Custom Reservation Statuses, Jump-to-Month and Other New Features

Darko Kontin — Mon, 31 May 2010 09:00:11 +0000

Yesterday we upgraded VELUMrent to a new version. Here is a rundown of a few new features that came with this version…

Custom reservation statuses

VELUMrent now supports up any number of custom reservation statuses. Every status has a changeable name, color and type. By default you’ll only see two statuses. You can edit them or add additional statuses in the Settings menu.

Note that you can now choose the type of every status. This option enables you to choose if it’s possible to freely move reservations around the reservations calendar or if you’ll need to confirm such changes. This option is a safety mechanism for confirmed and approved reservations so they are not moved by mistake.

Restore last session

There were quite a few feature requests for specifying what is the first thing VELUMrent shows after users log in. Some users wanted an option for choosing a default time filter while others requested a default date to be opened.

However, as many users use the same login credentials but want to see different parts of VELUMrent on log in, adding a single setting for the whole account was not the right solution. So to make this possible we implemented browser cookies into VELUMrent. Using cookies VELUMrent can remember you last used settings and then restore them when you log back in.

The great thing about cookies is that they are unique for every browser. This way every member of your staff will have their own settings saved for the computers/browsers they use without interfering with other user settings on other devices.

Jump-to-Month feature

This feature further extends the functionality of two sidebar navigation calendars. By clicking the month or year number in the calendar header you’ll activate a drop-down menu from where you can choose a specific month and year to jump to.

This feature reduces the number of required clicks, and therefor required time, which takes to jump to a distant month or year on reservations calendar.

Visit VELUMrent’s change log to see other made changes.

Quick Hint For iPhone/iPad users

Darko Kontin — Sat, 22 May 2010 12:04:30 +0000

One of the main reasons most accommodation owners are using/are interested in using VELUMrent is because of its mobility. Unlike other booking software out there which ties you to one or several computers, VELUMrent is a web application and can be accessed from any web enabled device, anytime and anywhere. Today such devices are widely available (desktop computers, laptops and all the way to your smart phones).

I will share a little hint for all users who access VELUMrent from devices running iPhone OS (like iPod touch, iPhone or iPad).

The hint

If you have more than 8 accommodation units on your calendar, VELUMrent adds a horizontal scroll on the bottom so you can add more units without further squeezing unit columns and its data.

The problem – it isn’t possible to scroll VELUMrent’s reservations calendar sideways with one finger on iPhone OS devices as it is done on other “fixed” websites. The reason for this is that the reservations calendar is handled in a separate frame inside the existing web page (so that all settings are accessible to users at all times), and when you scroll the page this frame scrolls with it as a fixed object (as it should) which causes this problem.

However not all know that Apple addressed this issue sometime last year and that they implemented a way to scroll such embedded elements on every site with two fingers swipe.

So all you need to do is place two fingers on reservations calendar and move them left/right to scroll through all available units.

I hope you’ll enjoy this tip. And if you have some tips you want to share with us please let us know through comments bellow.

Constructive Code » reservations calendar

Custom Reservation Statuses, Jump-to-Month and Other New Features