The Engage Event Directory offers a dynamic and accessible way to navigate and filter through upcoming events on campus. Although this tool is designed to be comprehensive, there are cases where a campus might also want their events to appear on an external calendar or feed. Engage offers several options to make this process simple for administrators:
- RSS
- iCal
- API
- Opportunity Wall
Online location information is also shared to the (RSS, iCal, and Google) calendar integrations to better help your institution advertise events.
RSS
An RSS feed allows a website to regularly update its information. Some campuses may create a centralized university calendar that is populated using RSS feed from multiple smaller RSS feeds on campus. RSS is one of the most commonly used options for this goal as it is one of the most long-standing options available.
You can access your RSS information under your community admin tools by clicking on Admin in the left-hand navigation sidebar. Next, select the Configure dropdown and then Data Sharing. You can then share the link to the RSS with appropriate parties on your campus to integrate into the desired web applications.
Engage values security. As such, the product is aligned with the RSS 2.0 Specification. If your campus utilizes specifications earlier than this version, you may experience a warning. The RSS feed will still function. Please contact your campus IT department for any questions or concerns.
If you are interested in this method, be sure to also check out our campus spotlight using this tool - St. Cloud State University!
iCal
iCal is a very similar option to RSS, and can be accessed in the same location as RSS on the Data Sharing page of your Engage site. iCal is a more modern option compared to RSS - as it is specifically designed for calendaring, it can produce a more visually appealing output than RSS.
The iCal link produces a file to download, so if you are sharing it with a campus partner, be sure to provide them the link itself and not the file - the file will quickly become out of date!
API
Although RSS and iCal are both great options for simple calendaring goals, campuses interested in something more advanced or with more detail from Engage may ultimately want to consider API as an option. API allows a campus administrator to script specific calls for information from Engage rather than receiving a pre-selected package of event information like RSS and iCal. Check with your account manager to confirm if API is included in your present contract. If API is included in your contract, you can contact our Support Team for an API key and documentation (see top right of page).
Opportunity Wall
The Opportunity Wall is a pre-coded widget available in Engage that can be plugged into other web pages of your choosing. This is a visual display and cannot be combined into other calendars the way that RSS, iCal and API options could. It will create a live feed of upcoming events including event cover photos and organization profile photos, and you can even adjust its size to ensure perfect fit in your web page.