Today a customer asked me if it is possible to modify the SharePoint calendar in such a way that different colors represent different kind of events. Out of the box it does not but after some searching on the internet I found a solution made by Mark Wilson named Colour Calendar.
Because there is very little information about how to modify this, for example other colors and other categories, I made this manual.
Log on to your Sharepoint server
Open command prompt
Add solution:
Stsadm –o addsolution –filename <path>\PlanetWilson.SharePoint.ColourCalendar.wsp
Deploy solution:
Stsadm –o deploysolution –url http://<url sitecollection> -name PlanetWilson.SharePoint.ColourCalendar.wsp –immediate –allowgacdeployment
Execute timer job:
Stsadm –o execadmsvcjobs
Activate Site Collection Feature:
On your site go to Site Actions > Site Settings > Modify all site settings > Site collection features
Activate “PlanetWilson SharePoint Colour Calendar”
Now make a new calendar somewhere in your site.
Open this calendar and go to Settings > edit settings
Click “Enable Colour Calendar”
To get the right categories and corresponding colors you have to open Site Actions > Site settings > modify all site settings > Site columns
Search for a site column named “Event category” and open it by clicking on it
At the “additional column settings” section you have to type all the categories you need.
Save this site column
Finally go to Site Actions > Manage Content and Structure (see picture below)
In the left pane op the list “Colour Calendar Mappings”
In the right pane you change all the categories to your own (maybe more or less) and change the colors.
The left color code list is the backgroundcolor and the right color code list is the text color of the calendar items.
To change the colors do this:
Click one of the options to get the pulldown menu and choose Edit properties. The screen below appears.
You can change the colors here.
Now you are all set to fill your calendar with the different events. Good luck!
The solution can be downloaded from CodePlex here.
This post is updated because of the question of Andreas (see comments). If you have any questions feel free to post a comment.
Tags: guide, installation, solution
July 14th, 2009 at 11:46 PM
I only want to use the color calendar for some sites. How do I set it up for just a few sites? Hope you can help
July 15th, 2009 at 7:02 AM
Hi Frank,
I assume you mean by ’sites’ a few (sub)sites in a site collection. If I’m correct please consider this: you always have to deploy a solution to a site collection. Sometimes that is not possible and then you have to deploy it globally, that is all site collections at once.
The colored calendar can be deployed on one site collection at a time. So it is available to all calendars on all the subsites.
If you mean by ’sites’ several site collections you can (after the installation steps in my manual) go to central administration > Operations > solution management. Here click the colour calendar solution and choose Deploy in the menu bar. Now you can also deploy the solution to the other site collections you have installed. A last step is to activate the site collection feature on every site collection.
Hope this helps. please ask if you have any questions.
August 21st, 2009 at 11:24 AM
Hi an thank’s a lot for this guide. It has been very helpful - I am a newbie to SharePoint.
On a SBS 2008, running WSS 3.0 I struggle to change the colors.
You say:
“In the left pane op the list “Colour Calendar Mappings”
In the right pane you change all the categories to your own (maybe more or less) and change the colors.
The left color code list is the backgroundcolor and the right color code list is the text color of the calendar items.”
I am not able to find a place to change the colors.
Could you help me?
Best regards Andreas
August 25th, 2009 at 10:23 AM
Andreas, I edited the post. It now includes some screenshots about how to edit the Colour Calendar Mapping list.
August 27th, 2009 at 2:46 PM
Thank’s a lot MarC for your update.
However, I’m running SBS 2008 with WSS 3.0, and the “Manage Content and Structure” page is a feature that is only available in MOSS 2007 and is not included in WSS 3.0.
I’ve wrote down how to do the configuration for WSS 3.0:
Activate Site Collection Feature:
On your site go to Site Actions > Site Settings > (Site Collection Administration ) Site collection features
Activate “PlanetWilson SharePoint Colour Calendar”
Now make a new calendar somewhere in your site.
Open this calendar and go to Settings > list settings
Click “Enable Colour Calendar”
To get the right categories and corresponding colors you have to open Site Actions > Site settings > (Galleries) Site columns
Search for a site column named “Event category” and open it by clicking on it
At the “additional column settings” section you have to type all the categories you need.
Save this site column
Finally go to Site Actions > (Site Administration) Site Libraries and Lists > Customize “Colour Calendar Mapping” > (Views) All Items > (OK)
There you can edit the Event Category, background color and the foreground color
Regards Andreas
August 31st, 2009 at 1:52 PM
Anders,
When you are running WSS 3.0 only there should be an option “content and structure” when you go to Site actions > site settings. This should be part of Site Administration.