The event admin panel is where you’ll enter all of the information about an event. It’s where VEM pulls all of the content that shows up on the frontend for your Lists, Calendars, widgets, and the single event page. And edits to content after an event is published will be automatically pushed through to all of those frontend points without you ever having to make edits manually.
If you haven’t done so already, you’re going to want to check out the Understanding the Connection Between Event Meta and Frontend Layouts article for an illustration on how all of the event attributes correspond with the drag-and-drop modules on the Listings and Single Event page layout.
- Title: required.
- Pre-title: optional.
- Posit-title: optional.
- Event Dates (this is where your event’s Occurrences are created):
- Venue: Dropdown items are populated by the venues you add via the “Venues” taxonomy.
- Note: This is a text only field where you can enter information exclusively related to that occurrence.
- Date: required.
- Start Time: required.
- End Time: Note: you do not necessarily need a firm end time. By default, the system will set it to two hours after the start time. The value is required by Google and Apple calendar platforms.
- Button Text (First and Second Ticket):required if using ticket purchase links/buttons, optional if not. This is freeform text and will be applied to that individual occurrence.
- From Price (First and Second Ticket): There are several options for how you can display pricing on the frontend. The “Ticket Pricing Options” cheat-sheet is located in the “Help” tab in the top, right corner of the screen. It provides everything you need in order to generate the desired frontend display.
- To Price (First and Second Ticket): There are several options for how you can display pricing on the frontend. The “Ticket Pricing Options” cheat-sheet is located in the “Help” tab in the top, right corner of the screen. It provides everything you need in order to generate the desired frontend display.
- URL (First and Second Ticket): required in order for the ticket links/buttons to show on the frontend.
Note: if you do not enter a URL, none of your purchase ticket links/buttons will show on the frontend, even if you have values entered into the ticket price fields. - Remove Occurrence: select if you need to delete an occurrence.
- Add Occurrence: Use to add additional occurrences. By default, the system will duplicate all values from the most recently entered occurrence and all you need to do is edit any details that change. Isn’t that so much better than trying to fuss around with a bunch of complicated “recurring event” rules?
- Event Details:required for users planning on using single event pages, optional for users planning to use event listings and calendars that do not click through to single event pages.
- Excerpt:optional (text only, no HTML).
- Event Media (Pro only): Functions identically to the Event Details metabox in that you can insert the full range of WordPress allowed text and media (audio and video files).
- Event Custom Field Sets: These are designed to create ready-made frontend lists. See below for design and usage tips.
- Event Layout (Pro Only): Provides ability to override the universal single event page layout with a custom layout of your choice.
- Categories: required (details).
- Seasons: required (details).
- Featured Image: optional.
- Custom Calendar Image (Pro only): Set a custom image to be used for calendars instead of the Featured Image thumbnail. Consult the help Event admin panel’s help tab about recommended dimensions.
- Custom Event Image (Pro Only): Optional. Provides the ability to use a secondary custom image to use in single event page and Event Listing layouts. It’s especially handy if you plan on using the Featured Image as some sort of top header image but want to use something with a different aspect ratio for lists.
- Media Types (Pro Only): Optional. A custom event taxonomy.
- Tags: optional.
- Occurrence Display Settings: Provides the ability to wrap multiple occurrence details into a “show all events” style toggle on the frontend. It’s applicable for events with three or more occurrences and used to help prevent showing unwieldy and long occurrence detail on the frontend single event page. The override provides control over the following elements:
- End Time Display (use global settings, display only start times, or Display start and end times).
- Max Occurrences to Show: this is how many occurrences will be displayed before the “show all” toggle begins.
- More Occurrences Message: create custom “show all:” toggle bar copy.
- Title for Home Page: use to generate optional event page title.
- Archive Settings (Pro only): Will adopt global default or you can override on a per event basis with any of the three available options (details).
- Import Occurrences (Add-on functionality): more information.
- Help: whenever applicable, a “Help” tab appears in the top, right corner of the screen. It will have all sorts of useful reference goodies; such as the Ticket Pricing Cheat Sheet.
Ticket Pricing Cheat Sheet
- Price Range: enter lowest price in first field and highest in second field; example $[15.00] – $[200.00]
- Tickets From: enter lowest ticket price in first field and leave second field blank; example $[15.00] – $[empty]
- Single Ticket Price: Enter the single ticket price into both fields; example $[15.00] – $[15.00]
- Free events: enter $0 into both fields; example $[0] – $[0]
- Free and priced tickets: enter $0 into the first field and a price value in the second; example $[0] – $[15] shows as “Free” to “$15”
- If empty, ticket prices will not show on frontend.
- Decimal points may be used but are not necessary.
Design Tips: Featured Images
Featured images can appear in the following locations using the image sizes you set via the WordPress Settings > Media admin panel:
- Single Event Pages: thumbnail, medium, large, and full
- Event Lists (both default and per list layout override) : thumbnail, medium, large, and full
- Event Calendars: thumbnail (Pro users can upload a custom calendar image)
- Event Modules (Pro Only): full
Some themes may automatically insert post Featured Images at the top of the single event page. If so, please consult your theme documentation on available display options.
Design Tips: Event Fields
These are designed to provide a unique solution to the problem of wanting to include some list style information about an event that might otherwise be located inside the full event details. Values entered in the left column receive bold font weight while values in the right are displayed with normal font weight.
- Add Field: select to add new field set row.
- Remove Field: select to remove the field set row.
- Drag-and-drop controls: use to re-order the fields on the frontend.