AV reservation. Resource quantity?

[limavadyhigh]

Hi all, I'm a Media technician in a secondary school. Found this software this morning and think it's great. I have a little question:

We have 3 types of cameras in stock, which the pupils collect from myself. I'm hoping to introduce the phpScheduleIt software at some point in the near future so pupils can reserve the gear online. Before I do I was planning to add the 3 types of cameras we have in the Resource area. We have varying amounts of camcorders... For e.g. 5x Canon, 8x Panasonic and 15 x Sony. Is it possible to allocate quantities per resource? I wouldn't like to have to add all our cameras as resources, but would if there was no other way around it.

Also, could someone explain the Schedule aspect to me a bit more. How would this be used? I'm presuming it would be more for rooms than anything else. Is anyone else using this system for reserving AV equipment?

Thanks, Chris

[Nick]

There is the concept of accessories as well.  This allows you to configure a set number of accessories that may be used as part of a reservation.  In most cases the resources will be rooms or other single instance items.

[limavadyhigh]

Thanks Nick, I had toyed with the Accessories option earlier today however couldn't work out how to achieve what I was after. I was intending to have a Resource called Mini DV camcorder. Within that resource would be 3 accessories (the different models of camera, and their quantities). There was the issue that when a booking was made using the 'DV cam' resource, and selecting the necessary accessories, nobody else would be able to book the resource for that time period - even though there would be multiple cameras (accessories) still remaining. Would you know a way around this? Alternatively is there a way to categorise resources? Hopefully I'm explaining this OK. Ideally I'd love to have the following:

Students register themselves for the service, within the schools internal network. They can then select from the following resources...

Mini DV Camera (resource)
 - Accessories (3 different models of camera with quantities per model, and perhaps X amount of tripods)
HDD Camera (another resource)
 - Accessories (3 different models of camera with quantities per model, and perhaps X amount of tripods)

The problem I had was once I created a user account and booked the Mini DV camera resource for a specific time period (let's say 3 days next week) nobody else was able to make a similar booking during the same time period, even though we might have another 15 cameras sitting in the store.

Any assistance you can provide would be greatly appreciated. The software is a great bit of kit, very easy to use, and I'd love to fully implement it within our department. I could send you a link to check things out if you like.

[islatur]

Same issue here, we really want to use php-sch for our tour operation, but need to reserve a resource more than once, in fact about a 100 times. i have read the forums and no ones has been able to pull that of.

wow Nick, thank you for the response.

I take the opportunity to ask you if you think your software could be modified easily to adjust small tour operators. We have daily tours (resources as you call them) and would like to be able to make reservations. The limitation i saw is that a resource can only be booked once.
For instance the ideal for us would be to have a tour with 100 spots and be able to book those spots for the same time frame.

I'll ask around the forums now that they are working to see if it has been done

His response

Hi Juan,
You can configure reservations to allow participants to join.  The max number of participants can be configured in the Manage Resources tool.

Hope that helps,
Nick

[Nick]

Hmm, maybe we're talking about different things here.  I was just able to create an accessory with 50 instances available.  I then created multiple reservations at the same time (on different resources) using that same accessory.  Is this what you're trying but not able to get working?

[limavadyhigh]

I don't think so Nick. We have over 30 camcorders for our students to use. I set up 1 resource called DV cameras, and made 30 instances within the accessories area however once 1 reservation is made on the DV camera resource nobody else can book out the equipment. I got round it by just creating multiple resources in different schedules.

[georkame]

It dosen't work like this, (actually it shouldn't) what you need to do is create 50 resources cameras, called cam1...cam50
and list the accessories of each, such as Power cable, Memory stick, carrying case.

and you should ebe able to make multiple resrvations as needed.

[Nick]

I'm talking about setting the Number Available when configuring the accessory.

[JBell]

I'm just new to this, and haven't downloaded the software yet, but also have to book cameras and accessories.  What I'm hoping to do is make each camera a resources (CAM1-14), then have accessories separately with quantities (tripods 1-14, lights 1-50, ...)  So, when someone books CAM 1, with a tripod and light, I will see what additional resources are available for other camera bookings, I hope.

The other incidence I can think of is that sometimes people don't need cameras, but do need accessories.  I thought I'd work around this by making up fake resources called NOCAM1-14, say.  That way I hope to be able to book out accessories, but without actual cameras.

One thing I wondered is if it is possible to get a printout with the list of resources and accessories the user will have signed out.  I'm new to PHP, and will be trying to look at a way around this.

Also, my boss is adamant that he does not want users to book equipment online, as he wants us to be able to control the bookings.  I'm going to try to register the users myself, and log in as them when they need to book items.

Thanks very much Nick!  This looks like an excellent program, and I'm anxious to dive in!
 

[Nick]

The other incidence I can think of is that sometimes people don't need cameras, but do need accessories.  I thought I'd work around this by making up fake resources called NOCAM1-14, say.  That way I hope to be able to book out accessories, but without actual cameras.

There is a signup sheet view from the resource calendar.  See if that works for you.

Also, my boss is adamant that he does not want users to book equipment online, as he wants us to be able to control the bookings.  I'm going to try to register the users myself, and log in as them when they need to book items.

As an administrator you can create reservations on behalf of other users, so you wouldn't need t log in as them.

[JBell]

Thanks Nick!

[limavadyhigh]

Heya Nick! I just downloaded the new version of phpScheduleIt and was curious to know has there been any developments to the way  schedules and resources operate? As you know I work in a school and we have a lot of equipment to dish out on occasion. I did attempt to manage everything the way you suggested, by making multiple schedules for the type of camera then individual resources for each camera, but because of the sheer volume we have to offer it got very messy.

Ideally I'd like 3 "resources", these are options for the cameras people can obtain from me. They then proceed to book one by completing the accessories box and submitting everything to me. This effectively allowed us to manage quantity of cameras. But when doing this as soon as someone books the resource nobody else can acquire it. Is there a way to maybe change this in the code, so multiple people can 'reserve' the same resource?

Thanks in advance!

C

[Nick]

Can you use accessories for these types resources? You can now specify a quantity available for accessories.

[limavadyhigh]

Ahhh. So you're saying I'd be able to make both HDD and DV cams, plus the tripods etc, accessories within phpScheduleIt. That could work. One question though, how would that effect bookings? Can multiple people book the camera resource and then select appropriate hardware from the accessories menu? If multiple people can book 1 resource, would it all be recorded?

Alternatively is there some way of adjusting the code somehow. At the minute I have it set up that schedules represent the differing types of camera. Due to the amount of cameras it gets very messy. Would it be possible to have 1 schedule with 3 resources - HDD camera, DV camera and Stills camera and somehow make a bit of custom code to auto-allocate an available resource (hidden from the view of the user)?

[Nick]

You could write a PreReservation plugin that would do this.