Event Title link to SourceURL

Site URL: https://draft-gbtl.squarespace.com

Hello!

I'm working on a site for a client and would love some coding help!! Does anyone know the JS in order to link Event Titles to the Event's source URL? I've searched the forum and haven't found a working solution for this. (But maybe @tuanphan might have some insight into this?)

I would like it to work on the Events page: https://draft-gbtl.squarespace.com/events-calendar, in Summary blocks that have events: https://draft-gbtl.squarespace.com/summary-block, as well as within the Calendar block: https://draft-gbtl.squarespace.com/calendar. (Basically, just anywhere that the Events title shows up, I'd like it to link to the source URL!).

Password: draft

My deepest gratitude in advance!

Event title same link as Register now or?

No, thank you. I would like only the Event Title to link to the Source URL. (The "Register Now" link is something separate which I have taken care of).

and disable link for thumbnail, date,..?

Ideally, the thumbnail and date would ALSO link to the SourceURL, but that is not necessary. The most important thing is the Event Title. (Thank you for your help, @tuanphan!)

Where to find Event Source URL? Can you write an example for first event?

Hello @tuanphan - The Event Source URL is added in the backend, in the Squarespace Event dialogue box (see attached image). The first event (NVC Practice Group ~ Online Class) has a source URL:  "/practice-groups".

Seems difficult.

I temporarily can't think of any ideas, other than manually setting links for each event with JavaScript ... but it's too manual.

Each event needs 1 JS code.. 10 events 10 code..

I was afraid you'd say that. Squarespace has this feature enabled for blog posts (in the blog, you can add a source url and then click a checkmark that says "Post Title should link to Source URL" - see attached image). Is there a way to mimic the behavior that the checkmark enables in the blog but for events?

You can ask paul2009 ✌️

Thank you very much, @tuanphan for taking the time to investigate this with me!

As suggested above, @paul2009 would you by any chance have advice/input on this situation?

If you wanted this for a Blog collection, you'd be in luck because Squarespace offer a checkbox to enable this. Sadly, they don't offer the same for Events. The Source URL is next to useless for Events collections. I say this because it is only available on the 'Event Item' page (where the single event is shown), not on Event List pages, in the Calendar or in Summary Blocks - all the places where you actually want it. 

I see you have added external links to Event excerpts. If these are the external links that you want to use for the titles, then a developer should be able to write some custom JavaScript to replace the title links with these instead.

Hi @paul2009 - thank you very much for your response. (I had seen the Feature request post you linked to, but wondered if maybe someone had some code they knew of that worked.)

Unfortunately, the Source URL and the external link in the Event excerpt are not the same; I need the Event Titles to link to internal pages of the site, and the excerpt link to go to an external register page.

Oh well. I'll have to brainstorm some other solution.

Thank you for taking the time!

Hi @paul2009 and @tuanphan

I also would like to use the source-link feature to an external page (where you actually register for the event).

I followed your suggestion above of making the event a blog post instead, which worked fine on the blogs landing page but when it's on the calendar it links to the internal blog page not the preferred source URL.

Was thinking maybe instead of css I could try URL mapping to direct either the event url to the external link? Does that make sense?

Link to the site is:

https://www.diabetessweettalk.com/new-events/welcome-to-the-deep-end

to 

https://www.diabetessweettalk.courses/welcome-to-the-deep-end-after-diagnosis

@evk_creates Did you ever have any luck with this eventually? I'm trying to accomplish the same without shifting over years of archive events into blogs!

On 4/20/2022 at 4:53 PM, jamiewdwright said:

@evk_creates Did you ever have any luck with this eventually? I'm trying to accomplish the same without shifting over years of archive events into blogs!

You can share link to event, we can take a look

2+ year later, is there any solution to this problem?

I'm trying to do the same thing. I need to publish a list of events, but I have no need for the single event page, I just need to link to the event platform where customers can register. I don't want to duplicate the content on my website, nor do I want to require my visitors to load one more page to finally access the page where they sign up.  

28 minutes ago, George said:

I'm trying to do the same thing. I need to publish a list of events, but I have no need for the single event page, I just need to link to the event platform where customers can register. I don't want to duplicate the content on my website

It doesn’t sound like you are trying to do the same thing as the OP who wanted to link Squarespace Events to third party URLs. If I understand you correctly, you simply want to show the events in the third party platform. You may be able to do this with one of the following methods:

• using an iFrame
• using an oEmbed 
• link directly to the third party site

The options available in your case will depend on which third-party platform you are using.

Thank you for responding @paul2009. Sorry if I didn't explain myself clearly. No I am not trying to pull a list of events from a different platform. I am trying to use the Squarespace Events page so that various colleagues of mine can go and add new events to the list. 

Each event will have a URL that directs to the event platform where customers can register. The platform will vary depending on the events, so I can't use a simple integration e.g. Eventbrite's. 

So far so good, we can already do that. However, as of now, every new event added to the list needs to 1) first be opened by the visitor, which opens the event page on my (squarespace) website. 2) Then and only then can they find the link to the event platform to register. That's an extra step that causes several problems:

1. Bad UX for visitors: they have to visit 2 pages instead of 1, to see duplicate content
2. It's a lot of unnecessary work for my colleagues to duplicate the event description

Instead, what I'm looking for is that each event in the list would link directly to the URL that my colleague entered as the "Source URL". There would be no "single event page" on my website, just the list.

Does it make sense?

8 hours ago, George said:

Sorry if I didn't explain myself clearly...what I'm looking for is that each event in the list would link directly to the URL that my colleague entered as the "Source URL".

Thanks for clarifying. Can you provide a working link to the event list?

@paul2009 Right now it's not live; i.e. "disabled", as I prefer to avoid search engines to index it or anyone to see it publicly. But there is no customization to it, I'm trying the feature; if you create an Events Page on your Squarespace site, it will be the same as what I have, with the dummy events, aside from some css differences. Only material difference is that I added an event for testing purposes, you can see it at the top.

Let me know what you need to see if that's not enough

Currently, the best option the previous webmaster has found is to create everything manually with blocks, add an image, a description, and the link to the event platform. Then remember to go delete them once the event is over. Needless to say, it's a little sad to manage it that way in 2022 😉 error prone, time consuming, and not scalable.

And if it's not technically possible, I'd love to know that too (and why) so I can look elsewhere...

Can anyone help...?

I think I had a similar issue and found this tutorial by @paul2009 here that helped me out

I used this tutorial to create manual buttons which I set to go to my external registration links with the hope that most people will click on the button rather than the event title or image that links to the individual squarespace event.

If someone does click on either of those and end up on the individual squarespace event page, I just added a second button that says "view event" to take them to the correct external link. It's maybe not the cleanest solution, but works well enough for my use. 

Thank you @gibgib -- yes that's a way to work around Squarespace limitations and get a "meh okay" result. However it's a good move forward, because by adding the custom link into the excerpt, it should now be possible to use Javascript to take it and inject it in the event summary title and image, I presume?

I don't know how to do that myself, but I'd be curious to hear from someone who knows JS well whether that's possible. Based on my understanding of JS, it should be as JS can modify the DOM, but I'm not 100% sure.