Note: At present, the repeat function is not working properly. It tends to produce multiple copies of events. A bug report has been submitted on this. This text will be removed from this page when the problem is resolved.
It is possible to create repeating events, which are extremely useful for monthly meetings. Modeled largely on the iCal RRULE standard, it is possible to define events which repeat at regular intervals (e.g. the 2nd Thursday of each month, etc.) Most SWNI committee and neighborhood association meetings can therefore take advantage of the repeat feature.
Repeating events may be perpetual, end on a certain date, or repeat for a specified number of occurrences. Exceptions to the pattern may also be defined.
To define a repeating event, it is usually best to create an event template using the date and time of the next event. Fill in all appropriate fields which are unlikely to change from one event to the next. For example the agenda for meetings usually changes from one meeting to the next, so you’ll want to leave that field empty (even if you already know the agenda for your next meeting). Once you have the template in place, it’s just a matter of editing each individual event later on with date-specific information, such as agenda; recurring information, like meeting location, is already filled in for you from the original template and requires no further entry.
Set the date and time for your next event. If the “repeat” field is collapsed (which is usually the case), you’ll need to click on it to see its options, which are: “Repeat type,” “End Settings,” “Advanced” and “Exceptions.” Set all which are appropriate, leave unchanged any which don’t apply or which you don’t understand.
Repeat type is the interval at which this event is to repeat. Options include: Daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. While these are straightforward, what is not immediately obvious is how this may be combined with the “Interval” setting under the “Advanced” section. Setting up a monthly event with an interval of 3 defines a quarterly event. Likewise a weekly event with an interval of 2 defines an event which recurs every other week.
End Settings determines when to end the recurring event schedule. You may choose to end it either on a specific date, or after a certain number of events (but not both). To define a perpetually recurring event, leave this field unchanged/undefined (i.e. the default settings).
Interval acts like a multiplier expanding the schedule. So a weekly schedule becomes biweekly (i.e. every other week) with an interval of “2.”
Days can be used to specify a day of the week, a day of the month, etc. It has many options, so scroll through it to determine if one(s) are right for you. This field has an option to select, for example, an event which recurs the 2nd Thursday of each month.
Months can be used to specify irregular patterns. Usually you’ll leave this field unchanged/blank. With it, you could specify a pattern of events, for example, which occurs during only a few months in the year. For regularly recurring monthly events, you would normally leave this field blank (and set the “Repeat type” to “monthly.”)
Exceptions can be used to exclude certain days, months, etc. Exception dates exclude the creation of an event which is otherwise within the repeat sequence.
Generally speaking, multiple selections within the same parameter use an OR comparison for determining the pattern (e.g. Monday OR Tuesday OR Wednesday). Choosing multiple parameters uses an AND comparison between the parameters (e.g. on Monday AND in March). So, setting the days parameter to Monday, Wednesday – and the month parameter to July, August – would result in this comparison logic: Occurs on (Monday OR Wednesday) AND (July OR August.)
For a your typical monthly meeting, set “Repeat type” to “monthly”, “End Settings” at their default values (i.e. unset), “Interval” set to “1”, “Days” to the appropriate value (e.g. 2nd Thursday), leave “Months” and “Exceptions” unset.
Once a repeating event is defined and posted (i.e. submitted), you’ll eventually want to edit each individual event it spawns to provide date-specific information, such as the agenda, a room change, or whatever. Under the section titled Apply edit(s) to: you’ll be given three options: “This occurance only,” “This occurance and all future occurances,” or “All occurances.” In most cases, you’ll want the default of “This occurance only” as that leaves your default template unchanged. If you ever need to edit your default template, you would choose the “This occurance and all future occurances” option.
A help information page for the repeat module may be found here.
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