<title>Events</title>

<h2>What Is An "Event"?</h2>

In Fossil, and "event" is a special kind of [./wikitheory.wiki | wiki page]
that is associated with a point in time rather than having a page name.
Each event causes a single entry to appear on the [/timeline | Timeline Page].
Clicking on the hyperlink of the timeline entry cause a jump to the wiki
content for the event.  The wiki content, the timeline entry text, the
time of the event, and the timeline background color can all be edited.

As with check-ins, wiki, and tickets, all events automatically synchronize
to other repositories.  Hence, events can be viewed, created, and edited
off-line.  And the complete edit history for events is maintained
for auditing purposes.

Possible uses for events include:

  *  <b>Milestones</b>.  Project milestones, such as releases or beta-test
      cycles, can be recorded as events.  The timeline entry for the event
      can be something simple like "Version 1.2.3" perhaps with a bright
      color background to draw attention to the entry and the wiki content
      can contain release notes, for example.

  *  <b>Blog Entries</b>.  Blog entries from developers describing the current
     state of a project, or rational for various design decisions, or 
     roadmaps for future development, can be entered as events.

  *  <b>Process Checkpoints</b>.  For projects that have a formal process,
     events can be used to record the completion or the initiation of
     various process steps.  For example, an event can be used to record
     the successful completion of a long-running test, perhaps with
     performance results and details of where the test was run and who
     ran it recorded in the wiki content.

  *  <b>News Articles</b>.  Significant occurrences in the lifecycle of
     a project can be recorded as news articles using events.  Perhaps the
     domain name of the canonical website for a project changes, or new
     server hardware is obtained.  Such happenings are appropriate for
     reporting as news.

  *  <b>Announcements</b>.  Changes to the composition of the development
     team or acquisition of new project sponsors can be communicated as
     announcements which can be implemented as events.

No project is required to use events.  But events can help many projects
stay better organized and provide a better historical record of the
development progress.

<h2>Viewing Events</h2>

Because events are considered a special kind of wiki, 
users must have permission to read wiki in order read events.
Enable the "j" permission under the /Setup/Users menu in order
to give specific users or user classes the ability to view wiki
and events.

Events show up on the timeline.  Click on the hyperlink beside the
event title to see the details of the event.

<h2>Creating And Editing Events</h2>

There is a hyperlink under the /Wiki menu that can be used to create
new events.  And there is a submenu hyperlink on event displays for
editing existing events.

Users must have check-in privileges (permission "i") in order to 
create or edit events.  In addition, users must have create-wiki
privilege (permission "f") to create new events and edit-wiki
privilege (permission "k") in order to edit existing events.

If the first non-whitespace text of the event wiki content is
&lt;title&gt;...&lt;/title&gt; then that markup is omitted from
the body of the wiki pages and is instead displayed as the page
title.
