Booking.js – Availability and Scheduling API | Hacker News Reader

Booking.js – Availability and Scheduling API

booking.timekit.io

142 pointslistentojohan22 comments

Is this actually open source? Or does it have open source components but depend on a hosted backend?

I made something similar like this a while ago, it may be half baked but its fully open source & has some unit tests - https://github.com/bookingbat/engine

Not very clear as it requires an account creation at booking.timekit.io

From FAQ:

IS IT FREE & OPEN SOURCE?

Yes & yes! Booking.js actually consists of two components: FullCalendar and the Timekit API. The actual implementation is open source on Github and we'd love PRs. It's worth noting that the actual use of the widget is meant to be included with JS served from our CDN so we can push out updates and track usage.

It's open source if you use timekit.io (their backend essentially .... ). So not really.

Well... in fairness to this product, it's licensed with an MIT license, so in theory you can plug in whatever danged infrastructure you want.

Seems disingenuous to say "not really" to the open source question when it has such a liberal license. Fork it to use whatever you want.

It's open source by any means but it works against their backend. They say that it also works with Google Calendar but I didn't understand if it completely bypasses Timekit in that case.

Did anybody implemented a server API compatible with Calendar?

Hi, lead developer here!

The widget itself is based on open source components and is on Github (https://github.com/timekit-io/booking-js), but the trigger is that's it's using our core API. The API is 100% free to use though (http://timekit.io/pricing)

You say it's free with unlimited users however when you log-in it restricts you with only 10 calendars.

Looks like it's Fullcalendar with a skin and some sort of openish source API that integrates with a hosted backend.

it depends on their API

Double-clicking the grid in Firefox (44), nothing happens. I would have assumed it would have opened a booking link? Perhaps this is because I'm using the demo, or am I not understanding the use-case of this product?

couldn't figure out how to do anything with the demo in Chrome either.

It worked for me in Chrome, here's a brief description of how it behaves: if you click on an empty cell nothing happens, which probably means that empty slot are "unavailable", but when you clock on an "available" slot i.e. those cells that have a blue border, a modal window comes up with a form in it, and you can finalise your booking.

This is really cool - I wonder, can I have someone find a booking that works for their time schedule, then redirect to Stripe to pay, then back to finish the scheduling?

We're working on a Stripe integration (see https://github.com/timekit-io/booking-js/issues/20), but you could actually add it yourself with the callbacks. Check out the docs on Github or ping me on Intercom on the page if you need some guidance

Yeah or one could just put the Stripe paywall in front of it. Like imagine a nail salon or hairdresser or whatever using this on their website - Have them pay Stripe first, then upon successful charge they are redirected to your booking.js thing. Very cool.

Make a payment to see "we are fully booked till next year"? I think using callbacks to trigger stripe's checkout.js is not that hard, unless you hate your users.

I like it but it should support more versatile times, right now I can only make it use full hours.

You can customize the timeslot lengths, see the following config key:

{ timekitFindTime: { length: '30 minutes' // natural language input of duration } }

There's also a dropdown in the setup wizard where you can pick a few defaults :)

Interesting possibilities! How granular can the calendar entries get?

Hey there! All the way down to 15 minutes and as long as you'd like them (in 15 minutes intervals)

I get an empty box under Marty McFly on iOS. Anyone else?

Hey, here's an interesting challenge:

The widget is using a Google Calendar underneath and as people try the demo and book timeslots, the calendar gets filled up and availability disappears. So right now I'm doing my best trying to frantically delete all the demo bookings as they come in so they don't block other visitors (which is what happened to you) :)

https://media.giphy.com/media/42109OHM6YFS8/giphy.gif

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