Hi guys, I bought this theme today and have been playing with the appointments for a while now and can't quite figure out how the appointments will work except for the most basic of set-ups. If I set my services (massage therapy) as (for example): 30 Minute Massage $50.00 45 Minute Massage $75.00 60 Minute Massage $90.00 I then go into configure the time slots and dates but it only allows you to set pre-defined time slots. If I start at 9 am and someone books for a 90 minute massage from 9am - 10:30am then the next available appointment should be 10:30. As it works now, the client only can see whatever hard coded time intervals you have pre-configured in the appointment configuration (9-9:30,9:30-10,10-10:30 etc). The client is going to be confused when they are selecting a 90 minute service but the timeslot only shows 30 minutes or 60 minutes etc. The time slots need to be directly related to the services and the services should have time intervals associated with them. Services are typically based on time but this plug-in does not handle this properly at all. I don't see how this is usable unless they always book the exact same time intervals for all appointments. Also, how can I disable the automatic Pay Pal payments step and remove the PayPal, Visa etc icons? This should be an optional setting. My clients will pay after their appointment. Why doesn't the calendar only show the days the you are open (or grey out the days you aren't open)? The way it works now your client has to keep clicking on each day to find out which days you are open and shows appointments available (we are only open 3 days a week). How do you configure what email the appointment notifications will use? As it stands now, when I book a test appointment neither my WP admin email nor the client email address I used in the appointment form receive a notification email. How do I get this working? Is there a way to darken the font color of the text in the appointment form fields? It's very faint and will be difficult to read for many. Sorry guys, I love the look and feel of the theme but the appointment scheduling really needs a lot of work to be usable. Are you planning to fix any of these issues soon? The appointment scheduling was a big reason why I chose this theme. As a quick work-around, can you simply set just appointment start times for each day and time slot (9am, 9:15am, 9:30am, 9:45am, 10am, 10:15am, 10:30am etc) and allow multiple bookings at each start time. I could at least manage the appointments myself as they come in (via email) without confusing the client.
Agreed. That would work as well - keep it a simple request and don't bother with actual database bookings (once you get into that, things get complicated as everyone has different requirements) and we would just need to respond back to the client confirming or modifying the time as needed (maintain our own booking calendar). Nitesh - can you get back to me on this asap. I'm going live with the website in a week and right now the appointment system is dead in the water. If these issues can't be addressed/resolved, are we able to swap out the Appointway appointment plug-in with another appointment scheduling plug-in? There are number of them out there that are more full featured. BTW - the contact us form works (I get that email - although the subject line says "[PHP Snippets]" for some reason) but no email notifications work from the appointment system. Thanks!
Hello, I think there is some confusion. We have not hard coded any time intervals. You can set appointment according to your schedule. Please check In first image. In which i have added three services. In second image i am setting time interval (60 min) for three days per week. To remove auto Paypal option. Go to the Appointment > Settings > Payment settings > Payment mode And set it to "Pay cash later" And to remove Paypal image. Paste this code in Custom CSS Appearance > Theme Option > Styling Option > Custom CSS Code: .appointment_wrapper .appointment_form_bottom img.paypal_img { display: none;} For email: Appointment form take admin mail id (General > settings) For font color: Paste this code in Custom CSS Appearance > Theme Option > Styling Option > Custom CSS Code: .appointment_wrapper .appointment_form_wrapper input[type="text"], .appointment_wrapper .appointment_form_wrapper input[type="email"] { color: your color value;} select.inktext { color: your color value!important;} .appointment_wrapper .appointment_form_wrapper #aptmessage, .appointment_wrapper .appointment_form_wrapper .signinformbox .signupForm textarea { color: your color value;}
Thanks Nitesh - the PayPal code removed those icons which is great but the font in the appointments still looks the same faint grey to me (no different really). I just want to darken it slightly more. As for the appointments, I get it now and have it all configured. What I didn't originally understand is that when entering in the bulk time, and setting the interval, it associates the intervals you are entering with the service (client selects the service and only the associated time intervals are displayed - that's perfect). One thing I am seeing though is that if a pretend I'm the client and start booking a service, select a date and then view the time slots available, if I change my mind and select a different service but leave the date the same (don't touch the date at all), the time intervals do not update to reflect the time intervals associated with the newly selected service. I have to select another date and then go back to the original date to force it to refresh. Have a look for yourself: http://mytorontormt.com I assume the appointment scheduler is intelligent enough to know that if someone books a 75 minute appointment from 9am-10:15am, that the earliest possible next booking, no matter what service they select, is 10:15am, correct? The other thing I'm seeing now that I'm testing appointments is that some services show the time slots available in the 'Select Time' drop-down menu on the days we are open and other services show as Not Available (we are open Monday and Wednesdays 10am-3pm). All services should show on both days we are open weekly but only some services are showing times under the Select Time drop down. I've double checked my configuration on the back-end and it all looks good - I configured them all in the same manner but just with different time intervals. It would still be nice if the calendar greyed out (or made non selectable) the dates that the office are closed rather than forcing clients to click on each date to see if we are open and what appointments are available. My email address is entered correctly under General->Settings but neither the client booking the appointment nor I receive an email notification. I've tested it a number of times. Once we do get this working, am I able to modify the content (message) of the email notifications sent to both the client and I? BTW - the 'Contact Us' form works fine (I get that email) so it seems the WP admin email address is working, just not for the appointment notification emails. We're getting there! Thanks.
Just a little update. The appointment email notifications are working now and I now understand what the issue was. Until I changed to 'Pay Cash Later' I couldn't complete the booking as I was always sent to paypal to make payment (which I would cancel) before the system would actually book the appointment (makes sense). You should probably make the 'Pay Cash Later' the default setting. I do need to modify the content (message) of the email notifications sent to both the client and I though. How can I change this? The other issues mentioned above still need to be resolved though (font darkness, some service time intervals not displaying, change service not refreshing time intervals). Thanks Kevin
Hi Nitesh - if you could get back to me on the following it would be appreciated: 1) One thing I am seeing though is that if a pretend I'm the client and start booking a service, select a date and then view the time slots available, if I change my mind and select a different service but leave the date the same (don't touch the date at all), the time intervals do not update to reflect the time intervals associated with the newly selected service. I have to select another date and then go back to the original date to force it to refresh. Have a look for yourself: http://mytorontormt.com 2) I assume the appointment scheduler is intelligent enough to know that if someone books a 75 minute appointment from 9am-10:15am, that the earliest possible next booking, no matter what service they select, is 10:15am, correct? 3) The other thing I'm seeing now that I'm testing appointments is that some services show the time slots available in the 'Select Time' drop-down menu on the days we are open and other services show as Not Available (we are open Monday and Wednesdays 10am-3pm). All services should show on both days we are open weekly but only some services are showing times under the Select Time drop down. I've double checked my configuration on the back-end and it all looks good - I configured them all in the same manner but just with different time intervals. It looks like its only the 75 and 90 minute services that are not working / displaying. 4) It would still be nice if the calendar greyed out (or made non selectable) the dates that the office are closed rather than forcing clients to click on each date to see if we are open and what appointments are available. 5) I need to modify the content (message body) of the email notifications sent to both the client and I though. How can I change this? Thanks Kevin
Hi Nitesh - could you get back to me on points 1, 2, 4 and 5 above asap (I figured out the issue with point 3). We want to go live with the appointment site this week. Thanks
Hello, We are looking your 1, 2, 4 number issues and will accomplish them as soon as possible. I will definitely inform you after few day's. 5) To change message body. Go to the wp-content\plugins\ink-appointment\ink-admin\appointments-form\getway\paypal\paypaltrans.php and change message body from there.
For the darker font colour - I went to the theme options, styling options and put the following in the custom css box - and used #000000 to get black: .appointment_wrapper .appointment_form_wrapper input[type="text"], .appointment_wrapper .appointment_form_wrapper input[type="email"] { color: #000000;} select.inktext {color: #000000!important;} .appointment_wrapper .appointment_form_wrapper #aptmessage, .appointment_wrapper .appointment_form_wrapper .signinformbox .signupForm textarea {color: #000000;}For the change to the confirmation and email messages since you are not having them pay on the site you may not be using the form Nitesh mentioned but I found that things changed when I modified the following: Plugins Editor select Ink Appointment plugin from drop down menu on the right click the Select button - then click the following: ink-appointment/ink-admin/apt-form.php ink-appointment/ink-admin/appointments-form/text-data.php ink-appointment/ink-admin/appointments-form/getway/paypal-page.php Scroll down and you will find the text on the confirmation page and slightly further down is the text sent in the confirmation email... PS: when I test my appointments they are removed from the site - so if I do a test booking for 3-4 pm on a slot that has only 1 possible appointment I find that there is no more appointments available for that slot... Hope this helps a little - like the site! Rosy @ Design Tecky
Hi Rosy - thanks for all the details. That resolved the color issue and appointment confirmation email body etc that I wanted to change. The only issues outstanding are #1 (refresh issue) and #2 (appointment overlap). For #2, I did test this and unfortunately it does allow appointments to overlap when you have more than one service (we only have one therapist - my wife). For example, if I book a '60 min session' on Wednesday from 9am - 10am, and then go back to the appointment form and try and book a '30 minute session' (different service) from 9am - 9:30am, I am able to do so when I should not be able to. Like I said, my wife is the only therapist at the clinic but she offers multiple different services based on time (30 min service, 45 min service, 60 min service, 75 min service and 90 min service). Now, if we start over and someone books a 30 minute session from 9am-9:30am, then the next available 30 min service will be at 9:30. That's expected and the appointment system handles this fine because they are choosing the same service but if they choose a different service (ie 60 min service) it ignores that the time from 9am - 9:30 am is already booked (because its a 30 min service) and allows you to book 9am - 10am because you chose the 60 min service (a different service). The services are not aware of each services bookings so you can overlap all day long - this is a big problem. Nitesh - are you able to introduce some logic that comprehends that appointments are all in serial (never parallel), regardless of the service chosen? Assuming this was fixed, the next issue is that you want to fill your appointments back to back and there is no way to do that currently unless all your clients all use the same service. If someone books a 30 minute service from 9am - 9:30am and then someone else comes along and wants to book a 60 min service, the earliest appointment the system will show is 10am - 11am (we lose 30 mins between 9:30 - 10am). The appointment system seems designed for services that can all be done during the same time interval (ie. clean furnace, clean furnace and clean ducts etc) rather than a psychiatrist, therapist etc where they offer their service based on time (sessions) and can only see one patient/client at a time. The problem for Ink Themes is that they have customers who will want one or the other option so this would need to be an option to be configured during initial set-up of the theme. Appointment systems are complicated (this isn't our first business using online booking) and requires a lot of logic to function correctly and efficiently (ie. book appointments back to back regardless of service interval chosen, allow therapist to approve or deny appointment requests before confirming appointment with client, allow therapist to cancel appointments if there is a cancellation and free up that time in the online appointment scheduler, allow therapist to block certain hours/days if they are sick or on holiday, Google calendar integration to allow sync to handheld devices etc.). You really either have to make it a simple appointment time request and let the therapist manually manage their appointments or go all the way with full logic for the booking itself at the very least. Nitesh, is there anyway to just use your appointment form with another WP appointment plug-in (or disable the appointment plug-in and remove the appointment form and then just go ahead and use another WP appointment plug-in)? There are many other appointment plug-ins out there that have been around for a while and are full featured. I love the theme - it does look great but, with all due respect, the appointment plug-in is really lacking the most basic of required features and is going to be difficult if not impossible to use. Thanks Kevin
I hear you Kevin...I have similar issues since my client is a lone practitioner offering 2 services - Reiki and another energy healing service, plus I have created both french and english sites for her so even if the appointments did not overlap we'd still have the double up issue since there are 2 sites...I've ended up using the appointment form as a booking request and the client will need to maintain her calendar and confirm with people - it is not ideal. Should you find a more complete/functional plugin would you mind posting back the name of it? PS just a sidenote that may be of interest - if your wife is starting a newsletter for her client list - mailchimp is a fantastic/free email provider to use to create attractive html newsletters - my daughter (also an RMT) uses it for her monthly news to her client list. Thanks! Rosy
Hi Rosy - that's what I've told my wife, she'll need to maintain her own calendar and revise/confirm appointments as necessary (the appointment system isn't capable of doing this - I had a hard time explaining to her why!). Anyway, that's why I needed to know how to revise the email body message wording (it's no longer a booking confirmation email but rather a booking request that will be confirmed shortly etc) I've been looking at a few plug-ins, the one that looks really interesting is Appointy. I believe it's just Ajax code on your website that refers to the back-end Appointy website that manages the actual bookings so this would probably work well for your client with two different websites since both need to use the same scheduling system. I haven't tried it yet though. http://wordpress.org/plugins/appointy-appointment-scheduler/screenshots http://appointy.com/free-appointment-scheduling-software Also read this: http://apps.aspiratech.net/2012/10/appointy-vs-simplifythis.html The other problem is that the Appointway appointment form is very integrated to the look and feel of this theme so, while we can remove it, I'm not sure how elegant another booking form is going to look with this theme. Please post back whatever you end up doing - I'll do the same. Kevin
Check out this article as well: http://www.pcworld.com/article/250227/scheduling_services_showdown.html BTW - there is a free version of Appointy. I'm leaning towards Appointy - I just need to look into what the end-user interface 'book now' button looks like etc. From the reviews it sounds pretty clean.
Hello, Appointy is great. Infact we recommend all the users who require advanced appointment booking features to use the Appointy widget in the Appointway Theme Sidebar. As soon as you put any other widget the default Ink Appointment widget would be replaced by other widgets. Though you would require to style it a bit to make it look elegant and make it go along with the theme design.
I've opted to try Appointy and have just set up a free account and added the widget to the site replacing the Ink appointment widget. There are a ton of options and features so I'll update you all as soon as I can. Nitesh, now that the the Ink appointment widget is gone, I have a lot of extra side bar space. Can I add WP side bar widgets to fill up this space either above or below the Hours, Address and Google Map (not sure what I'm going to put there yet but just want to ensure this is an option). I want to keep the Hours, Address and Google Map theme widgets and one or two more. Thanks
Just an update guys - I've configured the back-end of Appointy and set the widget on my site and all I can say is this app is quite amazing - and I'm using the free version! Completely customizable to deal with anything you can think of but easy to configure. The great thing is that while we are a single therapist and single location now, the free version gives us everything we need but allows us to expand with multiple staff (for free) and multiple locations (paid version). I highly recommend it. Rosy, this will solve your single booking system for multiple websites and supports 28 languages to display on your client calendar. Not bad! Hope this helps!
Hi Kevin, I am also going to give appointy a try - it looks like the pop out you've got on the site is really functional...does it only show on the homepage? Is it the full trial version that you get for 14 days that is active or did you change it back to the free version to see the features that are available through the free version? Love the colours on your site and your logo btw! You may consider creating a favicon to help with branding that way clients can bookmark the site and easily recognize the site's logo on their favourites bar. PS: just an fyi because I've been through the hardship of being hacked (a couple of years ago) and since Wordpress is so easily hacked from what I've come to learn since that experience...you may want to add some free security plugins that change your admin login etc...and perhaps one that hides the name of your blog author if that is also your login username - here are some plugins I recommend & use on every site I create: Wordfence Better WP Security WP Author Slug I'd be happy to share more info if you need it - just email me at: [email protected]
