Query Parameter, you can seperate them using a comma (,).
For example, if I have two Genre values "Dance Ballet" and "Dance Tap", I would update the URL to:
?Attribute_Genre=DanceBallet,DanceTap
TIP: Filtering the View Events page works differently than filtering other pages on your Subsite. In other page query parameters you must replace spaces in Attribute names with %20, however, this is not required for the View Events page parameters.
How to apply a Query Parameter to the View Events page
In Spektrix Link, go to the Settings page and find the Navigation menu.
Enter your Query Parameter in the Query Parameters / URL box:
Click Save to confirm your changes. You should then preview the View Events page on your Subsite.
Accessing the View Events page
You can directly access or share the link to View Events pages even when they don't exist on your Subsites Navigation Menu.
Use the following formula to create your URL:
purchase.mywebsite.com/Events?view=true
Replace purchase.mywebsite.com with your subsite subdomain.
This also works in combination with other parameters such as filters using the & sign. For example:
purchase.mywebsite.com/Events?Attribute_Genre=DanceBallet,DanceTap&view=true