Category: Development

Improved “Feeds” addon (formerly RSS Feeds)

3 minute read time · Updated March 18, 2024 · First published November 21, 2019

Work is nearing completion on the next update to our MIDAS web based room booking and resource scheduling software. We anticipate this to be released next month.

In previous posts, we introduced the new setup / breakdown time features and improvements to similar booking searching coming in v4.23. In this post, we’d like to highlight some of the improvements we’ve made to one of our optional “addons”. Addons allow you to further extend the capabilities of your MIDAS system.

Data Feeds Addon

For v4.23 we’re updating and improving the “Feeds” addon. Previously, this addon was known as our “RSS Feeds” addon. That’s because previously it did just that – automatically generating RSS 2.0/Atom data feeds of your upcoming bookings.

Due to popular demand, we’re introducing the ability to sync bookings in your MIDAS system with an external calendar – such as Google Calendar, or any external calendar that’s capable of subscribing to an iCal (webcal) feed. These new capabilities will be included, along with previous RSS feed generation options, in a newly renamed “Data Feeds” addon.

For those customers who are familiar with the “RSS Feeds” addon, the new “Data Feeds” addon looks and feels very similar. However, the new addon includes an additional “Feed Type” selector. The “Feed Type” selector is used to control the type of data feed being generated.

The three available feed types are:

  • RSS (An RSS 2.0/Atom Datafeed – for use in RSS readers and similar)
  • Google Calendar (A feed that will automatically open in Google Calendar)
  • iCal (A iCal data feed that external calendars capable of subscribing to webcal:// URLS can subscribe to)
Data Feeds addon allowing synchronization of bookings from MIDAS to an external calendar like Google or Outlook
Improved “Feeds” addon, allowing synchronization of bookings to your external calendar

Depending upon the selected feed type, the “Feed URL” will update with a link that you can use in your external calendar to synchronize bookings from your MIDAS system to your external calendar.

Configuring A Data Feed

A wide range of settings are available, as per the previous “RSS Feeds” addon. These allow control over which venue(s) bookings and/or which booking types will be included in the generated feed.

There are also no limits on the number of feeds you can create. You could have a different feed for each of your individual venues or booking types if you’d like!

Existing customers who previously purchased the older “RSS Feeds” addon will automatically be migrated to the new “Data Feeds” addon with MIDAS v4.23 at no additional cost! If you’re an existing customer who’d like to be able to add the optional “Data Feeds” addon to your MIDAS system, you’ll be able to purchase it via mid.as/upgrade once MIDAS v4.23 is released.

We’re excited about these new improvements to the optional “Feeds” addon and we’re sure they’ll be of great benefit to our customers! Remember, we love feedback and feature requests from our customers. So do vote and let us know what you’d like to see in future updates to our software.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Modify/Delete Similar Bookings on specific days

2 minute read time · Updated January 6, 2023 · First published November 12, 2019

Work is nearing completion on the next update to our MIDAS web based room booking and resource scheduling software, anticipated to be released next month.

In our previous blog post, we introduced the new setup/breakdown time features in v4.23. In this post, we’re highlighting one of the improvements we’re making in this next update to bulk modifying/deleting “similar” bookings.

The “modify similar bookings” feature allows you to select an existing booking, and then quickly locate other similar bookings for bulk modification. The “delete similar bookings” feature allows you to select an existing booking and then quickly locate other similar bookings for bulk deletion.

These features allow you to narrow down the search for “similar” bookings to those which fall within a certain date range, and/or which take place in a particular room/venue, and/or which are of a certain type.

Following customer feedback, we’re improving these options in v4.23. They’ll now also include the ability to restrict booking results to those which take place on particular days of the week.

Limit similar booking search results to specific days of the week
Limit similar booking search results to specific days of the week

So now, if you want to modify all similar bookings over a date range, but only include those bookings which fall on say a Tuesday, you can!

Previously, you could still do this, but you’d have to list all relevant bookings in the date range, and then painstakingly mark each of those which fell on the specific day(s) you were interested in. In MIDAS v4.23 we’re making this process far less laborious!

We’re excited about these new features and we’re sure they’ll be of great benefit to our customers! Remember, we love feedback and feature requests from our customers, so do vote and let us know what you’d like to see in future updates to our software.

Tags: , , ,

New Setup & Breakdown Times

3 minute read time · Updated February 14, 2025 · First published November 11, 2019

Work is nearly complete on the next update to our MIDAS web based room booking and resource scheduling software.

So we wanted to share some of the exciting new and improved features in this forthcoming release…

A commonly requested feature we’re asked for is the ability to add setup and breakdown times to bookings.

As MIDAS allows users to add custom booking fields, some customers add their own bespoke setup/breakdown fields to their MIDAS system to record how long is needed to setup/changeover. However, using custom booking fields in this way didn’t alter the actual start/finish times of the bookings themselves. Consequently, they could only be used to denote periods within the confines of the actual start/finish times of bookings.

We’ve listened to customer usage cases. As a result, we are delighted to announce that MIDAS v4.23 will now include full support for specifying setup/breakdown times for bookings!

Setup, build, load in, rig.. you decide

If these features are enabled, the standard Add/Modify Bookings screen will include two additional fields. By default theses are named “Setup” and “Breakdown” but the good news is that these names are customizable!. These fields allow specifying a setup period before the start, and a breakdown period at the end of each booking:

New Setup and Breakdown custom fields in MIDAS v4.23
New Setup/Breakdown Fields in MIDAS v4.23

In the above screenshot, a booking is to be added from 8am – 10am. The booking has a 30 minute setup period before hand, and 15 minute breakdown period afterwards. The resulting booking would render in the booking grid as follows:

Visual representation of a booking's setup and breakdown periods
A booking indicating a 30 minute setup time before the start of the booking, and a 15 minute breakdown period at the end

As you’ve come to expect from our software, we provide loads of control over settings. The new setup/breakdown time options are no different!

Firstly, the names “Setup” and “Breakdown” may not be the most applicable to your business or operational needs. So you can choose from a list of alternatives, for “Setup” these include; “Arrival”, “Build”, “Fit up”, “Get in” “Load in”, and “Rig”. For “Breakdown” these include; “Departure”, “Derig”, “Get out”, “Load out”, “Reset”, and “Strike”. If none of those are suitable, you can even enter your own bespoke labels for these pre/post booking fields. Furthermore, you can set a default value for each field. Like other booking fields, choose whether they appear on printouts, and precisely control which users these fields are presented to:

Rename setup and breakdown time field names in MIDAS
Customize the pre/booking time fields with bespoke names and default values

Flexible functionality

In addition to be able to control the appearance/visibility of these new fields, we’re also giving you control over their functionality, with a host of new settings:

Control how the setup and breakdown fields function in MIDAS
Control how the new setup/breakdown fields function

Choose whether the times shown on the Booking Availability screen should include setup/breakdown times, you can choose whether setup and/or breakdown times for bookings are allowed to overlap with other bookings, and also whether setup/breakdown times are allowed to overlap for resources.

What’s more, you can also control how setup/breakdown times are handled with respect to invoicing:

Invoicing options for setup/breakdown periods in MIDAS
Invoicing options for setup/breakdown periods

You can include/exclude setup/breakdown times from being invoices, or indeed appearing on your invoices.

We’re excited about these new features and we’re sure they’ll be of great benefit to our customers! Remember, we love feedback and feature requests from our customers, so do vote and let us know what you’d like to see in future updates to our software.

Tags:

Custom Client Fields

3 minute read time · Updated February 11, 2025 · First published June 26, 2019

Things are hotting up here in Europe – and we don’t mean Brexit! A heatwave is currently engulfing parts of the continent with temperatures hitting a whopping 40°C in Paris. Across the Channel here in the UK the temperature is far more bearable, and so we’ve been busy working away on development on the next release of our leading web based room and resource scheduling system, MIDAS.

We’re excited to announce that the forthcoming v4.22 update will include the often requested feature of “custom client fields”, including the ability for self-hosted MIDAS customers to attach documents (i.e. insurance certificates, contracts, etc) to client records.

Similar to the “custom booking fields” feature first introduced way back in 2010, which allows administrators to add additional booking fields to their MIDAS system on top of the standard booking fields, the new custom client fields feature will provide similar functionality to client records in your MIDAS database.

Prior to v4.22, the standard client fields in MIDAS were fixed and allowed you to capture the following items of data for each of your clients/customers:

  • Client name
  • Organization
  • E-mail address (or addresses)
  • Postal address
  • Telephone number
  • Fax number (since deprecated as a ‘standard’ field in MIDAS v4.35)
  • Mobile/Cell number
  • Notes

The introduction of custom client fields gives you even more flexibility! Now you’ll be able to add additional fields to capture other client information that you wish to collect, for example you could add a “Salutation” list field (Mr, Mrs, Ms, Miss, Rev, Dr, etc), or a file upload field to capture an insurance document from your clients..

A custom “Salutation” client field in MIDAS v4.22
A custom “Salutation” client field in MIDAS v4.22
A custom "Insurance Document" upload client field in MIDAS v4.22
A custom “Insurance Document” upload client field in MIDAS v4.22

The types of custom client fields that may be added are the same as those available for custom booking fields, namely:

  • Checkbox – A “tick box” field
  • File – (self-hosted editions only) Allows uploading/attaching of files and documents to client records
  • List – A drop-down list of pre-defined items
  • Number – A field that will only accept numerical input
  • Range – A “slider” control allowing selection of a numeric value within a defined range
  • Text – A single-line text field
  • Text Area – A multi-line text field
  • URL – A navigable web link to an external resource

Both custom booking and custom client fields may be managed via MIDAS Admin Options → Manage MIDAS → Fields

Custom client fields in MIDAS v4.22
Custom Client Fields in MIDAS v4.22

From this screen you’ll also be able to control which client fields (both standard and custom) should be included on printouts, in search results, and on public booking/request screens. You’ll also be able to re-order client fields as well as selectively hide them from individual users too!

Tags: , ,