Pre-Sales Question

Hi suntower,

1. Currently there is no way to have the bp-calendar form pre-populate with a given ‘Staff’ ID. It is already in our future development list, but will be not implemented in the near future. This can be done by adding a parameter to the short code. We can give you the guidance if you would like to modify the code by yourself.

2. We think it is better to use short code to implement that instead of making it public. This can be more compatible with other themes and plugins.

3. Reminder emails will be supported in our next major release.

4. Periodic emails is not supported. You can try some newsletter plugins, which might support it. Maybe Wysija Newsletters

5. Currently staff members have to access their calendars from within the WP Admin. Staff members will be assigned the role of author. They can only view limited info from within the WP Admin.

If there is anything else you need help with, please feel free to contact us.

Hi again. Thanks for the reply. A couple of follow ups…

1. Where you wrote: “Currently there is no way to have the bp-calendar form pre-populate with a given ‘Staff’ ID. It is already in our future development list, but will be not implemented in the near future. This can be done by adding a parameter to the short code.”

Do you mean there is already a shortcode for this? -Or- do you mean you can show me how to do this via PHP?

2. Where you wrote: “We think it is better to use short code to implement that instead of making it public. This can be more compatible with other themes and plugins.”

Do you mean there is already a shortcode for this?

5. So is every Staff given a separate User ID? We don’t want User ‘Bob’ to be able to see User ‘Mary’ calendar.

One other thing: I tried the free version and there is no blocking of appointments at the same time. I assume this is included in the ‘Pro’ version?

TIA,

—JC

Hi JC,

Here are the answers.

1. No, there is no shortcode for that. We can tell you which files you need modify if you want to make changes by yourself.

2. No, there is no shortcode for that.

5. If you create a WP user with the same email address as the one defined in staff page, he will be recognized as a staff member when he logs in WP Admin. He can only view his own calendar there. This is only supported in Pro Business edition. You can have a try with our online demo. Login as ‘staff’, you will see the difference.

Both free and pro editions support blocking of appointments at the same time when your customers book from the front end booking form. If you try to book an appointment from WP Admin as an administrator, you will have the power to select anytime even if it might cause a double booking. That is by design.

Can we export the appointments into a csv from the appointments page?

Do you have an ETA on the next major release with the reminder emails to customers?

Does ‘Set booking availability for a specific time period’ mean that you can have X number of customers sign up for the same service at 1:00 pm. Also, customers can sign up for 2 different services (say Haircut and Eyebrow Wax both at 3:00 pm) at the same time or for the same service at the same time for a different staff member (2 Haircuts at 9:00 am– one with Charlie and one with Rebeca), correct?

Hi Kassieloo,

Our plugin does not support exporting appointments into a csv file. Why do you want to export the appointments? Our plugin supports exporting ics file, which can be imported to other famous calendars like Outlook or Apple Calendar, and you can print your appointments there.

Our next major release will be launched next week. Reminder emails will be supported.

The number of customers can be accepted at the same time depends on how many staff members are available at that time. And each staff member can only accept one customer at the same time. If you have two staff members available and both of them can provide Haircut and Eyebrow Wax services, you can accept two customers at 1:00PM. And each customer can pick her service, Haircut or Eyebrow Max.

‘Set booking availability for a specific time period’ feature is designed for people who have very flexible schedules. For instance, from August 4 to Auguest 10, she works on Monday and Friday, from Auguest 11 to August 17, she works on Tuesday and Thursday etc. Currently our plugin does not support group bookings.

Thank you very much for the information.

My client wants to be able to print the appointments from the same place he makes the appointments. Not a deal breaker since, as you said, he can export them to Outlook and iCal. Would it be possible to connect the calendar to a Google Calendar?

Hi kassieloo,

Your appointments made through scheduler can be synced to your google calendar. The way we sync appointments to Google Calendar is using iCal feed. But there is a known issue of syncing iCal with Google Calender, sometimes it might take a very long time for the iCal events to be synced to Google Calendar. If you insist on using Google Calendar, you might need to manually download appointments and then import to Google Calendar and print. With outlook and Apple calendar, you just need set up the sync once and all appointments will show there without any delay. All you need is just clicking the print button. So if you also use Apple calendar or Outlook, we would recommend them as your first choice.