WiscWeb - Today.wisc.edu Events Page Element

This document explains how to add the Today.wisc.edu Events page element to your site. For an example, see the UW Theme website.

In this document:

Purpose and use

The Today.wisc.edu Events page element allows you to display events from the today.wisc.edu calendar on your site. Each set of events you want to include will need a tag, and only one tag is allowed within the page element. You can set up tags at the today.wisc.edu site when creating your event(s).

The Today.wisc.edu Events page element is available in the One, Two, and Three Column Content Layouts. It is recommended using a maximum of five events in two and three column Content Layouts.

Adding the Today.wisc.edu Events Page Element

  1. Navigate to the page on which you want to add the Today.wisc.edu Events page element.
  2. Scroll to the Primary Content Area and the Layout on which you want to add the Today.wisc.edu Events.
  3. At the bottom of that Layout, click on Add Page Element.
  4. On the Page Element list, click on Today.wisc.edu Events.

Using the Today.wisc.edu Events Page Element

Latest Posts has the following options:

  • Header text: Adds a title above the events.
  • today.wisc.edu URL: The URL associated with the event list you want to display.
  • Number of events to show: The number of events that are displayed. Three is the default.

today.wisc.edu events page element options

Accommodating Multiple Categories/Feeds

You will not have the ability to set more than one URL in the page element in WiscWeb. If you want greater control over the events in your site’s event list, use the Feed Manager tool in today.wisc.edu. Using the Feed Manager, you can create a feed of events based on multiple tags and other rules. To use it:

  1. You must be part of a departmental account to use the Feed Manager. To create a new departmental account click your name top right and choose this option. 
  2. After the departmental account is approved (within a day), select Manage My: and choose Feeds 
  3. Click the Create New Feed button to create a feed. 
  4. After giving it a title, add filtering rules (e.g. include my department’s events; include events tagged ‘science’)
  5. Click the Re-apply filters button (beneath the filter rules) to run the filters. (They otherwise run nightly.) 
  6. You can also manually add events to your feed clicking the gray “+Add” button next to an event from the list of all public events (next to the filter rules) 
  7. Go back to your feeds list and click on HTML in list view next to feed you want to include on your site. Copy URL and add it into the page element. 
  8. If you run into issues during this Feed Manager process or have questions, please direct them to calendar-new@uc.wisc.edu.

Troubleshooting Tips

Important Note Regarding Caching and Display of Edited Events

Event edits may not appear on your sites immediately due to caching.

There are 3 caches at play:

  • Today.wisc.edu’s cache clears every 15 minutes
  • The today page element stores the fetch results in the WP transitive cache for 30 minutes
  • The WiscWeb Redis stores pages for 3 hours

This means that it may take up to 3 hours for your event edits to appear on your site. See the Troubleshooting Tips below for help on how to clear your cache sooner.

Additionally:

Some today.wisc.edu events are subject to approval by University Communications. In these cases, updates can take longer and will not immediately display. Email University Communications (calendar-new@uc.wisc.edu) if you need expedited approval.

If you have edited an event in today.wisc.edu and your updates are not appearing on your WiscWeb site, you can try the following: 

Re-Publishing the Page

Re-publishing the page can help clear the page cache, in some instances. For this, simply navigate to the page and click the Update button. 

If this does not work, please try:

Clearing Page Cache Using Purge Page Cache Link

If re-publishing your page does not work, you can try clearing the page cache. The best way to do this is using the following steps:

  1. Navigate to Pages in your dashboard, so that you can view a full page list
  2. Find the page that uses the today.wisc.edu calendar but do not click directly on it
  3. Instead, hover over the name and choose Purge from Cache

    Option to purge from cache in pages list

If that doesn't work, please try:

Waiting 45 Minutes

If re-publishing the page and clearing the page cache do not work, the issue is likely that the page element hasn't fetched the new content yet. You will have to wait about 45 minutes for this process to take place. As you wait, continue refreshing your page in the browser to see if it has updated.