functionality: deposits, attachments, select email by size

Thanks @gibbysns3, I work hard to make sure it’s stable, performant and well-supported. But you’re right that it’s more limited in what I’m able to offer — especially in the free version — to ensure that stability and minimize the support load.

Backend only field: This isn’t possible out of the box. But you have a couple of options. One would be to use CSS to hide these fields in the frontend. Each custom field has a unique class you can use to hide the field from the user. This wouldn’t prevent a malicious user from finding it in the code and manipulating the value, but it would probably solve your primary use-case: to prevent casual bookings that result in no-shows.

Custom response notifications based on custom fields: This also isn’t possible out of the box and there isn’t a really simple workaround without writing at least some custom PHP code.

Automated reminder/follow-up emails: No, I don’t have an addon for this yet. It’s definitely on my to-do list though!

Custom field visibility options: No, the custom fields addon is fairly simple and straightforward. It’s not a full-scale form builder like some of the big form plugins out there.

The answers above all apply to what’s possible out-of-the-box. If you’re comfortable writing PHP code and working with WordPress’s hooks system, it’s fairly easy to accomplish what you want using the developer-friendly hooks built into the plugin (and addons).

If that sounds like something you’d like to explore, let me know and I can provide some quick recommendations on how to go about getting these things done.

Thanks Nate

I’m no coder, but I think I have a workaround. I can set up the ‘pending email’ as the interim step i need for large bookings, and use the pending status as the check that the deposit is received.

Confirmation message. When the user books using the form, and clicks to submit, the page is refreshed and a confirmation message is given that the booking has been sent. Trouble is the page refresh may not (and on my first site does not) take the user to the area where that message is visible. They are just taken to the top of the page and left thinking ‘what happened, did it go through or not?’. I could structure anywhere the form is used taking that into account, but it feels a sledgehammer to crack a nut – so i’m hoping you might have a solution?

I am hoping I can use a custom field to add a notes section, and disable the default ‘add a note’ option. I need the notes to be automatically visible in the backend, and printable, not individually selectable as in the free version.

The rest I’m happy to go with, and note you offer a 30 day refund anyway if I do hit any major snags (for example I’m sure I read that the business details ties in with the custom emails – i like the idea of including the map with the confirmation, but noted none of your example custom emails were showing that included so hope I have not misunderstood it)

While I have your attention (these are wishlist items I hope you will find useful)…

I would see the automated reminder email as a huge plus. All of my restaurants are tourist locations and as people are easily distracted while on holiday it would be particularly useful. I hope that one gets to the top of your list soon.

Exclusion dates. Be great to be able to apply a date range. Again, all six of my sites are tourist, so seasonal. I think as it stands I will have to apply about 150 individual exclusion dates for each restaurant to cover the close season. A from and to date option would be a great time saving, and i assume relatively simple from a coding point of view.

A graphical ‘time bar’ showing bookings on a time line to aid with table allocation would be fantastic. I appreciate this one is probably a big coding job – but I mention it just to say I am a ready and willing customer for that.

Ditto SMS options.

Language options. I read your reply to an enquiry, or in faq, about being able to set language of the form, but the email response being in the language of the backend user. I am happy with a dual language response, but a multi language reply email would be better. We have bookings in at least 8 languages.

I hope the feedback is useful, but at the end of the day I am going with your plug-ins that don’t do these things, when i know there are plug-ins that claim to do everything I have mentioned and more. I just ‘feel’ yours are better quality and more stable.

Hi @gibbysyns3,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I meant to hit this on Friday but didn’t get to it.

Trouble is the page refresh may not (and on my first site does not) take the user to the area where that message is visible. They are just taken to the top of the page and left thinking ‘what happened, did it go through or not?’

You’ve got a couple of options for such circumstances. One option is to create a separate Page just for the booking form, with it prominently at the top. You can then use the shortcode [booking-form] to add the form to whatever page you’d like, and it will submit to the Booking Page where the form is more prominent.

Alternatively, you can use this Gist to scroll to the booking form after the form has been successfully submitted. To use this little addon, click the Download link at the top, unpack the .php file, and upload it to your /wp-content/plugins/ directory. You can then activate it from the Plugins page in your WordPress admin area.

I am hoping I can use a custom field to add a notes section, and disable the default ‘add a note’ option. I need the notes to be automatically visible in the backend, and printable, not individually selectable as in the free version.

You should be able to view the message field in the backend by using the Columns button which appears above the bookings list. I see now, though, that you can make all the columns visible except the message field. That’s an oversight. I’ve filed an issue to fix that in a future version.

If you want to make the message field visible in the booking form by default, you can use the following CSS code:

body .rtb-booking-form .add-message {
    display: none;
}
body .rtb-booking-form .message {
    position: relative;
    top: auto;
    left: auto;
}

I would see the automated reminder email as a huge plus.

Sounds good. If you want to be made aware of future addon releases, you can sign up to my email newsletter:

https://themeofthecrop.com/about/mailing-list/

Exclusion dates. Be great to be able to apply a date range.

This is also on my todo list.

A graphical ‘time bar’ showing bookings on a time line to aid with table allocation would be fantastic.

This will probably be part of a more comprehensive table assignment/capacity management addon that I am planning to build.

Ditto SMS options.

I’d need to integrate with a third-party service here, and many of them are country-specific. Twillio is currently the leading contender, but in many cases I think it’s just as easy for people to use email-to-sms platforms to accomplish this.

Language options. I read your reply to an enquiry, or in faq, about being able to set language of the form, but the email response being in the language of the backend user. I am happy with a dual language response, but a multi language reply email would be better. We have bookings in at least 8 languages.

Because WordPress has no standard way for handling multi-lingual sites, it’s tough to provide an out-of-the-box solution for this that works across the board. There are lots of different multi-lingual plugins out there, and each handles things differently, so I’m hesitant to support just one of them. But this is on my radar.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 7 months ago by NateWr.

thanks nate, i really appreciate the time – it is clear you offer great support.

unfortunately i think i have hit a dealbreaker on functionality. at least a dealbreaker as far as a non-coder is concerned.

i mentioned I had intended to use the ‘pending’ status as a holding step to deal with our large bookings extra requirements, deposits etc – we have a lot of them.

but now putting it in place i see the ‘pending’ status is just the automatic status given when a request is received. i was thinking it was a status you could select, and would have an email template you could configure accordingly (so you would have 4 status – request, pending, confirmed, rejected).

the only way i could see is using the individual email, but that would mean having to copy and paste all the text, the booking info, and i can’t see any way to add attachments at all.

a real shame. perhaps other users would benefit from the idea of having the ability to send other ‘standard’ emails from that stage. ‘reminder’, ‘confirming your change request’ ‘deposit’ etc.

i know what it is like, there are loads of things you could do but it all comes down to time and money.

4 of my six restaurants have the same similar group/deposit practices so unless you can tell me i’ve missed something i just don’t think it will work?

a final thought, I couldn’t have two instances of the same plug in working could I? like one for regular bookings and another for large bookings.

Dammit! I thought i had it.

I decided to use your system for bookings up to 9 people, continue using cf7 with bells and whistles for the group bookings, and then manually enter the group bookings to your system when confirmed

But i now see the backend admin overide only applies to date and time, not number of people.

Is that something you could give me a tweak for, admin can book for any number?

You can’t say I’m not trying to make it work ??

Hi @gibbysyns3,

Almost there! Try the following little addon:

https://gist.github.com/NateWr/d24f690c90bc6468b3063bc26607ce4f

It will modify the party size options when the booking form is shown in the admin area, and allow Admins and Booking Managers to bypass the party size restrictions.

To use it, click the Download Gist button on the page linked above, unpack the .zip, and upload the .php file to your /wp-content/plugins/ directory. You can then activate it from the Plugins page in your WordPress admin area.

When testing the party size restrictions, don’t forget to log out. When logged in as an Admin or Booking Manager, you’ll be able to bypass party restrictions.

rock and roll

you’re a star

cheers nate