Calendar synchronization

The administration of the reservation system is primarily used to work with reservations. However, situations may arise when a quick overview of upcoming bookings or an overall overview of bookings in the month is needed. For this, it is possible to use a link to external calendars or an overview in mobile application. In the case of an external calendar, so-called synchronization must be used. Calendar apps are commonplace on mobile phones today, allowing for more efficient planning and a clear overview. It is therefore not necessary to log in to the administration for more detailed information about the reservation. If booking synchronization is set up and active, just open the corresponding calendar application and view the schedule of bookings, both historical and future.

A reservation in the reservation system has a whole range of parameters and information, so it is always necessary to perceive synchronization to an external calendar as a possible preview. A full overview and work with reservations is always possible only in the system administration.

Connecting the reservation system and the calendar is very simple. In the case of Google Calendar, the first step is to connect the system to the user's Google account. For other external calendars, the process may be different and not all features may be available (typically linking using the ical format).

As the options of the general calendar are limited compared to the booking parameters, only basic booking information is synchronized. Within Google Calendar, a specific calendar will be created, which will subsequently contain records of individual reservations. It is then possible to work with this calendar within calendar applications, to share it, etc. In the basic mode, this synchronization is referred to as one-way, because only reservations from the reservation system to the calendar are synchronized. It cannot be assumed that by creating an event in, for example, Google Calendar, a full-fledged reservation will be created in the reservation system!

Synchronize custom events as Blocking time

As mentioned, an event in an external calendar can never be a full reservation. However, in order to work effectively with the external calendar, it is possible to activate bidirectional synchronization. In this case, the events entered in the external calendar are synchronized to the reservation system as a "blocking time", i.e. it is not a reservation, but existing dates and resources are blocked at the given time of the event from the calendar. The appointment will remain visible on the reservation page, but will become unavailable for customers to book. Therefore, it is important to make sure that the events occurring in the external calendar are really those that mean blocking the offer, otherwise unwanted blockings will occur.

In the synchronization settings, it is also possible to define a so-called Secondary calendar. If selected, event information is also taken from this Google calendar and possibly synced as Blocking time. It is so effective to have a calendar created by the reenio system for an overview of reservations and at the same time have a separate calendar for your own events blocking the creation of reservations.

If this two-way synchronization is active, the events in the calendar are synchronized as "blocking time", globally, i.e. with a consequence on the complete offer of dates and resources. When setting up synchronization, it is possible to define the so-called mapping of event participants on blocking time. In this case, the blocking time is not mapped globally, but linked to a specific resource (Employee, Service, Location). Mapping works in such a way that within an event in Google Calendar you have to define the participant of the given event using an email address. This e-mail address does not have to be real or functional - it is only used to identify the participant and subsequently the source.

As part of the mapping settings, it is subsequently determined which e-mail address (identifier) corresponds to which resource (Employee, Service, Location). If an event from the calendar is subsequently synchronized as a blocking time and this event has the specified participant linked to a specific resource, blocking will occur only on this specifically mapped resource.