Week View for Booking Tool

1 Initial Problem

When schedules are used with many time slots (for example for booking self-study rooms) it is very hard for users on both sides to see which rooms are still available and which have been booked already. This problem becomes most obvious when more than one schedule is used in a booking pool, for example, one schedule per room.

Users need to go through each object individually to look for availabilities. There is now "calendar-like" overview in which all slots and availablities are combined.

2 Conceptual Summary

For this reason, the tab "Booking Objects" for booking tools with a fixed schedule should be revised.

Week View

To enable users to see at first glance WHICH booking objects are available WHEN, a week overview with multiple booking objects should be introduced.

• Using the view control in the toolbar above the calendar view, users can switch o the next or previous week. The button "Today" is a shortcut to the current date.
• Using the view control "List, Week" the calendar view can be changed and adjusted. If users click on List, a list of all booking objects is displayed. This view corresponds to the previous "Booking Objects"-tab. When users open the List View, the view control used to switch to the next/previous day, week or month is disabled.
• In the side panel "Booking objects" next to the calendar, all booking objects are listed. In order to ensure the clarity of the calendar view, individual booking objects can be hidden by deactivating the checkbox.

Booking Process via Week View

When users click on the title of a booking object (time slot) in the week view, the booking dialog opens in a modal.

• Users can now specify the number (if set) of objects to be booked. You can also specify whether you want to book only this date or repetitions.
• If users want to reserve the booking object only on one date and click on Confirm, the object is reserved. The confirmation message is displayed in the modal and the POST Booking information can be accessed.
• If users want to book several repetitions, they can enter the interval of the repetition in the second step of the booking. By clicking on the button "Check and book dates" ILIAS checks if all repeat dates are available.
  • If all dates are available, the object is reserved. The confirmation message is displayed in the modal and the POST Booking information can be accessed.
  • If not all data is available, users are notified which date is not available. Using the "Book available data"-button, the booking object can be reserved on the available dates. Using the Cancel button, the booking process can be cancelled.

Booking Process via List View

If users click on the action menu of a booking object in the list view and select the entry Book, the week view of the booking object opens like before.

• If users now click on the title of the booking object in a specific time slot, the same booking dialog will be displayed....see Booking Process via Week View.

The following abandon request is required for the revision of the booking process via List View:

• Abandon the booking of different time slots within one reservation process

3 User Interface Modifications

3.1 List of Affected Views

Booking Pool > Booking Objects

3.2 User Interface Details

3.2.1 Views

Booking Tool > Booking Objects > Week View

Week view contains a secondary panel on the right, that allows to activate the presentation of multiple booking objects.

Selecting a number of objects and clicking refresh will show the corresponding free slots on the left.

Booking Tool > Booking Objects > List

3.2.2 Booking Process

3.3 New User Interface Concepts

none

4 Technical Information

The feature will continue to use the existing week view of the booking tool. It will not re-use any views of the Calendar service.

5 Privacy Information

For current state, see the existing PRIVACY.md file.

This feature will not make any privacy relevant changes.

6 Contact

• Author of the Request: Zenzen, Enrico [ezenzen], Glaubitz, Marko [mglaubitz], Universität Freiburg
• Maintainer: Killing, Alexander [alex]
• Implementation of the feature is done by: {The maintainer must add the name of the implementing developer.}

7 Funding

If you are interest in funding this feature, please add your name and institution to this list.

• Hochschule Bremen

8 Discussion

Zenzen, Enrico [ezenzen], 02 AUG 2022: To improve accessibility in the booking tool, we will check the contrast of the background colors of booking objects to the text and adjust them if necessary. This is not yet included in the mockups. 

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], 08 AUG 2022: We highly appreciate this suggestion and accept the feature for ILIAS 9.

9 Implementation

{The maintainer has to give a description of the final implementation and add screenshots if possible.}

Screenshots

The last step of the process is presented on the main screen not in a modal. The reason is given here: Improvement of the booking process in Booking Tools with Fixed Schedules (Issue 2) and approved by JF.

Test Cases

Test cases completed on 2022-10-27 by Tödt, Alexandra [atoedt]

• 50148 : Make a Booking in List View
• 50167 : Book recurrent dates in List View
• 50166 : Make a Booking in Week View
• 50168 : Book recurrent dates in Week View
• 50169 : Try booking unavailable recurring slots 

Approval

Approved at 2022-11-10 by Riebe, Katharina [kriebe].