EventSeries

For an introduction to data publishing via open data feeds, and EventSeries, SessionSeries and ScheduledSessions, please refer to this page of the OpenActive Developer Docs.

Composition of EventSeries

The entire API is built around delivering physical activities to consumers. The most important endpoint delivering an app on top of the imin Events API, which helps customers find physical activities, is /events-api/v2/event-series (see Events API Reference for Swagger reference documentation). So, what is an EventSeries?

An EventSeries is composed of three main types of objects:

• EventSeries: a particular physical activity;

• SessionSeries: a particular location - an EventSeries can have multiple SessionSeries items as children; and

• ScheduledSession: a particular time or according to a particular schedule - a SessionSeries can have multiple ScheduledSessions items as children.

Examples

1. A local volunteering organization named BeneficialRun is organizing a Run in Romford called Run and plant trees in local park. This session is going to take place on Thursday 13th September at 7:30pm.

2. These is a leisure centre named MoreGood Leisure Centre in Moorgate, London. They host Swimming Lessons every Tuesday at 8:00am starting from 23rd October and running for 6 months. The swimming lessons are for Intermediate swimmers and the instructor's name is Brad Chadley.

In the above examples (these are made up), the values in bold directly correlate to fields in an EventSeries, a SessionSeries or a ScheduledSession. For example, in the first example, the EventSeries would have a .name field with value: Run and plant trees in local park.

Specifications

The specification for an EventSeries is defined in the API Reference. It is a stricter sub-set of the OpenActive Specification for Event.

Types of EventSeries

One-to-One

Example #1 above is a physical activity that only happens at one place and at a specific time. Therefore, the EventSeries that describes it will have only one SessionSeries, which will in turn have only one ScheduledSession. As such, this an example of a One-to-One EventSeries.

Snippet from Example #1's session:

{
  "type": "EventSeries",
  "name": "Run and plant trees in local park",
  // other fields that describe the type of physical activity...
  "subEvent": [
    "type": "SessionSeries",
    // fields that describe the location of the physical activity...
    "subEvent": [
      {
        "type": "ScheduledSession",
        "startDate": "2018-09-13T18:30:00Z", // equal to 7:30pm in British Summer Time
        "endDate": "2018-09-13T20:00:00Z",
        "duration": "PT90M" // ISO-8601 Duration. This means "90 minutes"
      }
    ]
  ]
}

One-to-Many

Example #2 above is a physical activity that occurs on many occasions. If the same activity is rolled out in other leisure centres, it may also occur in many locations. Therefore, the EventSeries will have one or more SessionSeries items, each of which will have one or more ScheduledSession items. As such, this is an example of a One-to-Many EventSeries.

Snippet from Example #2's session:

{
  "type": "EventSeries",
  "name": "Swimming Lessons",
  // other fields that describe the type of physical activity...
  "subEvent": [
    {
      "type": "SessionSeries",
      "location": {
        "type": "Place",
        "name": "MoreGood Leisure Centre"
      },
      // other fields that describe the location of the physical activity...
      "subEvent": [
        {
          "type": "ScheduledSession",
          "startDate": "2018-10-23T07:00:00Z", // 08:00 in British Summer Time
          "endDate": "2018-10-23T08:00:00Z",
          "duration": "PT1H" // ISO-8601 Duration. This means "1 hour"
        },
        {
          "type": "ScheduledSession",
          "startDate": "2018-10-30T08:00:00Z", // BST ends on 25th October, so this is now 08:00 in GMT
          "endDate": "2018-10-30T09:00:00Z",
          "duration": "PT1H"
        },
        // and so on until April 23rd...
      ],
    },
    {
      "type": "SessionSeries",
      "location": {
        "type": "Place",
        "name": "SomewhereElse Leisure Centre"
      },
      "subEvent": [ /* ... */ ]
    },
    // ...etc
  ]
}