Author Topic: Theatre "Events" a special Problem.. (Read 1215 times)

fedly · October 31, 2009, 07:55:24 am

Hi All,

This is my first post, so please be gentle.

In Theatre there are two kinds of Events that intermingle.

Out of the Box civiCRM includes "Performance" event type.

That is really great! we can track Attendees (audience members), Volunteers (ushers) and all of that.

However, performances have a Many-to-One relationship with another kind of "Event" called a Production.

A production starts with the First Production Meeting and includes things like auditions, rehearsals... and includes each performance. (Indeed, mostly the last performance date is the last date of the Production too -- although there is Strike/LoadOut, and usually a Post-Mortem Production Meeting.)

Every Attendee of any performance obviously needs to be tracked to the Performance Event, but for the Production Event you only want roles like Cast Members, Designers, Director, Stage Manager and so on.

So essentially I would like there to be a parent-child relationship possible... Exactly as is done with Tags.

That way the Production and Performance Events can be dealt with separately -- but also together.

Of course, I am new enough to civiCRM so that it might exist and I am just not seeing it!

Hence my questions:

Is there any mechanism to create an Event Heirarchy as described whatsoever already in civiCRM?

Is there anyone out there that has come up with a clever workaround to approximate this state of affairs?

Are there any Pre-Installation tips in this regard that I am not seeing or not understanding what I read?

(Of course, if the answer to all above is "No" then this can stand as a "Wish-List Item" for bigger brains than mine.)

I am really happy with civiCRM and even if this is not supported at all, it won't kill us to have a Production Event for "The Glass Menagerie" and then 16 separate Performance Events for "The Glass Menagerie" and just *know* that that is how we roll.

Thanks in advance for any response whatsoever.

Ferdly

Dave Greenberg · October 31, 2009, 11:14:34 am

First - there is currently no way to create a hierarchy of events, and no way in core to create a single event with repeated instances (like your 16 performances). However, as of 3.0 you can create event templates which make it easy to clone repeating events like your performances. So you'd create a template for the Glass Menagerie with all the constant info - and then create 16 events from that template (New Event >> Select Template >> enter the performance date and time (most or all of the rest should be constant).

RE: Production Event - it would be helpful to understand how you will use the info you record about the Production Event and company members participation (cast, crew etc.). Is this for scheduling and / or time tracking or ??

That said, a few ideas on one way you could set things up...
- In 3.1 (upcoming release - schedule here: http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRM/CiviCRM+v3.1) you can create your own "contact subtypes" - so you COULD set up a subtype of Organization called "Production" - with an instance for "Glass Menagerie - Spring 2010".

- Then you can use relationships to link each company member to the "Production" record. You'd create relationship types for Cast Member, Designer, Director, etc. (Admin CiviCRM >> Option Lists >> Relationship Types)

- ...and you can use Activities to schedule / track production activities (audition, rehearsal, etc.).

You can play around with this flow on the "trunk" sandbox: http://sandbox.civicrm.org. Note that this is still pre-alpha so things will still be a bit rough but should give you an idea of how this might work for you.

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Author Topic: Theatre "Events" a special Problem.. (Read 1215 times)

fedly

Theatre "Events" a special Problem..

Dave Greenberg

Re: Theatre "Events" a special Problem..