CiviEvents: Why It Rules

Here's a sketch of the features of CiviEvents. It's a bit thick and dry now, but expect a more polished version in the near future, along with many of the other optional features of CiviCRM. More documentation is available at http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/CiviEvent.

Matthew and I will be compiling these into a presentation, which we will also post here. Comments about the cooler aspects in this list are welcome. We're looking for all the input we can get.


Event Summary Page

The Event Summary Page lists all of the events you have created. You can edit events by clicking the "Configure" button next to the name of each.

Sorting features allow you to view event participants in alphabetical order of participant name or event, order of the fee level, dates at which they take place, event status, and the role of the participant. A console for viewing, editing, or deleting event registration for a given contact also exists, beside each contact's entry in the summary.

- A Find Participants feature allows you to search for participants by event name, date, etc.

- There is a wizard for creating a new event, as well. You can select an existing event type or configure/add new event types in Administer CiviCRM. (Cool potential feature that doesn't exist now: add different fields to event types.)

Import Participants

Import participant data stored in CSV format Field mappings can be saved for a given source—very useful Automatic detection of invalid fields

Total Rows - Total rows (contact records) in import file. Rows with Errors - Rows with invalid data in one or more fields (for example, invalid email address formatting). These rows will be skipped (not imported). You can also Download Errors. Valid Rows - Total rows to be imported.

The information shown previews the results of importing your data. Review the totals to ensure that they represent your expected results.

If errors are detected you will see the message:

CiviCRM has detected invalid data or formatting errors in # records. If you continue, these records will be skipped. OR, you can download a file with just these problem records - Download Errors. Then correct the errors in the original file you are importing, cancel this import and begin again at step 1.

Event Creation

Address/Email configuration for Event Location

Event Fees—Configure paid vs. unpaid, contribution type, options for amounts, and default amounts

CiviEvent Registration:

Modes for both paid and unpaid registration
Extensive configuration for event registration, including registration link text (e.g. "Register Now!")

Registration start and end dates
Introductory and footer text
Customizable Confirmation and Thank-You Screens
Customizable Confirmation Emails
You can test-drive registration for events.