I can't wait to share this exciting new feature with you, but first: if you are currently using Calendar's Feeds for Groups or Registrations you should read this whole update as some things are changing. Alright, back to the fun stuff —
You can now connect any event in Calendar to Groups using our new Connections feature! We've also built out a new tab on the event page to help you create and manage all of your connections. Once they're in place, use the Connections menu in the header of Calendar or Groups to jump between them.
Tracking down and navigating events that have connections to other products should be quick and easy, so we’ve added a Connection filter to the main calendar as well as links to the connected products in both Month and Table view.
Connections are intended to work at a high-level, giving you a bird's eye view of all the products you're using to manage complex events, so it's important to note that you're not connecting a Calendar event to a Groups event but rather a Calendar event to a Groups group.
This reinforces the concept that these two things are not synced together, but simply that they are related; it allows each product to do what it does best without stepping on the other one's toes. Additionally, it paves the way for building more flexible and powerful features on top of Connections in the future!
Sunsetting Feeds
For those who aren't familiar, Feeds are the primary way we've encouraged users to get their events from Groups and Registrations into Calendar. However, nearly three years of feedback and research have taught us that the heavy-handed approach of Feeds was not what the overwhelming majority of our users were looking for. If we look at numbers alone, less than 3% of all users have Feeds enabled and much less than that are actively using them. Additionally, the concept and design of Feeds was prohibitive to building other highly-requested and powerful features.
This is why we've decided to say goodbye to Feeds in order to fully embrace Connections.
From now on, users will not be able to create new Feeds. If you're currently a Feed user, you'll be prompted to convert your Feed events into Connected events. There will be no data lost as part of this conversion. The biggest things to be aware of are:
- Registrations and Groups will no longer automatically create events in Calendar
- Events that were previously part of a Feed will no longer sync changes to the name, dates, or times
We know this is going to shake things up for some of you, and for that we do apologize. That said, Connections has the potential to be even more useful for you in the long-run, especially as we continue to build on it in the coming months.
There is currently no deadline for converting your Feeds.
Eventually, we will have to flip the switch but there is no urgency on our side to make that happen right now. Transition at your own pace and feel free to ask our support team or Slack community for tips.
❤️ Happy Calendaring
— Kayla, Taylor, Nick, Jared, Tammy, Matt, Zeek, and Evan