The Event Search bar can be configured for the calendar, event list, and event category (series, genre, season) pages.  Gameflow typically configures these options for you during site setup, but you can modify these options at any time.  



Style

The event search bar has two filter styles.  

The Button Filter style is recommended when you have up to 6 options in one event category:



or the dropdown filter style, can accommodate more event categories and more options.



Categories

  • The Series event category.  You could add additional event categories: 

  • Genre, which can be customized to any label you like.

  • Season, which can be customized to any label you like.

  • Age Range is a category specifically for classes and camps. This is enabled when you add the Education add-on plugin.

  • Class/Event search can be enabled if you have added the education add-on plugin, which helps customers search only events, only classes, or both.

  • Venue search can be enabled if you are a touring or itinerant producer that performs in multiple venues.


Read More: Set up new Locations and Venues.



 Best Practices for Configuring Categories


Users typically can easily choose between 3 - 7 choices at any one level of selection.  This cognitive limit should be kept in mind when configuring your event categorization.  


  • Genre is a good choice for broad types of programming that segments your audience's interests well, e.g. "Rock & Pop, Dance, Theatre" for a presenting house, or "Baroque, Modern, Contemporary, Jazz" for a symphony.
  • Series is typically a marketed package to fit an audience need or interest, such as a side stage series, or performance in the park series.
  • Season is typically used to generate an event history of your past seasons - it can be useful to add as a filter if you present overlapping seasons at the same time, or if you have child sub-seasons within your main season year.




Settings

Settings for the Calendar Page can be seen when editing that page, under Calendar Settings >> Show Calendar Filters:


Settings for other Event List Pages can be found under Groundplan Theme Settings >> Event Settings



Calendar / Event List Toggle Buttons

Setting a value for "Events List Page" and "Calendar Page" in  Groundplan Theme Settings >> Event Settings will enable these toggle buttons.




Enabling and Customizing Event Categories

The Genre and Season Event categories are plugin features, so they can be enabled or customized under Groundplan >> Setttings >> Event Categorization.  

You may set a new label and plural label for each category to change them to any value that makes the category clearer to your audience, e.g. "Years" or "Event Type"



Frequently Asked Questions


Q: If I delete an event category, does it delete those events?

A: Nope!  Events stay published if you remove an event category, they just lose their association with the event category you deleted.