Booking Activities 1.12 allows you to repeat a group of events with the same flexibility as a single event. Indeed, groups of events now have the same repeat options as events.
Conditions to repeat groups of events
To repeat a group of events, you must first place the events of all future groups in the calendar editor. Indeed, the group’s occurrences can be created only if their events already exist.
The events of each group’s occurrence must be strictly identical:
- same number of events
- events coming from the same activity
- events starting at the same time and having the same duration
- same spacing between the events
If any of the criteria is not met, then the group occurrence won’t be generated.
Example:
You want to repeat each week this group, composed of four events:
You must create the same events each week:
Tip: You can use the events’ auto repeat function to make it quick and avoid any mistakes.
The slightest difference will invalidate the group, and it won’t be generated, here are some error examples:
Groups of events repeat options
Once the events are placed, select the first group’s events, create the group, and set its repeat options in the “Repetition” tab.
You can repeat your group:
- every n days / weeks / months
(e.g. : Every other week) - on certain days of the week only
(e.g. : from Monday to Friday) - on the last day of the month
(e.g. : February 28, then March 31, etc.) - on the nth Monday / Tuesday / etc. of each month
(e.g. : the 2nd Thursday of the month) - on the last Monday / Tuesday / etc. of each month
(e.g. : the last Wednesday of the month) - set the start date and end date of the repetition
(e.g. : from January 1 to June 30) - set exceptions on certain dates
(e.g.: do not repeat on February 14 and April 1)
The repeat options are based on the first event of the group.
So if you configure the group repetition on “The first Friday of each month”, then you will have to place the first event of each group on the first Friday of each month, then place the other events of the groups as stated above.
Since these options are strictly the same as the single events’ options, we invite you to read this post about event repetition for a detailed description and more examples.
Navigate between the group of events’ occurrences
Once your group repetition is configured, you can preview each occurrence very easily.
For that, go to the group’s settings > “General” tab, you’ll find navigation buttons:
- The “previous” () and “next” () arrows allow you to see the previous / next occurrence.
- The “saved” icon () allows you to see the group’s recorded events.
- The “undo” arrow () allows you to see the selected events, in other words, the events that will be saved if the dialog is confirmed. These are the events shown by default when you go to group settings.
Unbind groups of events’ occurrences
Just as events, all repeated group occurrences share the same settings (the group’s), only the events dates change.
It is possible to unbind an occurrence in order to configure it differently, or to cancel it for example.
Here are your options to unbind occurrences:
- Unbind the selected occurrence (using the navigation buttons, see paragraph above) in order to make it independent
- Unbind the booked occurrences, you will get a group of events with the booked occurrences and a group of events with the free occurrences
- Unbind subsequent occurrences, so that you can edit only future groups of events (from the selected occurrence) and leave past groups of events as they are
- Unbind each occurrence, to create a separate group per occurrence
Archiving tool removed
The archiving tool introduced in version 1.7 has been removed.
Your data files previously archived using this tool are kept. You will find them in time-stamped .zip files (one zip per save made) in wp-content/uploads/booking-activities/archives.
If you want to restore data, extract the desired zip file, then import the resulting .sql files (one file per table) via phpMyAdmin > “Import” tab.
However, the table storing your repeated events’ exception dates has undergone structural changes, so the *-repeated-events-exceptions.sql files won’t work. You will therefore have to either import the file before updating to 1.12, or edit the SQL file to make it compatible, or give up importing it.
This tool was created to overcome performance problems when the volume of reservations / events became too large. Since its creation, optimizations have permanently fixed these problems. The archiving tool is now removed because it was little used, required significant maintenance, and presented risks for inexperienced users.
Other changes in the calendar editor
Instant navigation
The “Go to” button allows you to move instantly to the desired date. Click on the button and enter the desired date, the calendar will automatically load the corresponding view.
Quick navigation
The “previous” («) and “next” (») double-arrow buttons allow you to move from year to year: you will jump one year back or forward.
No restriction on booked events
Restrictions on repetition frequency and events’ availability have been removed. You can now change them regardless of the reservations made for these events.
Be careful because in the event of improper handling, it is quite possible to make a booked event disappear from the editor (by modifying its repetition frequency), or to have an overbooked event (if you set an availability lower than the number of reservations already made).
Optimizations
Finally, various optimizations have been made to make the calendar editor and calendars in general load faster.