How to postpone an event in dotCMS due to novel coronavirus

Heidi Macwan - March 25, 2020

Learn how to postpone an event in dotCMS due to novel coronavirus.

The dotCMS content dashboard with Type drop down menu showing the different content types that can be selected, such as Event.

SPECIAL NOTE: Do not Unpublish or Archive postponed events. Instead add information to events already within dotCMS that are being canceled.

Log into dotCMS.
Select Content on the left side of the screen.
Select Search.

Content Dashboard

Select Event from the Type drop-down menu.

The dotCMS content dashboard with Type drop down menu showing the different content types that can be selected, such as Event.

In the Search field, type in the Title of the Event to edit.
Select the Event Title from the list of results.

Shows the Search field where you can type in and search for your event, and select the event from Matching Results.

Event Publishing Buttons

Select the Lock for Editing button. This enables locking the event for editing so only you have access to it.

Shows the Lock for Editing button that should be selected to enable editing for the event.

Event Content Tab

REQUIRED FIELD: Insert “POSTPONED:” text at the beginning of the event Title field.

NOTE: Example, “POSTPONED: Test Event.”

Shows the Title field with the new text "POSTPONED:" to be added in front of the event title text.

REQUIRED: Use the WYSIWYG Editor (Description field) to insert text related to the event cancelation.

“THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO MSU'S RESPONSE TO THE NOVEL CORONAVIRUS.

READ MORE ON THE MSU 2019 NOVEL CORONAVIRUS WEBSITE.”

NOTE: The “MSU 2019 NOVEL CORONAVIRUS WEBSITE” text should be linked to: https://msu.edu/coronavirus/.

Shows the Description field with the new text to be added before the event description content.

OPTIONAL: If you know how to input HTML code via the Source Code (<>) button in the WYSIWYG Editor, then you can skip Step 9 and instead insert the below code at the beginning of the code field.

THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO MSU'S RESPONSE TO THE NOVEL CORONAVIRUS.

READ MORE ON THE <a title="MSU 2019 NOVEL CORONAVIRUS WEBSITE" href="https://msu.edu/coronavirus/">MSU 2019 NOVEL CORONAVIRUS WEBSITE</a>.

OPTIONAL: If you input Source Code in Step 10, then select the OK button to close the window.

Shows the Source Code or HTML code window with the new code text added in front of the event code description content.

Event Tags Tab

Select the Tags Tab at the top of the screen. This tab enables you to create and select tags specific to your event.

NOTE: When your event is Published, the tags will appear at the bottom of the Event page and will be clickable. If you select one of these tags a web page will open that displays all content related to that specific tag from across all the college’s websites.

Shows the Tags field where tags can be typed in, selected or created.

Put your cursor in the Tags field and type the tag called “canceled event,” “coronavirus” and “novel coronavirus.”
When the pre-set tags appears, you can select them.

Shows the Tags Field and the text "canceled" type into the field, plus the pre-set tag "canceled event" that's available to select.

The tags will now appear in the Tags field.

Shows the applied pre-set tags called "canceled event," "coronavirus" and "novel coronavirus" in the Tags field."

Event Final Steps

If you select the Check Links button, it will enable you to check the links in the event posting to make sure they work.

Shows the publishing buttons available to select, including Save Draft, Check Links and Publish.

If you select the Save Draft button, it will save the event to the backend of dotCMS so you can still work on it before publishing it live.
If you select the Publish button, it will publish the event so the changes will appear live on your site.