Frequently Asked Questions
What is AgCal?
AgCal is an iCal compliant web based event calendar for the Texas A&M Agrilife Agencies and College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Its purpose is to provide a centralized calendaring system for events, as well as, web technology to list the events at various web sites.
The PHPiCal project was utilized as a starting point and model to support some of the key iCAL compliant components of the end solution.
Can I have my own personal AgCal?
AgCal is currently not for use at an individual level. The focus is to provide it at group, department/center, and agency levels.
How do I create an AgCal account?
Simply fill out the request form and fill in the account information. Within a few hours your account will be setup and an email sent to you with information for accessing and administering events within your AgCal calendar.
How can I enter an event in my AgCal calendar and have it displayed on the main College web site or Agency web site?
When entering an event in your AgCal you can "promote" or categorize the event. The levels are:
- Intranet - Entries that will display only on an intranet web site calendar view.
- Local - Entries that will display on your local public web site calendar view.
- College/Agency - Entries that will display at the College of Agriculture Life Sciences web site or top level Agency web site based upon you AgCal setting.
How do I display my AgCal events on my web site?
This is accomplished by copy and pasting the AgCal display code within the web page you wish to display your AgCal calendar. Instructions for doing so can be found here.
I would like to style the AgCal event listings on my web site. Can I do that?
Yes. We have engineered the AgCal event listing so that you can control certain layout components to better fit the style of your web site. Details for doing so can be found
here.
How are Events removed from the system?
Events are automatically removed at midnight of the day the event expires. Events can also be removed by utilizing the delete function within your event calendar management console.
Why is there not a traditional calender view offered?
Currently a traditional calendar view is not offered but will be in the future. The initial priority of the system was to enable the publishing and distribution of events. There are a variety of views that we intend to offer in the future.
How can I display multiple months of events on my web site via AgCal?
This can be accomplished in two ways. The first method emails increasing the number of events to list to a larger value (i.e. listnum=100) in the display code you insert into your web site. This will effectively list all the events in your calendar up to that listing number value. You could place this code on an individual 'event' page on your web site presenting a list of all your upcoming events.
The second method is accomplished by utilizing the optional month parameter in the request string sent to AgCal. Simply add "&month=#" to the end of the list of parameters (See "How to Apply AgCal to your Web Site Document") to present a specific month of events for the current year. You could effectively create a page on your site with multiple AgCal calls producing individual lists of events for each month of the given year.
Are the any example sites where I can see AgCal in action?
Yes. The AgriLife Extension and Research sites both have AgCal in use as well as the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
This is great technology. Can it do other things?
Yes. However for now we have focused our efforts on creating the basic functions to support the entry and publication of events. Ultimately we plan to add a variety of new capabilities.