Side Navigation Request - Option to Remove Events or Replace with Calendar

Posted over 6 years ago by Molly Callaway

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Implemented

Molly Callaway

We would like the ability to remove the "EVENTS" section on the left toolbar. Ideally in site setup it would be great if sites could select either "EVENTS" or "CALENDAR" to show in that section of the toolbar with a resulting link to whichever they want. The CALENDAR link is so much more useful for us, both events and date specific opportunities are there. And the fact that "EVENTS" on the left toolbar is fixed and can't be moved or changed is a continuing problem for us. I realize there was a similar enhancement request earlier, but I just wanted to throw this out again in case others are getting this suggestions and want to weigh in on the value of this option.

1 Votes

12 Comments

Autum Brown posted about 5 years ago Admin

Hi Karyn,

Thank you for your suggestion! Although there is a way to keep Events submitted by Agencies as pending until the Site Manager approves the Event, there is not a way for Agencies to create Events at all while the Show Events option is off. From my understanding, ideally Show Events would be off until an Event posted by an Agency is approved by a Site Manager. Does that sound right?

Thank you!

Autum

0 Votes

Karyn Molines posted about 5 years ago

I appreciate being able to update the settings to Show Events, but it seems to bean All or Nothing feature for Program Managers. Our Program Managers are expected to do the majority of the management of their programs, and if Site Managers need to be actively engaged in uploading content, we end up with a back log of work for the Site Managers

What I think would be very useful:

1) Allow Program (Agency) Managers the ability to add Events even when "Show Events" is not active. Site Managers can determine if events are Auto Approved or not

2) Allow Site Managers the ability to customize what is on the Site Navigation Bar and preferably the Order they are displayed. If we could do this, then the current Auto Approve feature would be sufficient.

0 Votes

Autum Brown posted about 5 years ago Admin

Hi All,

I am delighted to announce that you now have the option to hide "Events" from the front end of your site! To hide Events, go to the back end of your site and click Settings > Main Settings. Scroll down to the new Events heading. Toggle off the option next to Show Events, and click Update Settings to save.

After you've updated this setting, Events will be hidden from the side navigation on the front end of your site.

Here are the Product Release Notes for this update, as well as other features that have been updated. If you have questions about this or other updates, please let us know at support@galaxydigital.com.

Thank you for your support and suggestions!

Autum

0 Votes

Ali Pettigrew posted over 5 years ago Admin

Hi Alayna,

We can change the word for events! If you want to change it, just email support@galaxydigital.com and request a language override. In the meantime, I've added your voice to the request to be able to remove it all together from the left hand navigation.

Happy Wednesday!

Ali

0 Votes

Alayna McGarry posted over 5 years ago

I'm an agreement with the above users. We changed our "needs" term to "Volunteer Events" and now the sidebar has the option of Volunteer Events or Events. Super confusing. If we could change the term for "Events" or just remove it all together, that would be a huge help!

0 Votes

Jacqui Henderson-Scott posted over 5 years ago Admin

Hi Stacy,

Thank you for sharing your voice! This appears to be very important to several of our site managers. I am going to add your thoughts to current enhancement request. In the meantime, we are happy to provide a language override for the term Events if this would help. Just reach out to our Customer Care Team and we can make this change for you.

Have a great day!

Jacqui

0 Votes

Stacy Oliver posted over 5 years ago

Hi there,

We would also like to be able to alter the order/appearance of EVERYTHING in the left navigation bar.

I liked Nina's suggestion in her comment:

"Give the site manager the option to "turn off" the Events option in the navigation.If Events cannot be hidden, give the site manager the option to specify its placement (e.g., below spotlights) in the navigation."

This would be helpful for us mostly because some of the features that are permanently on that menu are things we don't anticipate using, but there are other initiatives/spotlights we would love to feature or make more obvious for our volunteers.

Thank you,

Stacy

1 Votes

Ali Pettigrew posted almost 6 years ago Admin

Thanks JP!

I've added your voice to the post for development to consider. I'm not sure what other suggestions have been brought to the table but some clever overrides for the word "event" I've seen are "Information Sessions", "Fundraisers", "Meetings", or "Announcements".

I hope you have a great weekend,

Ali

0 Votes

JP Deckert posted almost 6 years ago

Hi Nina! I absolutely agree with Molly! Our agency will not use the "Events" option of Galaxy Digital, as we use a separate platform for events. I would love it if there was a way to remove that tab entirely from the side panel, or replace it with the "Calendar" option.

Trying to figure out a way to mask that has been a bit of a challenge.

Thanks!

0 Votes

Nina Rogers posted over 6 years ago Admin

Hi, Molly,

Thanks so much for your clear explanation. I see a couple of possible enhancement requests here:

Give the site manager the option to "turn off" the Events option in the navigation.
If Events cannot be hidden, give the site manager the option to specify its placement (e.g., below spotlights) in the navigation.

I don't see replacing Events with Calendar since it would not be a one-to-one replacement. I do see the value in having a calendar link in the navigation, though, and it looks like if would work for you to be able to (1) hide Events and (2) add a spotlight to the calendar to "replace" it.

I will write this up for our next enhancements-team discussion. In the meantime, another option might be to override the word "events" on your site to something people will be less likely to confuse with volunteer opportunities. I don't know if "Community Events" would do the trick, but you might have a better idea that works for your site. If you do, we would be happy to add that language override for you.

I can also look into adding some help text to both the Needs and Events sections of the agency management area to help clarify the difference to agency managers who may not understand how the two are different. If you think that would help, let me know.

Thanks again for your response, Mollly!

Nina

1 Votes

Molly Callaway posted over 6 years ago

Hi Nina,

Here is a more detailed explanation, let me know if this makes sense.

- On our site (and I think all sites) "Events" gets top placement on the left toolbar above spotlights and we don't have a way to remove or replace or move it lower.

- We use "events" on this site in a very limited way but want to highlight the "Calendar" where we have many date specific volunteer needs. Our site is primarily to connect volunteers with opportunities and while the "events" feature is useful, it should not have that top billing. The events show on the calendar anyway so that link will lead to BOTH events and date specific needs. In fact we only use "events" because it's there and agencies post things there. We almost always have to go back and explain that is not the place to post date-specific volunteer opportunities and we'd be fine with the feature being gone.

- We can add a spotlight for "Calendar" below "Events" but it looks duplicative and confusing and still shows this system's definition of "Events" as a priority that we don't want on our website.

- If I make a spotlight and give it more text to define how this calendar is different from the "Events" calendar, like if I call the spotlight "Calendar of Volunteer Opportunities", that is erroneous because the "events" are also on that calendar so that adds to that confusion.

Assuming many sites do use the events feature and it's a priority for them, it would be great if we could chose whether or not the events item will show on the left toolbar.

Thanks,

Molly

0 Votes

Nina Rogers posted over 6 years ago Admin

Hi, Molly,

Thanks for sharing your ideas. Is the issue that your site doesn't use events, or do you just find that it's not helpful to have a unique link to searchable nonprofit events in the side navigation menu? I'm having a little trouble understanding your use case for this enhancement idea, and I want to make sure I have a clear understanding before I write this up for our enhancements team.

One thing you can do on your site right now is create a "Calendar" spotlight that points to your events. That way, people have easy access to it from the side navigation.

Thanks!

Nina

0 Votes