Issues with/Advice for Calendar views of modern lists

[Chad_V_Kealey]

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 SharePoint 2010. Not everyone loved it, but it was reliable and being (or at least looking like) an actual Calendar, people "got" it. 

Knowing that such "classic" things are bound to be deprecated soon(ish), I resolved to replace this with a "modern" solution based on SharePoint Lists using PowerApps and Flow as the UI and workflow components. What I built works pretty darn well. But, users (many of them) balk at it because it's not an actual Calendar. No problem, I can still create Calendar-type views of modern lists, right? Well, yeah, I can, but they don't work reliably. Also, they don't allow a lot of other things, like overlaying other calendar info, connecting to Outlook, etc. I totally understand why they don't, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

Anyway, this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7gfHO18AHE&t=0s) summarizes the issues I'm faced with. Namely, the calendar views not consistently/reliably loading as calendar-type views and the ability (thanks to those blasted calendar views) for users to bypass the beautiful and easy to use PowerApp to add items directly to the list.

My big concern is that we have 2 or 3 other departments (one of similar size, another much smaller) that want the same solution. If there's a better way to do this that will circumvent some of these problems, I'm happy to explore alternatives.

[#2]

HIi @Chad_V_Kealey ,

We explored this extensively with a client recently and the best option was to use the classic calendars. Not ideal as they dont work well on Mobile etc but it was the best solution. Any editing was done through Outlook desktop client and all users could sync the calendar should they wish to with permissions on the SharePoint list controlling who could edit it. 

We can still use the modern webparts to show a summary of the up and coming events on other pages so that worked well, for example to show summaries of the events on the homepage of the Intranet for example. 

Just need to wait for the modern calendar, which may be on the way. 

Kind regards

Andy

[#3]

@Andrew Hodges , thanks for the feedback. According to this UserVoice suggestion, it looks like there aren't any current plans to implement modern Calendar views. This is discouraging. 

In any case, the good news is that I was able to at least get the calendar views to show up consistently by changing the List experience to "Classic". The bad news is that this means no modern views at all of the list, and all of the classic views have a "New" button at the top which completely bypasses the App and the customized form for the list. I was also able to create a Flow that will run when a leave entry is created directly in the list (not the App) to notify the submitter and then delete the event. 

It's just very frustrating to end users (and us IT folks) when functionality is lost during "upgrades" to products. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of good stuff in the whole "modern" experience, but the things that are missing are the ones that folks then to latch onto. 

[#4]

Hi@Chad_V_Kealey ,

Your only other option would be to use something not out of the box, I have not used this but here is a modern calendar from the SharePoint Framework. If you needed a hand implementing it PM me.

Andy

[#5]

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

[#6]

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)?