Purpose

The MCPS Web Calendar allows schools and central office departments to create unique calendars that can be accessed and administered via the Web. Each calendar is updated using a unique calendar ID and password assigned by Web Services. Calendars can be set up for multiple languages within a school or multiple departments within a school where public display of the calendar on the Web is appropriate. Private or individual use of this tool is not supported.

Who Uses the Calendar?

• Calendar data entry is done by a school or office representative who maintains and updates the events to display on their calendar. Use of this Web-based tool does not require any technical knowledge.
• The school or office webmaster creates the link within their Web site to display the calendar generated from the input data. This effort is a one-time event for each calendar in use for the school or office.
• The primary user of the calendar is the Web site visitor who views the school or office calendar.

Essential Information

How to get a calendar

• Any webmaster may contact webmaster@mcpsmd.org to get calendar accounts for his/her office or school.

How to access and update a calendar

• Go to the Calendar Administration &mdsah; use the calendar ID and password given to you by Web services.

How to link to your calendar so others can see it

You need to create a link to your calendar so anyone can see it.

• Basic format of a link to the calendar:
  <a href="http://coldfusion.mcps.k12.md.us/cfms/webteam/calendar/
  calendar.cfm?calendarID=your_school_id">Our School Calendar</A>

• Substitute your school calendar ID for the text in red (e.g. "travilahes").

• Substitute the text you want others to see as the link for text in green ( e.g. "The Travilah Elementary School Calendar").

How to include offical MCPS calendar events

You can include all official MCPS calendar events on your school's calendar by adding an additional calendar ID to your link, separated by commas. It would look like this:

•  <a href="http://coldfusion.mcps.k12.md.us/cfms/webteam/calendar/
  calendar.cfm?calendarID=your_school_id,mcps">Our School Calendar</A> (See blue text. )

How to include events from other calendars

Any number of IDs may be included to display within a single calendar format. These events are not permanently attached to your calendar. If you decide that you do not want to see them on your calendar, simply remove the additional IDs and your calendar will revert to displaying only your school's events.

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 How the Calendar Works:

1. Calendar Basics
2. Event Details
3. Searching
4. Search Results
5. Calendar Administration
6. How to Add an Event
7. How to Find an Event to Update or Delete
8. How to Update an Event
9. Viewing your calendar in a Spanish framework

 1. Calendar Basics

• Calendars can contain multiple items for each day.
• If there is no room in the block for all events in a day, there will be a link to more items which will display a list of all events for the day.
• Items can be color coded and have some text formatting, but the key (as in "Green=PTA Events, Blue=6th grade events", and so forth) must be placed on the school Web page — not on the calendar.
• Items can be added only by users that have the school ID and password.
• Users will always go to currrent month by default. If no school ID is entered the MCPS calendar will be displayed.
• Current date will be in red.
• Items are displayed in chronological order based on the 24-hour clock time entered.
• Calendars are formatted so they can be printed on 8 1/2" x 11" paper.
• Users can click on the date for a list of all items for that day or click on the event in the block for information on that event only.

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2. Event Details

• When users click on an event they get a detailed record including the description of the event, date, time, and an optional HTML link to another Web page.
• Descriptions can be up to 255 characters in length.

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 3. Searching

• Calendars can be searched by keywords and/or dates.
• If you are consistent in entering events (for example, always including "PTA" in PTA events) users will be able to use the keyword searching options efficiently (for example, they will be able to quickly get a listing of all PTA events).

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4. Search Results

• Results for a search (in this case, all events with the word 'holiday' occurring after January 1, 2000) are listed in chronological order
• Click on the event to see the details

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5. Calendar Administration

• Webmasters or other designated updaters can administer calendars by going to the Calendar Administration link.
• Enter calendar ID and password. Click on the 'Log me in' button to bring up the add/update/delete window, seen below.

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6. How to Add an Event

• The Event Name and Date are required fields.
• Date format must be in m/d/yy format (as, 7/19/00)
• Display time is what users will see in the calendar and can be any format (8 am, 10:00, 6th period, etc.).
• Sort time is used by the software to order events chronologically; 24-hour format must be used (no colons).
• The Related URL field should have the absolute address of the site, as in http://www.apple.com.

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7. How to Find an Event to Update or Delete

• Events can be found for updating by doing a keyword search by name (all or part) and/or date. In the example below the search keyword was "test" and the search date was "on or before 1/1/00". You may also retrieve all the events for a specified month by choosing "For the month of m/yy" from the drop-down menu and typing in the month/year desired (as in 1/00 or 12/99).
• You can see all events by leaving the Name and Date fields blank when doing a FIND.
• Events are listed in chronological order. Click on the event to bring up the event details in an editing window.

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8. How to Update an Event

• An event selected for updating or deletion enables you to make changes to all fields. It is identical to the Add Event option listed above, except that you begin with an Event which will have some or all fields already completed.
• Click on "Update This Event" to save your changes. If you change your mind you can abandon your changes and use the Back button on your browser to see the list of events you originally requested.

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9. Viewing your calendar with a Spanish framework

• You may enter events in any language you choose. (Note: This is not a translation program.) But, there is an option which allows people viewing the calendar to see the directions, months, and all framework items in English or in Spanish. To view the framework in Spanish, add the "languageid=1" parameter to your link, as shown here:

  <a href="http://coldfusion.mcps.k12.md.us/cfms/webteam/calendar/
  calendar.cfm?calendarID=your_school_id&languageid=1">Our School Calendar</A>
  
  Use this link to include the MCPS official calendar events in Spanish with your Spanish school calendar:

  <a href="http://coldfusion.mcps.k12.md.us/cfms/webteam/calendar/
  calendar.cfm?calendarID=your_school_id,mcpsespanol&languageid=1">Our School Calendar</A>
  
  
• Here are three samples of the September 2003 MCPS calendar that illustrate the options:

  Sample English MCPS calendar in Spanish framework

  Sample Spanish MCPS calendar in Spanish framework

  Sample Spanish MCPS calendar in English framework

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