How can I create a drop down menu that reserves appointment times?

[peter12338]

hi there - I'm a relative newbie to all things php - I've got as far as installing the phpbb forum and a chat on my site, and I've got webcalendar working too. But I really want to do something that thus far, I cannot find a 'template' for.

 

I simply want to give 20 people the ability to book an appointment with me over a set couple of days.

It could be a simply radio button thing that enables them to select the time they want from a list of available times.

However, I need that list of available times to UPDATE each time someone selects their appointment time. So I don't get duplicates.

Can you tell me where I start - is this a php/sql thing - and if it is, can you tell me where I might look for help?

..or better still, have you seen a similar thing done before?

Thanks SO much,

Peter

[revraz]

If you installed PHPBB, then get the Calendar mod that goes with it.  You can pick and choose who you want to allow to add entries.

[peter12338]

Thanks for that - I had a look - but alas my phpbb is v3, and all the calendar mods are v2

...any other thoughts?

All the best

P

[wrave]

Don't know about a "drop down menu" to do what you want to do but I have just built a scheduling package for my band that allows any band member to login and then schedule a gig date.

 

My application requires a minimum of two tables.  One for the schedule itself, date, times and a pointer field to the location (in your case it would probably be the the client) data. One for the client's info (could be used for login verification containing user id and password) so you'll know who's scheduled.

 

I'm sure some of the old pros around here can tell you a better way but I'd present the person wanting to schedule an appointment with a display of what times are filled (quicker queries) and allow them to choose anything that isn't already scheduled if that's the way you want to do it.

 

For my band's schedule I display the entire schedule in the form that allows the users to enter a new gig date. I don't build a check to insure that the new gig date isn't conflicting with one that has already been entered because my band members are smart enough to see if the time they're wanting us to perform is already scheduled. If not, I go in and fix their errors or they can use the management tools I built.

 

This works well enough for a small site that doesn't have a lot of scheduling data. We normally play at the maximum, one gig per day. For a site like I think you are talking about, it's simply a matter of examining the schedule DB a bit more frequently, displaying a bit more detail and checking the input to insure no double bookings are inserted.

 

From what you've written I am wondering if you've ever done any programming? If not, you may have only a couple of options since I don't know of any pre-packaged installable that you can just drop in to your site like the Calendar and BB packages. You could hire someone to build it for you or you can get your hands dirty with some code.

 

In my opinion, the beauty of PHP is the fact that it's an easy language to learn and program in...even if you haven't done a lot of programming.

 

I have been learning PHP for a couple of years in my spare time and it took me about four or five months to put the basics together enough to build my application. It was great, frustrating, fun!!!

 

If you decide to attempt building this yourself, you'll find this is a great place to ask questions. I sure did!

 

Good luck.

[peter12338]

Hi - and thank you SO much for taking the time to look at my question.

I think what you've set up for the band is exactly what I need to have.

Each person just logs in (and I could keep this as simple as making the folder on ther server pw-protected) and adds a time - and description (in this case it would be their name)

The only thing I'd need to change is the speed at which the db is checked to make sure that each new person is only offered times that are still free.

Is there any chance that I could have a look at your site, and perhaps even the php so I can try and play with it myself.

As you said - I am a programming novice so I'm more successful with decontructing than building php!

Thanks again

Peter