Calendar View - use key other than primary for event name

[Joel_R_Putnam]

I’d like to be able to create a calendar view that lets me choose both the date range and the other field to be used for the record name aside from the primary key.

For example, let’s say I’ve got a calendar of students who are going to take their drivers’ license test, each taking it in one of several locations. In grid view, I could create a formula field to concatenate their name and the location of their test, then in calendar view, set their test date/time as the date/time field, and the formula field as the calendar event name field. So instead of just showing the student’s name, it shows the name and the location both in Airtable’s main calendar view, and in the iCal export feed.

[Jeremy_Oglesby]

Another solution might be to create a “join” table - call the table “Test Events” or something, and in each record, have the dates/times you need, the location, and then a link record field linking to the Student who will be taking the test. Then, in the primary field, you can perform your concatenation to display what you want to on the calendar, which will be located in that “Test Events” table (although, I think you’ll be disappointed with the way Airtable truncates long labels on calendar event boxes).

[Joel_R_Putnam]

I like it, though one downside for us free users is that it effectively doubles the number of records, and if we’re already close to the 1,200 mark on the base, that’s a no-go. Still, workable for smaller datasets or paid users.

[Lynnsey_Schneid]

I’d also like to be able to do this without putting in a workaround.

I have a table listing locations, and another table listing site visits. One of the data points for a site visit is the location, and I want to create a calendar view which shows the location. I can’t make the location the primary key, because it’s a lookup from another table.

Please consider adding this to the roadmap - thanks!

[Stephen_Marcus]

To do this create a new column called for example “EventName”, move it just to the right of the first key column and select the entire first column and drag across so that values are duplicated in your new column. (Or duplicate the key column into your new column in some other way.)

You are now free to change the type of the first column to Customize / Formula and use a formula, with conditional statements, to create your desired title in calendar view.

Here is an example:

CONCATENATE( IF(LEN(Facilitator)>0,Facilitator,"?"), “/” , IF(LEN({Assistant})>0,{Assistant},"?"), ": ",{EventName})

This takes values from a “Facilitator” column and an “Assistant” column and add them in front of the EventName, or substitutes question marks if staff haven’t been assigned yet.

The more complicated your formula gets the more bananas you will go in getting parentheses to match - copy and paste the formula into a text editor and add spaces and newlines to lay it out and get it right. When you paste back all the formatting gets stripped.

[nnico]

This is a problem for our org, too.

We have a base that has a row for each time a member visits (logs in). When I generate a calendar view of this data, it is a useless calendar of events where each event has as its name the date of the event. The events should, of course, be named after the member who visited, but this is currently impossible, it seems.

[L_Team]

My team did try doing this, and it does work for DIGITAL versions of this calendar and for pushing those details to other platforms via Zapier or a subscription to the calendar.

HOWEVER, one of the things we’d like most is to be able to print a nice PDF version of the same calendar to give to our clients in the packet they receive from us. The issue being that only so many characters of the Primary Key are shown and then it is cut off with an ellipsis.

Example: we’d like the event to say “123 Main Street - Inspection Period Ends” - Digitally this is fine, but when you try to make a PDF you’ll get: “123 Main Stre…” So effectively you don’t know what each of the evens are. We’ve Tried inverting the order, but then it cuts off the property name. We’ve tried abbreviating everything, but it confused our clients.

So anyway:

+1 for using different fields for calendar events and/or displaying MORE of the primary key in PDF calendars

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[Moe]

If you’d like to sync your data with a calendar app, we’ve built an extension that generates a calendar feed with some extra field types, not just the primary field. Like event location, notes, etc. It can be used with any calendar app.

miniExtensions

Generate iCal Calendar URLs for Airtable Records - miniExtensions

Airtable's calendar feed only provides the date/time and the single Primary Field. This extension supports 5 other fields: Event Location, Notes..etc.

[Marc_Hotchkiss]

I was really excited about AirTable until I saw 2 things. Reporting and Calendar. I can get around some of the reporting issues but using the Primary Key as the Calendar Topic for each record was a deal-breaker. If that were fixed I would be knocking on your door. Thanks!