WordPress Member Directory Plugin (CMED) + Appointment Booking Calendar - Use Case - How To Integrate a Calendar Booking System to Expert Pages

Use Case - How To Integrate a Calendar Booking System to Expert Pages

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Introduction

It is possible to integrate Appointment Booking Calendar to expert pages. It means that every expert page can have its own calendar for accepting bookings from their clients. Expert page owner can edit the schedule of his calendar and manage the bookings without accessing the back-end. It's also possible to define which user roles are allowed to make bookings.

Use Case Front-End

Calendar integrated to the expert page:

Editing calendar settings:

Editing calendar schedule:

Managing current bookings:

Use Case Assumptions

In this example use case guide, we'll cover how to integrate a booking calendar to expert pages to let the clients book appointments and let your users manage their calendars and bookings.

We consider that you have already bought all of the listed plugins and add-ons, but not installed them yet.

It follows:

• Installing the plugin
• Quick recap
• Assigning calendars to users
• Assigning users and calendars to experts
• Editing calendar on the front-end
  • Edit calendar settings
  • Edit calendar schedule
  • View and manage current bookings
• Who is allowed to book
• Forms
• End Result

Installing the Plugin

The process is the same for all CM plugins and add-ons.

• Download the plugin from your customer dashboard.
• Log in to WordPress and navigate to the WordPress Admin → Plugins settings.
• Click on Add New.
• Activate it and add the license.

Learn more: Getting Started - Plugin Overview

Assigning Calendars to Users

To assign a calendar to the user, navigate to Admin Dashboard → CM Appointments Booking Pro → Calendars.

Hover on the calendar that you want to assign and click Edit.

On the calendar editing page, scroll down to the option Calendar Owner and choose the user that you want to assign the calendar to. Then click Update.

Assigning Users and Calendars to Experts

1) Navigate to Admin Dashboard → CM Expert Directory Pro → Add Expert to add new expert, or navigate to Admin Dashboard → CM Expert Directory Pro → Expert to choose and edit the already existing expert.

2) Find the box CM Expert Directory Community - Owner Information. Here you need to write an email of the expert page owner in the field Owner Email.

3) Find the box CM Expert Directory Calendar Add-on. 

There you can see two fields:

• Select the calendar - Select the calendar that you want to assign to the expert.
• Email for calendar's notification - Enter the email for calendar's notifications. This field has the default value that is set in the plugin settings. When you set here an email, it replaces the email for notifications in the assigned calendar. 

Default Email for Calendar's Notifications

You can set the default email in the option Default email for calendar by navigating to Admin Dashboard → CM Expert Directory Pro → Settings → Calendar Experts.

Now click the Update button to save the changes.

Result on the Front-end

Now when calendar is created, the clients can book the dates on the expert page. The calendar is located right under the main information on the expert page.

Editing Calendar on the Front-end

Expert page owner can configure the schedule of his calendar and manage the booked dates without accessing the back-end.

The admin should prepare a few pages for this using shortcodes.

Edit Calendar Settings

The calendar owner can edit calendar settings on the page that contains this shortcode: [cm_event_booking_calendar_user_calendar_settings]

Edit Calendar Schedule

The calendar owner can edit calendar schedule on the page that contains this shortcode: [cm_event_booking_calendar_user_calendar_schedule]

View and Manage Current Bookings

The calendar owner can view and manage bookings of his calendar on the page that contains this shortcode: [cm_event_booking_calendar_user_calendar_bookings]

Who Is Allowed to Book

You can configure who is allowed to make bookings. The users that are not allowed to make bookings will not be able to see the calendar. To do this, navigate to Admin Dashboard → CM Appointments Booking Pro → Options → User calendar tab.

There is an option Who is allowed to see calendars. You can choose who is allowed to make bookings between:

• All
• Logged-in users
• Only selected roles

When you choose Only selected roles, you can select needed roles in the appearing dropdown Allow access to chosen users roles. 

After configuring this option don't forget to click the button Save Changes.

These settings are the default for all calendars. You can also define separately for each calendar who is allowed to make bookings and override default settings. Navigate to Admin Dashboard → CM Appointments Booking Pro → Calendars and click on the needed calendar to edit it.

While editing the calendar, scroll down to the end of the page and find the option Who is allowed to see calendar. It works the same as in plugin options, but here you can choose one more option - Default (as set in Options).

Choose needed user roles and click the Update button.

Forms

One more useful feature is two additional fields for the form that you can add in bulk to all calendars. By default, there are only two fields in the calendar form - Email and Notes. Two new fields are Visit type and Meeting link. To configure them, navigate to Admin Dashboard → CM Appointments Booking Pro → Forms.

On the right part of the screen you can see a section Calendar form options with two expandable options.

Click the "+" icon to expand any of these options to configure them or the "-" icon to collapse them.

Visit type

The option Visit type is needed to let the user choose the type of the visit.

You can configure the following options:

• Name - Name of the field.
• Description - Description of the field.
• Required - Define if this field should be required or not.

• Options - Here you need to write possible options that users can choose from. On the front-end it is displayed as a radio-button list. The options must be separated by comma.

  

When you filled it all, click the button Add - and this field will appear in all calendars. To delete this field from all calendars, click the button Remove.

Meeting link

You can add the option Meeting link when you have a type of meeting that is supposed to be online. So, in this field the user can add the URL-link with the invitation to Zoom or Google meeting for instance. This field has a URL validation. 

You can configure the following options:

• Name - Name of the field.
• Description - Description of the field.

• Required - Define if this field should be required or not.

  

When you filled it all, click the button Add - and this field will appear in all calendars. To delete this field from all calendars, click the button Remove.

Now you can check any of your calendars and see added fields:

Result on the Front-end:

End Result

Following instructions found in the plugin and guides, you should be able to integrate a booking calendar to expert pages to let the clients book appointments and let your users manage their calendars and bookings.

Use Case Front-End

Calendar integrated to the expert page:

Editing calendar settings:

Editing calendar schedule:

Managing current bookings:

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