Activity Messenger Help Center

Calendar colours and views

Activity Messenger has several calendars. Each one shows different things, offers different views, and takes its colours from a different place. This guide names each calendar, explains where its colours come from, and lists the views, filters and settings available on each one. Statements below say which calendar they apply to.

The calendars at a glance

• Classes calendar (Classes → Calendar). Shows class and event occurrences, private lessons, and dates entered in form questions. The page is titled Classes calendar. For private lessons, see Private lessons.
• Bookings calendar (E-Commerce → Bookings calendar). Shows reservations on resources (locations, staff and equipment), closures, full-day notes and class occurrences. Users who can access bookings see this menu item. Today is the daily version of this screen.
• Staff calendar (User management → Staff calendar). The same calendar as the Classes calendar, opened from the staff menu. See Staff calendar.
• Staff schedule (User management → Staff schedule). Replaces the Staff calendar menu item when the organization uses the staff schedule feature. It has its own tabs and views for shifts, availabilities and time off.
• Public event calendar. The Calendar block placed on a Microsite or website page. It shows the event sources you configure. See Event calendar.
• Client booking calendar. The calendar of a booking package on the Microsite, where clients pick a slot. The e-commerce booking calendar section of the website shows this same calendar inside the page. See Set up resources and booking packages.

Where colours come from

Reservations: the booking type

On the Bookings calendar, on Today and on the staff calendars, a reservation takes the colour of its Booking type. There is no colour picker on a single booking.

To change a reservation colour, change the colour of its booking type, or give the booking a different type:

1. Open the organization settings gear beside the organization logo and choose Booking types. The item is available to users who can configure bookings.
2. Open a type, or click +.
3. In the Booking type window, choose a Color: click one of the swatches, or use Custom to pick any colour. A Preview shows the custom colour with its text.
4. Save. Every reservation of that type uses the new colour the next time a calendar loads.

The type applied to a reservation is the booking's own type; otherwise the booking type of its package; otherwise the booking type of its class. Text on a block is black or white automatically, whichever reads better on the chosen colour.

Without a booking type, the block uses a built-in colour: orange for a booking created by staff, pale pink for a temporary cart hold, and a dark pink for other reservations. A booking waiting for approval is drawn in yellow with a Pending approval badge, whatever its type.

A closure uses the colour of the booking type chosen in the closure; without one, it is orange.

Classes and events on the Classes calendar

A class or event occurrence on the Classes calendar is light blue once at least one participant is registered, and light grey while it has none. Dates pulled from form questions are light green.

If the class has a Booking type (class window, Resources tab), its occurrences use that type's colour instead. That is the only way to colour a class on this calendar: there is no colour control on the Classes calendar or in the class window, and the colour is not editable per occurrence there.

With Show all classes on, occurrences where you are not one of the permitted staff are drawn in grey.

Public event calendar

Colours on the Calendar block are set in design mode on the page. Each Event source has a Color: a swatch or a Custom colour. The default is light blue. For a source that pulls reservations from resources, the help text under Color reads: “By default, the color will be inherited from the booked resource's booking type. You may provide fallback values if the booking has no booking type.” In that source, a reservation with a booking type always uses the type's colour.

You can also colour one event. In design mode, click the event on the calendar block. In its popup, under Color, click a swatch or use Custom. The Reset button returns the event to the colour of its source. This control exists for a class occurrence pulled from a classes source and for a date pulled from a form answer. The colour is saved on that occurrence or answer, so every Calendar block that shows it uses the same colour.

The Legend explains the colours to visitors. It does not change the colour of any event.

Client booking calendar

Bookable slots on a package calendar are drawn as outlined slots. Booking-type colours do not colour them.

Booking-type colours reach this calendar in two cases, both set on the package's Calendar tab under Display:

• Show certain booking types draws existing reservations of the chosen types as filled blocks in the type's colour, so clients see why a time is taken.
• Show closures draws closures in the closure's colour.

Classes shown on a package calendar are also drawn as filled blocks.

Views, filters and settings

Classes calendar and Staff calendar

The view menu offers Week, Weekend, Day and Locations. The Week entry is followed by one line per weekday: pick the day the week should start on. Weekend shows Friday to Monday. Day is the default. Locations shows one column per staff member. There is no month view on this calendar.

Both Week and Day are time grids: hours run down the page. The two time fields beside the view menu set the first and last hour drawn. They apply immediately to the page in front of you. Without an organization setting, the day runs from 6:00 AM to midnight.

The gear button opens the Calendar view window: Minimum calendar time, Maximum calendar time and First day of week to show on calendar. These values are saved for the whole organization and become the defaults for everyone's Classes, Staff and Bookings calendars. The default first day is Monday.

Filters:

• A Class search box and a class tag filter.
• Show all classes. Shown when the organization allows it. Loads every class, and greys out those you are not permitted staff on.
• Hide bookings with unavailable staff. Shown when the organization uses the staff schedule. On by default.
• Participants: Clear filter, hide 0 participants, hide fewer than 2 participants, hide Full, show 0 participants, show fewer than 2 participants, show Full.
• Classes: No staff assigned.
• Staff: a window where you choose whose classes to show. The button shows how many staff are selected.
• Permission: a window where you choose staff by permission.

Other buttons: My worked hours, Refresh, Download to Excel and Full screen.

The current date, view, hours and filters are written into the page address, so a bookmark reopens the same view. Staff who cannot access all attendance lists see only the classes they are assigned to.

Bookings calendar

The view menu offers Month, Week (followed by one line per weekday to choose the first day), Weekend, Day, Locations and Locations by month. Week is the default. Day and Week are time grids. Locations shows one column per resource for one day. Locations by month shows one row per resource across the month. The two time fields beside the view menu set the first and last hour drawn, immediately, for this page only.

Only administrators can change these organization-wide settings. The gear button opens the Calendar view settings modal with Minimum calendar time, Maximum calendar time, First day of week to show on calendar and Booking display options: Show icon, Show booking status badge, Show tracking status badge, Show location warning badge, Show resource conflict flag, Show client, Show account owner, Show participants, Show participant count, Show location and Show notes. A preview on the right shows the result. Organizations connected to Amilia also see Hide Amilia events and Hide duplicate Amilia events. Everything in this window is saved for the whole organization.

The Filters panel sits on the left; Hide filters and Show filters fold it away. From top to bottom:

• All, Bookings or Classes to limit the kind of event shown.
• A booking types dropdown and a Resources dropdown.
• Without staff, and Required staff with Staff missing, Too many staff and Full.
• Bookings: resource tags, Show pending approvals (shown when a package requires booking approval; on by default), Not available (shown when the organization uses booking types that make resources unavailable; its hint reads Show unavailable resources) and Hide bookings with unavailable staff (shown when the organization uses the staff schedule; on by default).
• Class: a class search box, class tags, Participants, Staff and Permission, the same filters as on the Classes calendar.
• Calendar: in Locations by month only, a Resources dropdown that chooses the rows.

Above the calendar: Display schedule, Availability, Global search and the blue + menu with Booking, Invoice, Note and Closure. The toolbar also has Check resource conflicts, Booking report, Full screen and Refresh.

As on the Classes calendar, the date, view, hours and filters are written into the page address.

Staff schedule

When the organization uses the staff schedule, User management → Staff schedule opens the schedule page. On its Schedule tab the view menu offers Weekly view and Day. On the other tabs it offers Hourly week view, Weekly view, Time off view (when time off is enabled) and Shifts monthly view. A shift takes the colour of the booking type assigned to it; without one it is pale green. The gear button on this page adds Time display, with Standard time (12-hour) and Military time (24-hour), and Schedule display options.

Public event calendar

In the Calendar block settings, choose which of Month, Week and Day are offered, the default view, and the default view on mobile. All three are offered by default; the default view is Month, and Day on mobile. Minimum calendar time and Maximum calendar time limit the hours drawn in Week and Day; they default to 9:00 AM and 10:00 PM. See Event calendar.

Client booking calendar

On the package's Calendar tab, Calendar view (default) and Calendar views choose how many days clients see at once, from 2 days to 7 days. By default the calendar opens on 5 days and offers 2, 4, 5 and 7 days. Minimum calendar date, First day of week and Show available locations in calendar are on the same tab. See Set up resources and booking packages.

Settings reference

Common questions

How do I change the colour of a booking? Change the Color of its booking type, or give the booking another type. There is no colour picker on a single reservation. See Reservations: the booking type.

Why did a class turn blue on the Classes calendar? Its first participant registered. An occurrence is light grey with no participants and light blue with at least one, unless the class has a booking type. See Classes and events on the Classes calendar.

Can I colour one class occurrence on the Classes calendar? No. The Classes calendar has no colour control. A single occurrence can be coloured only on the public event calendar, in design mode. See Public event calendar.

Where is the month view? The Classes calendar has none; its views are Week, Weekend, Day and Locations. The Bookings calendar has Month and Locations by month. The public event calendar can offer Month.

Where is the time grid, or hourly, view? Day and Week are the time-grid views on the Classes and Bookings calendars. The staff schedule also has Hourly week view.

Does changing a booking type colour change the calendar clients see? Only for blocks drawn through Show certain booking types and for closures. The bookable slots themselves are outlined and keep no booking-type colour. See Client booking calendar.

Why is a booking yellow? It is waiting for approval. Turn off Show pending approvals in the Bookings calendar filters to hide such requests.

Are my view and filter choices saved? They are kept in the page address, so a bookmark reopens them. Only the values in the Calendar view window, opened with the gear button, are saved, and they apply to the whole organization.

Why do I not see every class on the Classes calendar? Staff who cannot access all attendance lists see only the classes they are assigned to. Ask an administrator to review your permissions.

Related guides

• Create a class or event
• Set up resources and booking packages
• Manage daily bookings and availability
• Close resources with a booking closure
• Staff calendar
• Event calendar