Category: Development

Help Make MIDAS Even Better!

Filed Under: Development by midas — Leave a comment
May 31, 2016

What makes our MIDAS room & resource booking system the fully-featured and comprehensive complete scheduling solution of choice for organizations across the globe? Well, that’s due in no small part to a small group of “beta testers” many of whom are existing customers too!

What is a Beta Tester?

MIDAS BetaA Beta Tester is someone who tests pre-release versions of our MIDAS scheduling software that aren’t quite ready to be released just yet, and reports any issues/glitches they encounter to us so that we can resolve them before the release becomes publicly available. This also gives our testers a “first look” at new and improved features too and their feedback and comments on these are invaluable to us and often result in changes before a new/improved feature is fully rolled out.

Can anyone become a Beta Tester?

Yes! Regardless of whether you’re an existing MIDAS user or not, anyone can apply to become a BETA Tester. You don’t need any programming experience or knowledge, there’s nothing to download… and it’s completely FREE!

What is required?

A few weeks before each significant new update to MIDAS is due to be released (we currently release significant updates approx 3-4 times a year), we’ll email you inviting you to test it. You’ll be provided with a link and a user account to our online Beta Test Suite, where you’ll be able to login and start testing using just your web browser. The email we’ll send will also include details of what’s new, improved, or changed in the new version we’d like you to test, along with details of anything specific we’d like your help in testing for the new version.

What are the benefits?

To us, the benefits are enormous, as this testing helps us identify and correct potential issues before a new version gets released… in return you’ll get first access to be able to explore new features before anyone else, and have a real input into the direction of our software! …oh, and we’ll also reward you too!…

Beta Rewards

Earlier this year we introduced our “Beta Rewards” program.
We want to recognize, acknowledge, and reward the valuable contribution Beta testers make to the success of our software!
As a Beta Tester, every bug you report in a pre-release “beta” test is assessed for its severity and likelihood and logged.
Once the version you’ve been testing is fully released, then if you’re already a MIDAS customer, we’ll credit* your account with an amount based on the number of bugs you reported, their severity, and likelihood of occurrence. This credit can then be applied to future support subscription renewals and/or upgrades and addons for your MIDAS system. If you’re not yet a customer, the same credit will be available as a discount off your initial MIDAS purchase*.
What’s more if you regularly partake in our beta tests you’ll get an acknowledgment in the software credits too!

Get Involved!

With MIDAS v4.13 fast approaching (more on that coming up in our blog throughout June), now is the perfect time to become a MIDAS Beta Tester!
Apply Now at https://mid.as/betatesters or contact us if you have any questions!

* Credits may only be used against our MIDAS software, subscriptions, addons and upgrades and have no cash equivalent.

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More Flexible Email Templates

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March 21, 2016

The next update to our Web Based Room Booking and Resource Scheduling software MIDAS is fast approaching, and throughout March we’re giving you a first look at some of the new features and improvements you can look forward to in MIDAS v4.12..

A growing selection of templates are available and editable within MIDAS, allowing you to customize and tailor the appearance of various parts of the software, as well as printouts and emails.

Templates are constructed using a combination of common HTML code and special MIDAS variables – don’t worry if you’re not familiar with HTML, we’re produced a handy “What is HTML and how do I use it within my MIDAS templates?” guide, complete with simple examples.

MIDAS also includes a visual WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) template editor where you can simply drag/drop/insert elements into your templates, rather than entering raw HTML code.

Since the introduction of templates, email templates in particular contained a special %CONTENT% variable. This variable would be automatically substituted for generated content when an email was sent. For example, here’s some simplified content for a Booking Confirmation email template in MIDAS v4.11:

Dear %CLIENT_FIRSTNAME%,
Details of your confirmed booking at %DATABASE% are as follows:
%CONTENT%
We look forward to seeing you then!

In the above template, when a booking confirmation email is sent, the variable %CLIENT_FIRSTNAME% is automatically substituted with the forename of the client the notification is to be sent to and %DATABASE% is be substituted for the name of your MIDAS database (usually your organization’s name).

The %CONTENT% variable is then replaced with details of the client’s bookings, and would include the booking fields that had been selected via MIDAS Admin Options → Manage MIDAS → Fields → Show In → Booking Confirmation.

Using the above template, the resulting email content may look like:

Dear Joe,
Details of your confirmed booking at St James are as follows:

Date/Times: 21/03/2016 @ 09:00 – 10:30
Venue: Room 1
Resources: x1 Laptop, x1 Data Projector

Date/Times: 21/03/2016 @ 09:00 – 10:30
Venue: Room 2
Resources: x4 Tables, x20 Chairs

We look forward to seeing you then!

For MIDAS v4.12, we’ve overhauled email templates to give you far greater flexibility and control over the generated content of emails. The rigid %CONTENT% variable has been replaced with more useful variables. For example, a new booking confirmation email template may now look like this:

Dear %CLIENT_FIRSTNAME%,
Details of your confirmed booking at %DATABASE% are as follows:

<bookings>
Dates/Times: %START% – %FINISH%
Venue: %VENUE%
Resources: %RESOURCES%
</bookings>

We look forward to seeing you then!

…as you can see, the original %CONTENT% variable has been replaced in v4.12 with a <bookings> … </bookings> section, in which you can add your own text and variables to customize the generated content exactly as you’d like. You can also include content from any custom booking fields you’ve added to MIDAS – for example, if you’ve created a booking field named “Test Field”, you can insert the variable %CUSTOM_TEST_FIELD% into the <bookings> … </bookings> section. (This brings email templates in line with the format of templates in our optional Digital Signage and Web Calendars addons, which have always supported <bookings> … </bookings> template sections)

We’ve also added support for a couple of new variables too; %BOOKING_COST% and %TOTAL_COST%.

%BOOKING_COST% can be added within the <bookings> … </bookings> section and will be substituted for the cost of the individual booking (including both venue and resource usage).

%TOTAL_COST% can be added anywhere in the template and will be substituted for the total cost of all the bookings listed in the email.

When editing templates via MIDAS Admin Options → Manage MIDAS → Templates, a complete list is displayed of all available variables that can be inserted into the current templates.

We believe replacing the limited %CONTENT% variable with a flexible <bookings> … </bookings> section in email notifications will give customers far greater control over the appearance and content of emails sent through MIDAS.

MIDAS v4.12 is expected to be made available to Beta Testers later this month, with a general release shortly after. We’re currently looking for additional testers to help test and provide feedback/bug reports on pre-release versions of our software. Becoming a tester is free and no experience is required, and what’s more we’ll reward you for your participation! Find out more about becoming a MIDAS Beta Tester here.

If you would like to be notified when v4.12 is fully released, then why not join our Mailing List?
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Accept Card Payments with Stripe

Filed Under: Development by midas — Leave a comment
March 14, 2016

The next update to our Web Based Room Booking and Resource Scheduling software MIDAS is fast approaching. Throughout March we’re giving you a first look at some of the new features and improvements you can look forward to in MIDAS v4.12.

Back in October 2010, we released MIDAS v3.10. This update introduced a new feature allowing your clients to pay invoices generated by MIDAS online using either PayPal or Google Wallet (or Google Checkout as it was known back then).

Whilst the ability for customer’s clients to pay their invoices online using PayPal was popular, Unfortunately, Google changed direction with their Google Checkout/Wallet service. This meant it was no longer a viable payment processor for customer’s client’s invoices. As such, the option to pay invoices via Google Checkout was removed as of MIDAS v4.07 in September 2014. You can read more about the sad demise of Google Checkout in this blog post.

Since then, PayPal has been the sole payment option natively provided within MIDAS to allow your clients to pay invoices online. Of course, with our optional API available, customers have been able to develop their own specific integrations with other 3rd party payment processors as required.

However, ever since we removed the Google Checkout/Wallet option, we’ve wanted to include a “PayPal alternative” as standard within our software.

For nearly two years now, we’ve made card payments simpler through our own website, by partnering with Stripe. We’ve been very impressed with Stripe, and they are now our preferred payment processor.

So we’re pleased to announce that Stripe will now also be a native payment option for invoices within MIDAS itself, along with the existing PayPal option!

Here’s a few of the things we really like about Stripe:

  • Stripe allows you to take a payment on the current page. Unlike PayPal, the customer won’t be transferred to a separate “hosted” payment page.
  • Despite allowing card payments to be taken on the current page, no card details pass through or are stored the server where your MIDAS resides. All the processing is handled by Stripe, ensuring you are fully comply with PCI DSS 3.1
  • Stripe automatically withdraws funds to your bank account on a rolling 7 day basis. With PayPal, funds remain in your account until you manually withdraw them.
  • Stripe never forces the customer to “create an account” in order to make a card payment. With PayPal, “unregistered” users may be forced to create a PayPal account in order to make a card payment. This can depending upon your geographic region, or the number of times you’ve used PayPal before.
  • In our experience, Stripe’s processing fees have been lower than PayPal’s.

What about PayPal?

Now, reading the above, you make think that we’re anti-PayPal. Don’t worry – we’re very aware of the popularity of PayPal. It’s still arguably the most common online payment processor across the globe. Therefore, we have no plans to remove the PayPal payment option from our software. But we do believe in giving our customers choice over their payment provider. This is why we’re really exciting to be able to offer native Stripe integration starting with MIDAS v4.12!

You’ll be able to choose which payment provider to use to allow your clients to pay their invoices online. You can also configure both, to give clients a choice of completing their payment via PayPal or Stripe:

Online Invoice Payment Settings
Online Invoice Payment Settings

In order to accept payments through PayPal, you’ll need a PayPal account.

In order to accept payments through Stripe, you’ll need a Stripe account. You’ll also need Stripe API keys. For more information on obtaining these, please see our KB article “Configuring Stripe Integration“

Once you’ve set up your PayPal and/or Stripe account, you can enable and configure them via MIDAS Admin Options → Manage MIDAS → Invoicing → Online Payments. Once configured, your customers will then be able to pay their invoices online via https://your_midas_url/pay:

Online Invoice Payment Selection
Online Invoice Payment Selection

With Stripe integration, as soon as a client completes their payment, their invoice will automatically be instantly updated in MIDAS to reflect their payment.

With PayPal integration, you’ll also need to configure Instant Payment Notifications (IPN) within your PayPal account in order for MIDAS to automatically update a client’s invoice following a successful PayPal transaction.

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Maintain a line of credit for your clients

Filed Under: Development by midas — Leave a comment
March 12, 2016

The next update to our Web Based Room Booking and Resource Scheduling software MIDAS is on the horizon, and throughout March we’re giving you a first look at some of the new features and improvements you can look forward to in this next MIDAS update..

One of the areas of our software that we often receive feedback and ideas for new features for is “Invoicing”. We’re pleased to once again adding even more Invoicing features for v4.12, one of which will facilitate the ability to maintain a line of “credit” for each of your clients.

Adding credit for a client is really simple, and is done via the “Current Credit” field in each client’s database entry. Simply enter the amount to credit to associate with the client and click “Save Changes”:

Maintain a line of credit for each client in a MIDAS booking system
Maintain a line of credit for clients

Then, the next time an invoice is generated/created for the client, this credit will be applied to their invoice as a discount, and the line of credit remaining for the client updated accordingly.

Example 1:

  • A client entry has a $70 credit associated it.
  • The client’s next invoice is for a total of $100.
  • $70 is automatically deducted from the pre-tax total of their next invoice
  • The client’s remaining credit balance automatically reduces to $0
Automatically apply credit to customer invoices in MIDAS
Credit automatically applied to client invoices

Example 2:

  • A client entry has a $70 credit associated with it.
  • The client’s next invoice is for a total of $50.
  • $50 is automatically deducted from the pre-tax total of that invoice
  • The client’s remaining credit balance automatically reduces to $20, which will be applied to their next invoice

Users with access to the invoicing capabilities of MIDAS and who also have the ability to modify clients can update the amount of credit associated with each client at any time.

MIDAS v4.12 is expected to be made available to Beta Testers later this month, with a general release shortly after. We’re currently looking for additional testers to help test and provide feedback/bug reports on pre-release versions of our software. Becoming a tester is free and no experience is required, and what’s more we’ll reward you for your participation! Find out more about becoming a MIDAS Beta Tester here.

If you would like to be notified when v4.12 is fully released, then why not join our Mailing List?
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