Clearskys.net Blog

Booking Manager and Availability Calendar plugin v0.2a

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Newer Version: A updated version of this plugin is available here

Version 0.2a of the Availability and Booking manager plugin is now available for download by clicking on the download button on the right of this post, or on the main documentation page here.

Installation / Upgrade Instructions

Download and unzip the plugin file. FTP into your Wordpress installation and copy the clearskys folder (and all of the sub-folders) into the wp-content/plugins directory (upload the entire folder so after uploading you will have a clearskys folder within the plugin directory) overwriting any files if requested.

Changelog

• Restructured plugin files to allow for easier upgrades and adding of functionality.
• Added Public and Private RSS calendar feeds.
• Added Public and Private iCal calendar feeds.

Support

Please ask any support questions using the comment system below.

technorati tags:wordpress, plugin, availability, calendar, bookings, rental, management

Why can’t I email play.com?

I’ve been trying to order DVDs from play.com. A simple task one would think, but they keep sending me emails that the billing address isn’t valid for my card (I’ve had the same address and card for over 4 years, and ordered with play.com using the same details over that period).

When I reply to their emails, I get an auto response saying “This email account isn’t monitored, please contact the help desk”.

I have searched their site from head to toe, and I can not find a customer service email address for them.

I just want to send a quick “why” email explaining this, I don’t want to sit in an automated telephone queue.

Is this becoming more common now? playusa.com has a customer service email address listed on their site labelled “Contact Us”, so for now I’ve emailed them asking for the play.com customer service email address.
Update so far: I keep getting lovely emails from the privacy@play.com and terms@play.com email addresses suggesting that I submit my request via the “Helpdesk” section of their site and giving me a link. Unfortunately, there is no method of submiting a request on this section of the site.

technorati tags:play.com, customer, service, email, problems, order

Pre-release notice Availability calendar 0.2a

This is a just a quick note to announce the imminent release of the 0.2a version of our availability and booking management wordpress plugin.

I’ve changed the file structure a little bit to enable upgrading and interoperability between plugins in the future.

I’ve also added export feed formats for the calendar data (iCal and RSS) in a public (date and brief details only) and private (full booking details) format.

The calendar api for clearskys.net is still in development, so this version won’t have the connectivity element yet (which is the long-term aim of these plugins), but that should be available for 0.3a.

technorati tags:calendar, api, availability, wordpress, plugin, booking, rental

Moving to Skype 100%

We’ve been using Skype internally for a while now. It has certainly paid for itself many times over (more so because it is free), by keeping such a wide geographically spread team in contact and pointing in the same direction.

So it has been decided from upon high, that we are going to transfer all of our call traffic to Skype.

What does this mean to us?

Well, for one it gives us a free call centre type of operation. When we get a call, it now rings on all of our phones and computers, and the person least busy or more able to handle the call can pick it up.

Secondly, and quite high up on the list, it gives us the ability to block nusiance and cold callers from bothering us. We have also decided to send all “unknown” or “withheld” numbers direct to voice-mail (answering machine in old-speak). Why? Well, in the past year we have had zero calls from withheld numbers that weren’t sales calls. Of the couple of unknown number calls that we received, the non-sales calls that we didn’t pick up generally left a message for us to ring back.

So, if you call us and you can’t get through - leave a message. If you don’t then we can’t call you back if your number is withheld or unknown (doh).

I will be adding little Skype buttons on our site soon, but in the meantime we can be contacted at the following:

For a voice chat:

To text chat with us click here
To add us to your Skype contacts click here

technorati tags:skype, clearskys

Development update - 21 November 2006

Now that the first of our plugins has been released, I thought it would be prudent to list some of the other plugins and projects we are currently working on.

• Enquiry plugin - A plugin that goes hand in hand with the booking management plugin. This plugin will make it easy to display an enquiry form either on its own page, or underneath property details. Enquiries entered can be emailed to a specified email address, sent as an SMS message to a mobile phone (via our upcoming SMS plugin) as well as being written to your sites database.
• API modifications - I’ve decided that the authentication section of our API is too complicated. The current setup requires a minimum of two XMLRPC calls to generate an access key with a 24hr lifespan. This will be modified to use a more standard single developer key approach.
• Clearskys.net site updates - The current site is, in my opinion, looking very sad and unloved. How people are using it, I can’t imagine. Rather than leave it in that state until a new site is developed, I’ve decided to make improvements on an ongoing basis. Stay tuned for updates soon.

There are a lot more plugins and functionality listed on the development board, which I will announce as they get closer to release.

technorati tags:wordpress, plugin, enquiry, property, rental, api

Photo updates

Whilst we had what looks like our last bit of warm weather I took a few photographs from the new office balcony. Not to make you all jealous you understand….

So as soon as I find the cable (or even the smart card reader) to get the things off my camera, I’ll post them up.

Booking Manager and Availability Calendar plugin v0.1a

Newer Version: A updated version of this plugin is available here

I’ve just made available the initial release of the Clearskys.net Booking Manager and Availability Calendar plugin.

It can be downloaded by clicking on the Download button on the right hand side of this post.

Instructions on Installation, setting up and using the plugin can be found here.

This version has been tested on Wordpress v2 and Wordpress MU v1.

Please ask any support questions, or functionality requests for this version as comments below. Try to be as descriptive as possible with any problems and I’ll try to answer them as quickly as I can.
Update: I have added some instructions on styling your calendar.

technorati tags:wordpress, plugin, availability, calendar, bookings, rental, management

Can development and life co-exist?

My girlfriends parents are visiting for the week.

Which means that I will be dragged away from the computer and forced to have a life for 7 days. Who knows, I may even get to see some of the fabled sunshine this country is famous for…

So Close I can smell it…

I’m sitting here putting the final touches to the output section of the initial release of our first Wordpress plugin (and looking out of the window), the Clearskys.net Booking and Availability engine.

It has taken a bit longer than I expected to develop, but a lot of the building blocks for our future plugins have been solved as part of this development. So the next few should be easier and more importantly, integrate together to become a complete property management system.

I’m away from tomorrow for a much needed break, so the plugin page and download won’t be uploaded until Friday at the latest, but that does give me some time to test it on a few other platforms.

Stay tuned

Development update 12 November 2006

I’m posting this as a quick update, and as a sort of “pre” announcement of the functionality and tools that we’ll be releasing early next week.

You’ll notice some extra pages start to appear in the menu on the right hand side of this blog. These are the beginnings of the Clearskys.net API documentation and should, hopefully, begin to be fleshed out as we progress to version 1 of the API.

So far the XMLRPC interface for the authentication, access control and developer key functionality has been implemented and is live (though still being tested, so liable to change).

Availability Calendars

We have decided that the initial functionality to be finalised and implemented will be centered around the availability calendar area. Rather than take a standard (and in my opinion lazy) approach to availability calendars, and just implement a system that marks a series of dates as “not available” we will be adding what I consider very important functionality…

Introducing Clearskys.net Booking management!

Your availability calendar will now be a by-product of your Booking management system. Rather than just storing booked dates, you can store all the details relevant for a booking, including renters details, payment status, booking and rentor notes, etc…

More details on our initial version of this system will be announced soon (within the next few days) along with our first two Wordpress plugins.

technorati tags:wordpress, availability, calendar, rental, booking, xmlrpc, api, plugin