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Author Topic: Feature requests in Accessories function and Resource Scheduling  (Read 489 times)
ewtwolf
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« on: November 14, 2011, 07:26:08 PM »

First off, awesome program. I have version 1.2 on my yahoo webserver with no issues. I am like a few others I've read on here that use the program to manage equipment checkouts. I work at a university film program and we have an AV cage with various cameras, lighting gear, grip gear etc... A couple things that I think might help those of us that manage equipment versus rooms would be having permissions setup on the accessories too. In my case I have different levels of courses and in those students can checkout different levels of gear. So a basic production class might just be a camera, light kit and Microphone and Boom. Other than the camera, which I setup as a resource, the other gear I would prefer to have as an accessory. But I don't want my basic students to have access to all of the accessories, which could include more advanced lighting kits and grip gear like c-stands, clamps, etc...If I could use the new group permissions in version 2, I could create a basic class group and then assign both the resources and the accessories they have access to.

Yes, I could setup everything in our cage as a resource to solve this, but with the amount of stuff we have, it gets messy in the scheduling. Easier to add most of the little things on as accessories. Plus this makes the reservation so much cleaner looking if we print them out. Just one or two resources and a listing of all the accessories. Also, thank you for adding the option to specify how many of one accessory in the reservation - awesome!

Second thing I was thinking about it having a way to limit the next available reservation time. Right now the program allows users to book back to back schedules on resources. So if Conference room A is booked from 11-12, another user can come in and book the room right at 12. So in this case there may not be time to clean and reset the room. In my case with equipment I wish I could buffer the time when the equipment is ready to be reserved again so I have time to check it for damage. So maybe a setting of, "Minimum amount of time before resource can be scheduled again." Then offering an hour/min field? Could be per resource or global option under blackout times?

Final thing, and this may not fit with the overall goal of the program, but having some sort of check in/check out function...this way I could easily see who is late on picking up or returning. Not sure how that would be implemented in this current form, but I know those of us that do equipment often need to track down late returns.

Seriously though, awesome work...this has been a life saver, especially in my academic environment where money is not there to buy a commercial solution. Thank you!

-Edward  Grin

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Nick
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« Reply #1 on: November 15, 2011, 11:41:06 AM »

These are great suggestions.  I didn't think of permissions at an accessory level.  I'll give this a bit more thought.

Check-in is coming very soon.  Check-out isn't something I thought about.  With this approach would you want the reservation start/end times to stay with what the user originally reserved, or would you update it?

Thanks again!
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ewtwolf
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« Reply #2 on: November 15, 2011, 05:04:16 PM »

Not sure the best way to handle it...maybe having a resource/accessory category of "Requires CheckIn/Out" that the admin can enable for specific things.

It would be ideal, for at least what I do, to have users still create their reservation start/end times but then somehow be able to timestamp when they actually started their reservation, in my case picked up their gear, and similarly when they end their reservation or in my case return the equipment. And to be able to track when the user is late for either picking up or returning. I kind of imagine a calendar view or alert page of reservations that show what is past due. Maybe color coding them in the resource calendar once the date/time has past and they haven't been checked in or out and as an admin I could click on that resource and see what reservation it is tied too and track the person down.

Perhaps having an option on the admin side when the reservation is open with a check in and check out button that generates the timestamp. But I also think it should be per resource and accessory, so if the user is checking out quite a few resources I can systematically check them off (check-in) and return them to being active for another reservation. I guess there may be some issues with if an item isn't checked back in and someone is in line to check it back out how do we account for notifying that person that it isn't ready.

How does the system handle that now? If I inactivate a resource that had a future reservation, is there a message or alert sent out?

Thank you for considering my suggestions.

-Edward





« Last Edit: November 15, 2011, 05:11:18 PM by ewtwolf » Logged
Nick
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« Reply #3 on: November 16, 2011, 02:24:44 AM »

Quote
Have users still create their reservation start/end times but then somehow be able to timestamp when they actually started their reservation

I think I'll end up making this functionality configurable.  Some users want the 'check in' to end the reservation.  I can make a simple config setting.  How about something like check.in.behavior: disabled (check out/in not enabled at all), timestamp (reservation check in/out is captured, but no updates to reservations), end reservation (check out is timestamped, check in is timestamped and ends the reservation)?

Quote
If I inactivate a resource that had a future reservation, is there a message or alert sent out?

Currently no alerts are sent out.  This is probably something we should do.
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ewtwolf
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« Reply #4 on: November 29, 2011, 11:20:42 AM »

I like the custom configure settings  Grin

Thanks again!
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