Registration

Registration is required in order to use Booked Scheduler if you administrator has enabled it. After your account has been registered you will be able to log in and access any resources that you have permission to.

Booking

Under the Schedule menu item you will find the Booking item. This will show you the available, reserved and blocked slots on the schedule and allow you to book resources that you have permission to.

Express

On the Bookings page, find the resource, date and time you'd like to book. Clicking on the time slot will allow you change the details of the reservation. Clicking the Create button will check availability, book the reservation and send out any emails. You will be given a reference number to use for reservation follow-up.

Any changes made to a reservation will not take effect until you save the reservation.

Only Application Administrators can create reservations in the past.

Multiple Resources

You can book all resources that you have permission as part of a single reservation. To add more resources to your reservation, click the More Resources link, displayed next to the name of the primary resource you are reserving. You will then able to add more resources by selecting them and clicking the Done button.

To remove additional resources from your reservation, click the More Resources link, deselect the resources you want to remove, and click the Done button.

Additional resources will be subject to the same rules as primary resources. For example, this means that if you attempt to create a 2 hour reservation with Resource 1, which has a maximum length of 3 hours and with Resource 2, which has a maximum length of 1 hour, your reservation will be denied.

You can view the configuration details of a resource by hovering over the resource name.

Recurring Dates

A reservation can be configured to recur a number of different ways. For all repeat options the Until date is inclusive.

The repeat options allow for flexible recurrence possibilities. For example: Repeat Daily every 2 days will create a reservation every other day for your specified time. Repeat Weekly, every 1 week on Monday, Wednesday, Friday will create a reservation on each of those days every week at your specified time. If you were creating a reservation on 2011-01-15, repeating Monthly, every 3 months on the day of month would create a reservation every third month on the 15th. Since 2011-01-15 is the third Saturday of January, the same example with the day of week selected would repeat every third month on the third Saturday of that month.

Additional Participants

You can either Add Participants or Invite Others when booking a reservation. Adding someone will include them on the reservation and will not send an invitation. The added user will receive an email. Inviting a user will send an invitation email and give the user an option to Accept or Decline the invitation. Accepting an invitation adds the user to the participants list. Declining an invitation removes the user from the invitees list.

The total number of participants is limited by the resource's participant capacity.

Accessories

Accessories can be thought of as objects used during a reservation. Examples may be projectors or chairs. To add accessories to your reservation, click the Add link to the right of the Accessories title. From there you will be able to select a quantity for each of the available accessories. The quantity available during your reservation time will depend on how many accessories are already reserved.

Booking on behalf of others

Application Administrators and Group Administrators can book reservations on behalf of other users by clicking the Change link to the right of the user's name.

Application Administrators and Group Administrators can also modify and delete reservations owned by other users.

Updating a Reservation

You can update any reservation that you have created or that was created on your behalf.

Updating Specific Instances From a Series

If a reservation is set up to repeat, then a series is created. After you make changes and Update the reservation, you will be asked which instances of the series you want to apply the changes to. You can apply your changes to the instance that you are viewing (Only This Instance) and no other instances will be changed. You can update All Instances to apply the change to every reservation instance that has not yet occurred. You can also apply the change only to Future Instances, which will update all reservation instances including and after the instance you are currently viewing.

Only Application Administrators can update reservations in the past.

Deleting a Reservation

Deleting a reservation completely removes it from the schedule. It will no longer be visible anywhere in Booked Scheduler

Deleting Specific Instances From a Series

Similar to updating a reservation, when deleting you can select which instances you want to delete.

Only Application Administrators can delete reservations in the past.

Adding a Reservation to Calendar (Outlook®, iCal, Mozilla Lightning, Evolution)

When viewing or updating a reservation you will see a button to Add to Outlook. If Outlook is installed on your computer then you should be asked to add the meeting. If it is not installed you will be prompted to download an .ics file. This is a standard calendar format. You can use this file to add the reservation to any application that supports the iCalendar file format.

Subscribing to Calendars

Calendars can be published for Schedules, Resources and Users. For this feature to work, the administrator must have configured a subscription key in the config file. To enable Scheudle and Resource level calendar subscriptions, simply turn subscriptions on when managing the Schedule or Resource. To turn on personal calendar subcriptions, open Schedule -> My Calendar. On the right side of the page you will find a link to Allow or Turn Off calendar subscriptions.

To subscribe to a Schedule calendar, open Schedule -> Resource Calendar and select the schedule you want. On the right side of the page, you will find a link to subscribe to the current calendar. Subscribing the a Resource calendar follows the same steps. To subscribe to your personal calendar, open Scheudle -> My Calendar. On the right side of the page, you will find a link to subscribe to the current calendar.

Calendar client (Outlook®, iCal, Mozilla Lightning, Evolution)

In most cases, simply clicking the Subscribe to this Calendar link will automatically set up the subscription in your calendar Client. For Outlook, if it does not automatically add, open the Calendar view, then right click My Calendars and choose Add Calendar -> From Internet. Paste in the URL printed under the Subscribe to this Calendar link in Booked Scheduler.

Google® Calendar

Open Google Calendar settings. Click the Calendars tab. Click Browse interesting calendars. Click add by URL. Paste in the URL printed under the Subscribe to this Calendar link in Booked Scheduler.

Quotas

Administrators have the ability to configure quota rules based on a variety of criteria. If your reservation would violate any quota, you will be notified and the reservation will be denied.

Administration

If you are in an Application Administrator role then you will see the Application Management menu item. All administrative tasks can be found here.

Setting up Schedules

When installing Booked Scheduler a default schedule will be created with out of the box settings. From the Schedules menu option you can view and edit attributes of the current schedules.

Each schedule must have a layout defined for it. This controls the availability of the resources on that schedule. Clicking the Change Layout link will bring up the layout editor. Here you can create and change the time slots that are available for reservation and blocked from reservation. There is no restriction on the slot times, but you must provide slot values for all 24 hours of the day, one per line. Also, the time format must be in 24 hour time. You can also provide a display label for any or all slots, if you wish.

A slot without a label should be formatted like this: 10:25 - 16:50

A slot with a label should be formatted like this: 10:25 - 16:50 Schedule Period 4

Below the slot configuration windows is a slot creation wizard. This will set up available slots at the given interval between the start and end times.

Setting up Resources

You can view and manage resources from the Resources menu option. Here you can change the attributes and usage configuration of a resource.

Resources in Booked Scheduler can be anything you want to make bookable, such as rooms or equipment. Every resource must be assigned to a schedule in order for it to be bookable. The resource will inherit whatever layout the schedule uses.

Setting a minimum reservation duration will prevent booking from lasting longer than the set amount. The default is no minimum.

Setting a maximum reservation duration will prevent booking from lasting shorter than the set amount. The default is no maximum.

Setting a resource to require approval will place all bookings for that resource into a pending state until approved. The default is no approval required.

Setting a resource to automatically grant permission to it will grant all new users permission to access the resource at registration time. The default is to automatically grant permissions.

You can require a booking lead time by setting a resource to require a certain number of days/hours/minutes notification. For example, if it is currently 10:30 AM on a Monday and the resource requires 1 days notification, the resource will not be able to be booked until 10:30 AM on Sunday. The default is that reservations can be made up until the current time.

You can prevent resources from being booked too far into the future by requiring a maximum notification of days/hours/minutes. For example, if it is currently 10:30 AM on a Monday and the resource cannot end more than 1 day in the future, the resource will bot be able to be booked past 10:30 AM on Tuesday. The default is no maximum.

Certain resources cannot have a usage capacity. For example, some conference rooms may only hold up to 8 people. Setting the resource capacity will prevent any more than the configured number of participants at one time, excluding the organizer. The default is that resources have unlimited capacity.

Application Administrators are exempt from usage constraints.

Resource Images

You can set a resource image which will be displayed when viewing resource details from the reservation page. This requires php_gd2 to be installed and enabled in your php.ini file. More Details

Setting up Accessories

Accessories can be thought of as objects used during a reservation. Examples may be projectors or chairs in a conference room.

Accessories can be viewed and managed from the Accessories menu item, under the Resources menu item. Setting a accessory quantity will prevent more than that number of accessories from being booked at a time.

Setting up Quotas

Quotas prevent reservations from being booked based on a configurable limit. The quota system in Booked Scheduler is very flexible, allowing you to build limits based on reservation length and number reservations. Also, quota limits "stack". For example, if a quota exists limiting a resource to 5 hours per day and another quota exists limiting to 4 reservations per day a user would be able to make 4 hour-long reservations but would be restricting from making 3 two-hour-long reservations. This allows powerful quota combinations to be built.

Application Administrators are exempt from quota limits.

Setting up Announcements

Announcements are a very simple way to display notifications to Booked Scheduler users. From the Announcements menu item you can view and manage the announcements that are displayed on users dashboards. An announcement can be configured with an optional start and end date. An optional priority level is also available, which sorts announcements from 1 to 10.

HTML is allows within the announcement text. This allows you to embed links or images from anywhere on the web.

Setting up Groups

Groups in Booked Scheduler organize users, control resource access permissions and define roles within the application.

Roles

Roles give a group of users the authorization to perform certain actions.

Users that belong to a group that is given the Application Administrator role are open to full administrative privileges. This role has nearly zero restrictions on what resources can be booked. It can manage all aspects of the application.

Users that belong to a group that is given the Group Administrator role are able to reserve on behalf of and manage users within that group.

Viewing and Managing Reservations

You can view and manage reservations from the Reservations menu item. By default you will see the last 7 days and the next 7 days worth of reservations. This can be filtered more or less granular depending on what you are looking for. This tool allows you to quickly find an act on a reservation. You can also export the list of filtered reservations to CSV format for further reporting.

Reservation Approval

From the Reservations admin tool you will be able to view and approve pending reservations. Pending reservations will be highlighted.

Viewing and Managing Users

You can add, view, and manage all registered users from the Users menu item. This tool allows you to change resource access permissions of individual users, deactivate or delete accounts, reset user passwords, and edit user details. You can also add new users to Booked Scheduler. This is especially useful if self-registration is turned off.

Configuration

Some of Booked Scheduler's functionality can only be controlled by editing the config file.

$conf['settings']['server.timezone']This must reflect the timezone of the server that Booked Scheduler is hosted on. You can view the current timezone from the Server Settings menu item. Possible values are located here: http://php.net/manual/en/timezones.php

$conf['settings']['allow.self.registration']If users are allowed to register new accounts.

$conf['settings']['admin.email']The email address of the main application administrator

$conf['settings']['default.page.size']The initial number of rows for any page that displays a list of data

$conf['settings']['enable.email']Whether or not any emails are sent out of Booked Scheduler

$conf['settings']['default.language']Default language for all users. This can be any language in the Booked Scheduler lang directory

$conf['settings']['script.url']The full public URL to the root of this instance of Booked Scheduler. This should be the Web directory which contains files like bookings.php and calendar.php

$conf['settings']['password.pattern']A regular expression to enforce password complexity during user account registration

$conf['settings']['schedule']['show.inaccessible.resources']Whether or not resources that are not accessible to the user are displayed in the schedule

$conf['settings']['schedule']['reservation.label']The value to display for the reservation on the Bookings page. Options are 'name', 'title', or 'none'. Default is 'name'.

$conf['settings']['image.upload.directory']The physical directory to store images. This directory will need to be writable. This can be the full directory or relative to the Booked Scheduler root directory.

$conf['settings']['image.upload.url']The URL where uploaded images can be viewed from. This can be the full URL or relative to $conf['settings']['script.url'].

$conf['settings']['cache.templates']Whether or not templates are cached. It is recommended to set this to true, as long as tpl_c is writable

$conf['settings']['registration.captcha.enabled']Whether or not captcha image security is enabled during user account registration

$conf['settings']['inactivity.timeout']Number of minutes before the user is automatically logged out. Leave this blank if you do not want users automatically logged out.

$conf['settings']['name.format']Display format for first name and last name. Default is '{first} {last}'.

$conf['settings']['ics']['require.login']If users should be required to log in to add a reservation to Outlook.

$conf['settings']['ics']['subscription.key']If you want to allow webcal subscriptions, set this to a difficult to guess value. If nothing is set then webcal subscriptions will be disabled.

$conf['settings']['privacy']['view.schedules']If non-authenticated users can view the booking schedules. Default is false.

$conf['settings']['privacy']['view.reservations']If non-authenticated users can view reservation details. Default is false.

$conf['settings']['privacy']['hide.user.details']If non-adminstrators can view personal information about other users. Default is false.

$conf['settings']['reservation']['start.time.constraint']When reservations can be created or edited. Options are future, current, none. Future means reservations cannot be created or modified if the starting time of the selected slot is in the past. Current means reservations can be created or modified if the ending time of the selected slot is not in the past. None means that there is no restriction on when reservations can be created or modified. Default is future.

$conf['settings']['reservation.notify']['resource.admin.add']Whether or not to send an email to all resource administrators when a reservation is created. Default is false.

$conf['settings']['reservation.notify']['resource.admin.update']Whether or not to send an email to all resource administrators when a reservation is updated. Default is false.

$conf['settings']['reservation.notify']['resource.admin.delete']Whether or not to send an email to all resource administrators when a reservation is deleted. Default is false.

$conf['settings']['reservation.notify']['application.admin.add']Whether or not to send an email to all application administrators when a reservation is created. Default is false.

$conf['settings']['reservation.notify']['application.admin.update']Whether or not to send an email to all application administrators when a reservation is updated. Default is false.

$conf['settings']['reservation.notify']['application.admin.delete']Whether or not to send an email to all application administrators when a reservation is deleted. Default is false.

$conf['settings']['reservation.notify']['group.admin.add']Whether or not to send an email to all group administrators when a reservation is created. Default is false.

$conf['settings']['reservation.notify']['group.admin.update']Whether or not to send an email to all group administrators when a reservation is updated. Default is false.

$conf['settings']['reservation.notify']['group.admin.delete']Whether or not to send an email to all group administrators when a reservation is deleted. Default is false.

$conf['settings']['css.extension.file']Full or relative URL to an additional CSS file to include. This can be used to override the default style with adjustments or a full theme. Leave this blank if you are not extending the style of Booked Scheduler.

$conf['settings']['uploads']['enable.reservation.attachments']If users are allowed to attach files to reservations. Default is false.

$conf['settings']['uploads']['reservation.attachment.path']The full or relative filesystem path (relative to the root of your Booked Scheduler directory) to store reservation attachments. This directory must be writable by PHP. Default is uploads/reservation

$conf['settings']['uploads']['reservation.attachment.extensions']Comma separated list of safe file extensions. Leaving this blank will allow all file types (not recommended).

$conf['settings']['database']['type']Any PEAR::MDB2 supported type

$conf['settings']['database']['user']Database user with access to the configured database

$conf['settings']['database']['password']Password for the database user

$conf['settings']['database']['hostspec']Database host URL or named pipe

$conf['settings']['database']['name']Name of Booked Scheduler database

$conf['settings']['phpmailer']['mailer']PHP email library. Options are mail, smtp, sendmail, qmail

$conf['settings']['phpmailer']['smtp.host']SMTP host, if using smtp

$conf['settings']['phpmailer']['smtp.port']SMTP port, if using smtp, usually 25

$conf['settings']['phpmailer']['smtp.secure']SMTP security, if using smtp. Options are '', ssl or tls

$conf['settings']['phpmailer']['smtp.auth']SMTP requies authentication, if using smtp. Options are true or false

$conf['settings']['phpmailer']['smtp.username']SMTP username, if using smtp

$conf['settings']['phpmailer']['smtp.password']SMTP password, if using smtp

$conf['settings']['phpmailer']['sendmail.path']Path to sendmail, if using sendmail

$conf['settings']['plugins']['Authentication']Name of authentication plugin to use. For more on plugins, see Plugins below

$conf['settings']['plugins']['Authorization']Name of authorization plugin to use. For more on plugins, see Plugins below

$conf['settings']['plugins']['Permission']Name of permission plugin to use. For more on plugins, see Plugins below

$conf['settings']['plugins']['PreReservation']Name of prereservation plugin to use. For more on plugins, see Plugins below

$conf['settings']['plugins']['PostReservation']Name of postreservation plugin to use. For more on plugins, see Plugins below

$conf['settings']['install.password']If you are running an installation or upgrade, you will be required to provide a value here

Plugins

The following components are currently pluggable:

• Authentication - Who is allowed to log in
• Authorization - What a user can do when you are logged in
• Permission - What resources a user has access to
• Pre Reservation - What happens before a reservation is booked
• Post Reservation - What happens after a reservation is booked

To enable a plugin, set the value of the config setting to the name of the plugin folder. For example, to enable LDAP authentication, set $conf['settings']['plugins']['Authentication'] = 'Ldap';

Plugins may have their own configuration files. For LDAP, rename or copy /plugins/Authentication/Ldap/Ldap.config.dist to /plugins/Authentication/Ldap/Ldap.config and edit all values that are applicable to your environment.

Installing Plugins

To install a new plugin copy the folder to either the Authentication, Authorization and Permission directory. Then change either $conf['settings']['plugins']['Authentication'], $conf['settings']['plugins']['Authorization'] or $conf['settings']['plugins']['Permission'] in config.php to the name of that folder.