Ajax Availability Calendar

That said, it would be pretty easy feature to add. I will take a look at it, maybe having the default radio button set as "clickthrough" so that the calender works as it is now unless the user (admin) defines a specific state - how does that sound?

Giving both options (clickthrough or radio button) would be great. The clickthrough works great for simple calendars (calendars with minimal options) and the radio button would simplify setting dates on calendars with more complex options. I think Admins could easily choose the option that works best for them.

Would it be possible to have a radio button of the different special states next to the calendar...

crockej , I have added this feature to the admin panel.
I opted for a dropdown list due the amount of space required to create a list of radio buttons, especially due to the fact that the possible number of states is now endless.

Could you take a look and let me know if it is more or less what you where after?

Thanks,

Chris

That's exactly what I had in mind but needs a little interface tweeking to clarify options. Here's one idea:


Another area for improvement would be allowing for a name of the calendar rather than an ID #.

You do good work...
Joe

Thanks for the comments Joe, I will look at re-organising the screen as per your idea.
I was trying to keep it all as compact as possible to save verticle scroll, but maybe it isn't clear enough.
By the way, as suspected, this was a very simple feature to add and I think that it was a good idea of yours. Now the administrator has the choice of methods

Another area for improvement would be allowing for a name of the calendar rather than an ID #.

Well, the idea is that the calendar is used for current "items" (apartments, cottages etc) so the naming should be done in a seperate table (assuming that the web is database run as all should be nowadays) or by the code.

I think that going down the path of actually defining the items is well beyond the scope of this script.

Chris

I think that going down the path of actually defining the items is well beyond the scope of this script.

take that back, I think I can "manage" to add a title field to each state

Chris

My thoughts are for you having a product available for the widest audience. So here are some different uses I see for having multiple calendars (no particular order):

1. Rental property scheduling (the obvious one)
2. Office room scheduling (meeting rooms, etc.)
3. Room item scheduling (overhead projector, coffee maker, etc.)
4. Facility scheduling (picnic shelter availability or gym scheduling)
5. Equipment scheduling for facility (volleyballs, basketballs, nets, etc.)

Having the name of the appropriate calendar would be pretty important for the end user. For instance, finding availability for the "North picnic shelter" would work a lot better than selecting calendar #2. And checking to see if the "game bag" is available is better than looking at calendar #3.

And finally, since you really want this to be a great product, you could add some simple default filters (for programmers) to specify specific calendars on specific pages. For example... let's say you have 10 rentals. Each rental has its own page and own calendar. You have one master database for all the rentals but the programmer sets the "show_calendar" variable to display specific calendars for a specific page. The default is to show all calendars (for the programming challenged) but if the variable is set to appropriate ID#s, then only those calendars show for that page. This could be true for both the user and admin pages.

Just trying to keep you busy...
Joe

not done the calendar item name yet but....

just changed the way the hover effect works as you mouse over the dates - it now fades all the other dates out leaving just the current one highlighted.
I think that this is clearer this way.

[credit to Dave Walsh for this effect idea]

I have also added the date "state" to the title text that is shown as you "mouseover". This is also updated when you change the date state.

Let me know what you think....

Chris

Nice addition - but the mouse-over shows an empty black box over the Key panel mouse-over items.

Safari 4.0.3 Mac -
Firefox 3 Mac
haven't tried Windows browsers...

Hi, that was simply because the key items didn't have a title attribute.
I have now changed that and limited the tooltip effect on the titles to only elements within the calendar.

Chris

OK, I have added the "item name" to the admin.

Actually this has rather complicated matters.

- I have had to add an "items" admin sections to administrate (add, modify, delete) the items.
- I have updated the calendar to get the "default" id from the table (first one in order) in circumstances where it is not defined (hopefully unlikely)
- Modified the calendar to not show if there are no items in the database. (ie not waste time with ajax calls etc)

I have also added a new option to the admin menu to "reset" the calendar - however it requires a password to activate it and I am not going to share it with you at the moment

Goodness!!! this is turning into a monster project - I wonder if I have lost the plot somewhere along the way

Chris

PS. should be moving this to it's own domain soon.... at least that is the idea for the new release