Calendar:

Features that generate the calendar automatically

One of the value added features of the course-repo-jekyll-theme is the ability to automatically generate a calendar of course materials that updates itself whenever any assignment dates change.

How to set up the calendar

To get a calendar, you need the following:

1. A page where the layout is specified as calendar in the front matter, (i.e. that bit of YAML code at the top of each file that generates a page):

   ---
   title: Course Calendar
   layout: calendar
   ---
   

   This layout pulls in the necessary CSS and JavaScript files to generate the calendar

2. The calendar is placed on the page by inserting this unassuming bit of HTML code:

   <div id='calendar'
       class='calendar'
       data-weeks=""
       data-start-date="">
   </div>
   

3. In the _config.yml for the site, the following values are used to control the calendar settings:

   Value	Explanation
   start_week	The number used to label the first week of the quarter. Typically 1 except for Fall Quarters at UCSB that have a 0 week starting on a Thursday
   start_date	The date of the Sunday that starts the calendar. This must be a Sunday, or the calendar will not be generated and an error message will be generated in its place.
   num_weeks	Typically 10 for a 10 week UCSB quarter, but may be 6 for a summer session A or B. Use 11 in Fall when there is a week 0.
   extra_exam_week	Typically true when you want a final exam week to be added to the calendar. The value false is used when there is no final exam for the course, or in Summer Sessions when the final is given during the last week of the course.
   cal_dates	A YAML array (list) of objects, each of which is a an extra date to put on the calendar.

   The objects in the cal_dates list have two keys:

   Key	Explanation
   label	The text that you want to appear on that date
   date	The date on which the text should appear

Complete example of _config.yml file settings for calendar

start_week: 1
start_date: 2019-01-06 
num_weeks: 10
extra_exam_week: true

cal_dates: >
     [
     {"label":"First day of classes", "date":"2019-01-07" },
     {"label":"Univ Holiday", "date":"2019-01-21" },
     {"label":"Drop deadline (no W grade)","date":"2019-02-04" },
     {"label":"Univ Holiday", "date":"2019-02-18" },
     {"label":"W19 Instruction Ends", "date":"2019-03-15" },  
     {"label":"W19 Quarter Ends", "date":"2019-03-22" }          
     ]