More Existing Site Stuff

[milo]

Hello...

I've got a nice little reservation system for a bed and breakfast, and your calendar would be the icing on the cake. I've got a trial version installed and would like to purchase the program today. However, I need to know how well I can incorporate the existing database into the easyphpCalendar. Basically in my database, the user enters the guest's name, deposit amount, who took the order, type of payment, date of checkin and date of checkout. I'd like to keep the input of this info from my side, but have the results display on the calendar. Also, I'd like to have one version of the calendar, available to the public that can't display the details, just show the blacked out days. The other version, "behind the scenes" will display my info from the database. I believe I have the skills to make this all happen, but wanted to get your (the developer's) opinion of the easiest way to proceed. Thanks! and GREAT program!

-milo

[Brian]

This is very easy and the calendar has been used this way many times.

While logged into the Event Manager you can see all of the details for an event. As long as the pop-ups are disabled (which they are by default) the normal calendar will not show the details entered for events. They would only see the dates that are booked.

Additionally, you could assign a category to each room and use the filter plugin to show a separate calendar for each room.

:)

[Brian]

I just realized I missed the part of your post about using your existing database... <thinks>

[milo]

hehehehehe.. that's the snag.. It would be easy if I could just have the staff fill in this info into the event manager coupled with the calendar, but the website manager I've built contains a mailing manager, page content manager, price manager, link manager, etc so basically going to a different distinct event manager would just disrupt their workflow a tad. I guess what I'm wanting to do is use the front-end of the calendar more than the back end. Not that there's anything wrong with the back end, you've written a great program! Thanks!

[Brian]

Tying the two together would probably take some custom programming. You can look at the calendar database too see how events are stored. If you can make your reservation system use the same table layout, you could tie the two together.

[Brian]

It would appear that the custom code would need to be on the calendar side then...


Could you create a cron job that runs through your database every X minutes and translates/converts the booking data to the calendar database?

[milo]

I believe I could... Or perhaps I could just have my reservation manager write to the calendar's DB table, imitating the data sent from the events manager.... Or maybe I could just tell the client to use both setups, and enjoy them, tee hee. I'll ponder over it for a bit & let you know what I come up with. Thanks for the fast reply.. & nice stang!

[Brian]

Thanks! Just let me know what I can do to help!

:)

[milo]

ok here's one... I can link into your events manager from my manager, however, is there any way I can disable the username and password, as the users already enter a un/pass to get into the manager directory?

cheers

[Brian]

You can by-pass the EPCal authentication by passing a set user name and password to the script. Look at the Details page and the Setup Manager and Event Manager links to see how this can be done.