Updates
The booking system has been under development for many years. We have kept a log of the changes to show how things have advanced.
A minor adjustment to fix a problem with services not displaying the day they were due to happen.
A minor adjustment to fix a problem with dates which were manually added.
A minor adjustment to support websites with varying URL structures.
Support for OS Membership to check membership status. Will only load these elements when OS Membership is detected as installed.
Video overvue of the new feaures in version 3.5.
A new flexbox based layout which offeres increased compatibility with 3rd party Joomla templates.
The new version of our extension includes many minor adjustments, but the main new feature added was support for Stripe Strong Customer Authentication. This ensured the payment gateway complies with new European banking laws.
We built of own version of the gateway which like the old version of Stripe keeps the user on your website not redirected to Stripe’s website.
One new feature and a selection of small fixes, updates and adjustments.
Full Day Service
We have added the option for full day services. This allows you to set a particular service as a full day activity, you must select which other starts times to block if this service is booked first. If any of the other start times are booked first then the full day option unpublishes.
This was designed with Boat Trips in mind but will work for many other activities.
Example:
A boat trip business offers private hire for a full day and two hour trips starting at 10am and 2pm. If the boat is hired for the full day both the 10am trip and the 2pm trip are unpublished.
If either the 10am trip or 2pm trip already have a booking then the option to hire all day unpublishes.
Booking Robot version 2.0.0 is one of our largest updates since the launch on the extension with new features and many adjustments.
Discounts
A new feature to allow discounts to be offered via a discount code, a handy tool which allows business owners to offer promotions to their customers.
The discount is applied to the final package total by either a fixed value or a percentage of the package total.
Unlimited Codes can be created: each code can be set for a particular service at the selected times or to work on any service at ant time. Codes are set to work for your chosen dates via the selection calendar.
New Payment Gateway: Stripe
We find Stripe to be better then PayPal, it offers a cleaner interface and crucially keeps the user on your website reducing the chance for errors and it makes it easier to setup Google Analytic Goals. Stripe it also cheaper per transition at as little at 1.4% + 20p (UK). The Stripe settings can be found in the Configurations settings under the Stripe tab.
No Payment
There is now the option not to take a payment. Users can still book, but without paying a fee.
Payment Method Selection
In the General Configurations settings there is now a simple way to seamlessly switch between the payment gateways. Currently there are 3 option in the dropdown list: None, PayPal & Stripe. With this new system we have made it easier to add further gateway optiond in the future.
Page Templates
We now have a built-in confirmed booking page which is customisable using your chosen WYSWYG editor, with support for ‘Snippets’ the same as being used on the email notifications.
An ediable cancelled booking page is also included. These editable templates can be found in the Configurations settings.
Fixed URLs
To make it easier to setup Google analytics Goals there are now fixed URLs for each page of the booking process.
Styles
The ‘Template’ element has been removed and a ‘Styles’ tab has been added to the extension configuration allowing the control of the front-end styles.
PayPal
Some of the old PayPal setting have been removed.
Save Bookings
The layout of the booking totals in the individual saved booking has been adjusted to accommodate the Discount values. The title ‘Package Total’ has been introduced, which is the chargeable total after any discount.
Pending Email Optional
The email that is sent out upon the customer clicking ‘pay’ but before the customer completes the payment is known as the Pending Notification. It can be useful, but if you don’t wish to use the feature it is now optional. Simply don’t add you email address to the template and the email won’t try and send.
This update focuses on adjustments on the Blocked Dates feature.
Problem: If many dates have been blocked out then the public booking process starts to slow down as the browser calculates the available dates.
Solution: We have fixed this by changing how the blocked dates are stored. There is now no slow down no matter how many dates are blocked out.
Important
If you already had dates entered in to blocked date feature after upgrading to the new version you will need to re-save each entry in the blocked date feature. Simply open the entry and then close it again by clicking ‘save & close’.
Version - mod_BR_1.9.5
To support this update to the blocked dates feature the Booking Module also has been updated.
When you update the extension please also update the module.
An important update with some small fixes and an overhaul of how bookings can be managed.
We have spent a lot of time working on how stored bookings can be managed.
Bookings | The Changes
We hope these new controls make it easy to manage your bookings.
Joomla 3.7
Added support for the latest version of Joomla.
Administrator Styles
Various styles have been adjust with in the administrator controls, such as adding support for long service titles.
Public Styles
Various styles have been adjust within the public booking selection, in particular the group size plus and minus buttons have been re-styled to ensure they looks that same on all browsers and devices.
Auto Refund
We have revisited the auto refund feature for late payments beyond the Pending booking timeout.
Rather than refunding all late payments we have introduced 2 parameters that are checked first.
If the service expiry point has not been reached and there is still capacity for the service at that time then the booking will save as paid.
If expiry point has been reached then the auto refund will execute and the booking will cancel.
If there is no longer capacity for that service at that time then the auto refund will execute and the booking will cancel.
Cancelled Booking
We found that PayPal causing some successful bookings to turn to cancelled if a summery screen after payment timed out. We have prevented this from happening.
Booking Not Saving
In very rare circumstance successful booking were not saving to the datable. This has been corrected.
Another huge update for both the extension and the module.
There are many adjustments and a small selection of important new features.
Min Group
The minimum group size setting has been adjusted to support the browser Safari.
Country
The client’s country now displays in the booking preview and the email notifications.
Blocked Dates
Further adjustments have been made to this feature to make it more stable.
Blocked Dates Filter
The dates can now be filtered by their state (Published, Unpublished, ect.).
HTTPS
Fixed an error when using https.
Ordering
Public Times, Extras and Forms order can now be adjusted from the admin.
Times
Removed unused status filter from the times.
Extras Totals
Added a email notification snippet for the extras total, removing the hard coded method.
Saving
New Extras and Forms now fully save on first attempt.
Price
The public price does not display until group size selection is made.
Admin Forms Title
The title for the forms section now won’t display if there are no forms saved to the particular booking.
Admin Max Group
A service can no longer be saved with a Max Group Size higher than the Service Capacity.
Mixed Bookings
On busy websites bookings made at the same time can no longer be mixed up.
Module
If the extensions setting ‘Services as Options’ is selected it is now supported in the module.
Admin Labels
A full review of all labels and tooltips has been carried out with many tools tips being adjusted to provide a clearer explanations.
Admin Styles
A full review of the Admin styles has been completed with many new styles added to provide a sharper look and a cleaner layout at all screen widths.
Group Size
The public group size selection has been changed from drop down lists to a button system.
This should provide a more user friend way to select the group size and a more robust method with less scope for miscalculations.
Late Payment
If a customer fails to pay for the booking within the time limit (Cancel Pending Booking setting), but then makes a late payment it will be automatically refunded. The booking will be cancelled and marked as ‘Refunded Late’ beside the Transaction ID. This is to prevent double bookings.
Automated Updated
We have added support of automated updates. If a new update is available, it will now show in the Joomla extension updates system. If you add an active Download ID to the configuration setting it will update when you approve it. We always recommend you backup your entire website before making any update.
Version 1.8 is an important update for the extension, many minor adjustments and a few larger adjustments all in readiness for official realise.
Blocked Dates
The largest adjustment in this update is to the Blocking Dates feature. The website owner now can choose to either block all services or just a particular service at a particular time over the selected dates. This should be useful if allowing for holidays or staff days off.
User Data
The extension now records user data when a booking is saved. This includes browser type, browser version and operating system. This information in stored in the database, but not accessible from within the extension admin controls. The saved info is useful if a booking does not save fully, allowing the development team to attempt to reproduce the issue.
Code
Not noticeable to a typical website owner, but we have reviewed all background code. Old or unused code has been removed and we have added further comments and labels.
The below is a list of the mirror corrections & adjustments . . .
The booking Module has been updated to version 2. This includes the below changes.
02/08/2016
This version adds two new features and adjusts a selection of current features to make things cleaner and easier to use.
Purchase Date
This new feature displays the ‘Purchase Date’ within saved bookings and as a filterable column in the bookings list. Knowing when the booking was made and paid for should be useful.
Currency Symbol
A new feature in the General Configuration under the ‘PayPal’ tab allowing the manual entry of the currency symbol you wish to use on the website.
Price Labels
Prior to this adjustment the service price labels were adjusted using the Joomla Languages Overrides. Many site managers who were less confident with the more advanced features of Joomla found this a tricky process. Now Price labels can be easily edited within induvial service settings.
Public Help
This feature was a relic from the first edition of the Booking Robot extension and was never really used, so we have removed it.
Time Stamp
Since version 1.6 a Time/Date stamp has been displayed on the public booking page. This is a useful feature when setting up and checking the website time matched the local time.
This feature can now be toggled on or off within the General Configuration.
Time Labels
When setting a new time the label can now be any text.
General Configuration
The removal of the Minimum group, Maximum group and Available Dates from the General Configurations (keeping them in the individual service settings).
1 Large Adjustment and 2 Small Fixes.
Save Timing
We moved the point at which bookings are saved from reaching the Booking Preview to the action of clicking ‘Pay’.
This ensures slots/capacity are only reserved when the customer is ready to pay. We had found that customers often reached the Booking Preview then deciding to change something, only to find that the service was no longer available.
Adding Up
If a certain combination of price selection was made the total was incorrect. Now fixed.
Service Title
The price has been removed from the service title in the admin booking list.
Is a minor update to the extension addressing a small selection of bugs.
Group Size Limits
The Minimum and Maximum Group size limits have been adjusted to fully support the multi price group totals.
Server Time
The option to switch server time zones has been adjusted to offer full support. This is ideal if you need to ensure the websites time matches your local time.
Unavailable Date
Dates that have been fully booked are now removed from selection.
Service Un-Check
A service month, day and time can now be un-checked and saved.
This offers a small update the actual extension with one minor fix, but some background changes to allow support for the module.
Minor Fixes
Email template permissions has been fixed to allow allocation to any user group.
1.7 sees the launch of version 1 of the Booking Robot Module. The extension has had a few background adjustments to allow support.
We hope you will find the module very useful. It can be used in a number of ways:
The module has been designed to have large buttons ideal for touch screens on mobile devices. This allows the business owner/manager/staff member to monitor and adjust bookings while on site delivering the service.
Manual Dates
This feature can be used to compliment the automatically generated dates – to add extra dates or times that fall outside the normal pattern.
It can also be used on its own when a service has no settings selected to generated dates automatically. Ideal if the service has no regular pattern.
PayPal Tracker
Added fuller tracking within the PayPal API to help make the refund function work when sharing a single PayPal account with multiple websites all running Booking Robot.
Version 1.6 is a major update to the Booking Robot Joomla component encompassing many minor fixes and adds a selection of new features.
Working Times
The Working Times have been adjusted. A time picker has been introduced to ensure the time formatting is consistent. Working times can now be re-ordered.
Extra’s Snippet
The snippet {extras_booked} now works in pending bookings.
Publish End Date
This setting in the services has been updated to ensure it works and it is an optional setting, not required.
Manual Booking Group Size
The manual booking group size was limited to a maximum of 30. It now mirrors the actual maximum booking limit for that particular service, whatever that may be set to.
Extras 1
If 'Multi Chargeable’ is selected on an extra it will multiply the cost by all price categories that make up the group size.
Extra’s 2
The Extra's Price does now allows pence £10.xx.
Extra’s 3
All extra’s costs are now including the package total’s, not just the PayPal Fee.
Extra’s 4
The extra's now have sub totals in the Booking Preview, Emails and Saved Bookings.
PayPal API
To allow the use of new features such us the direct refund the way the booking software can communicate with PayPal has been upgraded to full API.
Refund
It is now possible to refund paid transactions from within the bookings. When a booking is refunded a confirmation email is also send to the customer and can be copied to the admin. A new refund email template has been added allowing the customisation of this notification.
Expiry Time
An important new feature, when a booking attempt is made reaching the status of ‘Pending’ a set number of minutes are then allowed for the booking to be completed by a payment being made.
If no payment is made after the set time (default 30min) then the booking automatically changes to ‘Cancelled’. This ensure any reserved slots are then made available again for other customers to book.
Cancel & Return
If a customer is at the Payment Stage within PayPal and chooses to Cancel. Then they are returned to the website and the booking status changes from ‘Pending’ to ‘Cancelled’, reserved slots are then made available again for other customers to book.
Administrator Layout
The backend layout has had some major adjustments to tidy things up and ensure it is truly responsive. Making sure all settings can be accessed to all internet browsing devices.
Particular attention has been given to the booking page, service page and the bookings table.
Easy Upgrade
We have adjusted features to ensure bookings and settings are not overwritten if a newer version for Booking Robot software is installed in the future.