ABPro Popup Caller

The ABPro Popup Caller is a Joomla module that presents a JQuery datepicker (calendar) that will open an ABPro booking screen in a popup when a date is selected. The booking screen will display the date the user selected. The popup is a JQuery dialog with the booking screen in an iFrame.

Demo here (demo site home page)

 

Module settings

Booking screen to display	Simple, GAD or Wizard
Mode	Normal, Single Resource, Single Category
Resource or Category ID	If in single resource or category mode, this is the ID of the resource or category to show.
Datepicker Size	The JQuery datepicker size is controlled by the font. This setting is % of parent. Setting to 100 is the largest, set it to 75 and the popup will be smaller.
Popup Title	Enter a title for your popup or leave it blank for no title.
Popup Width	This is the width you want the popup to be created. (overridden for mobile devices, see below)
Popup Height	This is the height you want the popup created. The popup is a JQuery dialog with scroll bars.  (overridden for mobile devices, see below)
Min Date	This is the first date available for booking, defaults to 1 (tomorrow), for current day set to 0, for x days from now set to x. This is overridden by resource settings if running in single resource mode. For gad or wizard, min/max set by grid settings.
Max Date	This is the farthest out date a booking can be made, defaults to null (no ending date), set to a number if you want to limit how far in the future people can pick. This is overridden by resource settings if running in single resource mode. For gad or wizard, min/max set by grid settings.
Header/Footer	You can define text to be displayed above and/or below the datepicker.

 

Single Resource Mode

If you set the module into Single Resource mode and enter a resource ID, the datepicker will read the resource settings and block out non-booking days and full day book-offs. It will also set the Min/Max date based on the resource's Disable Dates Before and After.

 

Mobile Devices

The module will attempt to detect mobile devices and override the popup width and height to fit in a small screen. This is done server side, before sending the module out so it has no access to actual device characteristics, it can only decide based on the user agent.

 

 

Limitations

The popup uses an iFrame and is therefore not compatible with PayPal as PayPal does not permit a call from an iFrame. Authorize.net, Google Wallet and 2Checkout.com are ok with iFrames.

Prior to ABPro 2.0.7 and 3.0.2, the Simple Booking screen did not support calling with a date specified. The Popup Caller will not set the date on Simple Booking screen for older versions of ABPro. 

The datepicker is JQuery, not Joomla and so it is not effected by Joomla's language setting. I have made a How-To page on changing the language for the datepicker.
http://appointmentbookingpro.com/how-to/209-change-language-on-the-popup-caller.html

Other changes to the datepicker can be made by changing properties in the module's source code. Here is a link to the JQuery datepicker API: http://api.jqueryui.com/datepicker/

Only one popup caller can be visible on screen at a time.

 

 

This ONLY applies to ABPro running on Joomla 1.6.x, 1.7.x or 2.5.x.

Symptom

March 11, 2012 appears twice in the GAD and Wizard booking screens.

 

Reason

When calculating dates for the grid, ABPro adjusts to UTC**. This does not work one day of the year. Why - I do not know.

 

Work Around #1

If you DO NOT accept bookings on Sundays you can set your resources like this:

• Allow Booking on Days - uncheck Sunday
• Hide non-Booking days - Yes
• Non-Booking days message - empty the box

 

Work Around #2

If you DO accept bookings on Sundays you can edit file:

\components\com_rsappt_pro2\gad_ajax.php

or if you have set ABPro's 'Time on Y-Axis' = Yes, file 

\components\com_rsappt_pro2\gad_ajax2.php

 

Around line 563 look for:

$jdayname = new JDate( DateAdd("d", $day, strtotime($grid_date.' UTC')));

Remove the UTC, to change to:

$jdayname = new JDate( DateAdd("d", $day, strtotime($grid_date)));

Note: this code line appears 6 times in the file so you need to change just the one at line 563, if you do not have line numbers in you editor you can change ALL.

 

Fix

Upgrade to ABPro 2.0.3, beta 4a.

 

** fix for Joomla 1.6 bug(?) whereby the JDate switches php timezones for a toFormat but does not put it back.
http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomla/tracker/?action=TrackerItemEdit&tracker_item_id=24604 
Pass the grid date as UTC to JDate.
Joolma patch in June 2011 should eliminate the need for UTC adjustment and it will be removed in 2.0.3 beta 4.