Forum Discussion

Iron Contributor

Oct 15, 2019

Issues with/Advice for Calendar views of modern lists

Our department of ~120-130 users had been using a Leave Approval system based on a SharePoint Calendar since about 2008. It was originally built on a MOSS 2007 calendar that was later updated to Shar...

SharePoint Online

RobSchmidt

Iron Contributor

Feb 19, 2021

Hi Chad_V_Kealey . Have you made any changes to your Leave Calendar since you posed the question in 2019? Great video. Describes issues well.

I also work at a university, and we have a lot of groups on our medical campus that LOVE SharePoint calendars. I'm trying to steer them to the right O365 solution, based on their requirements, but have the same issues you're hitting.

Trying to think holistically about calendars from an M365 perspective, I created a Pros/Cons for different options.

Anything you can think to add / subtract / or misstated?

Option	Pros	Cons
SharePoint Calendar list	•Fairly easy to setup •Add to Outlook as calendar •Add custom metadata	•Not mobile friendly •View in Outlook if <5,000 events
MS Lists calendar template (e.g., event itinerary)	•Very easy to setup •Is mobile friendly •Add custom metadata	•No recurring events •Can’t add to Outlook as calendar •Sometimes doesn't display calendar view
O365 Group / channel calendar	•Already exists w/ Team •Events filtered by channel •Can invite meeting attendees	•New events might send members meeting invites, if Team upgraded from O365 group •No custom metadata •See in Outlook?
O365 Exchange resource calendar	•Book as resource •Great for conference rooms •Approvals: auto or specific users	•Requires ServiceNow ticket •Separate permissions from Team •More complex to setup
MS Bookings app	•Bookings-focused app	•Complexities to setup

Chad_V_Kealey

Iron Contributor

Mar 17, 2021

Sorry for not responding sooner. The recently released "Modern" calendar view has addressed most of the issues we've had. It's not perfect and needs a few more pieces to make it really useful (like the ability to filter those views and color coding options), but it's a start. Unfortunately, like a lot of the "modern" features it just took too long to deliver. Yes, "classic" functionality still works, but it just doesn't coexist well with modern features in the same site. In other words, if you keep your site 100% classic, things work as expected (mostly), but you don't get to take advantage of the updates made to the modern experience. But if your site is 100% modern, you lose classic functionality. Imagine an auto maker rolls out a new car with all the latest safety and tech features, but you can only roll down the windows while the car is stopped. "Nobody would make a car like that!" you're saying, and you're right. But, that's basically what Microsoft has done with SharePoint. Here's all this shiny new stuff, but that tried-and-true capability you used to have isn't ready in this new experience yet.

I think your comparison pretty much nails all the important points. In the long run, before "classic" is finally deprecated entirely, I hope Microsoft will actually deliver ALL of the same functionality (that makes sense) that we used to have. Remember filter web parts (and I mean query string filter, current user filter, etc., not just linking two web parts)? Or (back to the original topic) something that looks like a calendar that can be easily color-coded and displayed in a calendar app (like Outlook)?