Whether you’re an existing user or totally new to the MIDAS way of online scheduling, we need your help to “test” this new update. This allows us to help identify and fix andy issues before its public release!
Becoming a Beta Tester couldn’t be easier. It’s completely free, there’s nothing to download, and you don’t need any programming experience or knowledge! All you need is your web browser and a bit of spare time! So why not sign up right now!
The more people we have testing this pre-release “beta” version of our popular room scheduling software, the sooner we can release this exciting new update!
2 minute read time · Updated February 13, 2025 · First published May 22, 2012
As we’ve previously mentioned, in MIDAS v4 you’ll be able to do more directly from the booking grid. One such new improvement will allow you to…
Generate Invoices Directly from the Booking Grid!
Prior to v4, if you wanted MIDAS to generate an invoice for a booking, this had to be generated at time of booking. In v4, whilst that option still remains, you’ll also find a new icon when selecting a booking in the grid, which will allow you to instantly generate an invoice for that booking (provided one hasn’t been previously generated)
One-Click Invoice Generation
We’ve also further improved the invoicing capabilities for MIDAS v4, as it will allow you to…
Retrospectively Generate Invoices for Clients
Retrospective Invoice Generating
In v4, you can select a client, and a date range, and MIDAS will generate a single invoice incorporating all that client’s bookings over the selected date range! …and what’s more, MIDAS will ignore any bookings for which invoices have already been created, meaning that you’ll never invoice for the same booking twice! You can also select the “All Clients” option, and MIDAS will generate a separate invoice for each client with bookings across the date range you select.
This feature will be ideal if you have one person adding bookings, and another looking after the invoicing side, as it will allow them to, for example, generate an invoice for a client one month at a time in arrears!
We’ve also added a couple of new invoicing settings:
Invoice Settings
“Include zero value invoice items?“ – If selected, venues and resources for which there is no charge will still be included on invoices for completeness and/or if you need to denote that the client is getting something free of charge. If this option is not selected, items who’s total charge is zero will not appear on generated invoices.
“Create invoices even if invoice total is zero?“ – If unselected, MIDAS will only generate invoices where the invoice total is greater than zero. If selected, MIDAS will generate invoices regardless of invoice total.
2 minute read time · Updated February 13, 2025 · First published May 18, 2012
In summer 2012 we have a major update coming to our web based room scheduling software. Starting with version 4, MIDAS will use a MySQL database for storage. Earlier releases of MIDAS have used different database architectures (which we look at in more depth in this blog post) and as such MySQL has not previously been a System Requirement for a server running MIDAS.
If you wish to run MIDAS v4 on your own web server, MySQL 5.1 (or later) is required.
Why MySQL?
MySQL, the world’s most popular open-source database, can be freely obtained from www.mysql.com
In addition, two Perl modules not previously required for MIDAS will be required for v4. These modules, “DBI” and “DBD::mysql”, may already be present in your Perl installation, but if they’re not, they may be freely obtained from the following links:
DBI – Database independent interface for Perl (Get it here)
DBD::MySQL – A MySQL driver for the Perl5 Database Interface (Get it here)
If you’re unsure whether these Perl modules are already available on your server, our updated Server Readiness Tool will tell you!
If you’re currently running MIDAS v3 on your own server and are unable to use MySQL, you can carry on using version 3. However, v3 will continue to receive critical fixes only. Alternatively, you can have your MIDAS v4 “cloud hosted” by us instead.
If we already “Cloud Host” MIDAS for you, you don’t need to do anything to be ready for MIDAS v4! – Our servers are already prepared for MIDAS v4!
2 minute read time · Updated March 8, 2024 · First published May 15, 2012
If you’ve been following our recent blog posts, you’ll know we have an exciting update coming to MIDAS! You may also have noticed from early screenshots we’ve already posted from this update that the default visual “theme” has also gone through some changes…..
The previous “Default” theme: (MIDAS v3)
The new “Default” theme: (MIDAS v4)
The new “Metro” inspired default theme that will ship with MIDAS v4 will feature slightly larger icons than previous themes – the reasons behind this are two-fold;
1) Larger Screen Resolutions
Firstly, screen resolutions are generally getting larger – for many years the most common screen resolution was 1024 x 768 pixels. A recent study found that currently the most common screen resolution in use is 1366 x 768. As people choose screens with higher and higher resolutions, graphical items appear comparatively “smaller” on screen.
2) Touch Screens
Secondly, touch screen devices (such as tablets and iPads) are now common place, and with the eagerly anticipated release of Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system later this year (which is very much geared towards touch screen devices), we expect the number of touch-enabled devices to increase dramatically.
If you’re familiar with touch screen devices, you’ll know it can sometimes be frustrating trying to accurately “tap” a very small target area on screen.
Microsoft have conducted extensive research on fingers and touch screens. They discovered that the average width of a human finger is 11mm. As targets for tapping get larger, the percentage of accidental missed taps drops off quickly. Therefore, ideally, a tap target should be at least 11mm (about 40px) in size.
“Add Bookings” icon (MIDAS v3) 30 x 30 pixels
“Add Bookings” icon (MIDAS v4) 40 x 40 pixels
In the previous “default” theme for MIDAS, the main toolbar icons were 30 x 30 pixels in size. In the new “default” theme, toolbar icons are now 40 x 40 pixels in size.
Notifications have also been made more prominent on toolbar icons for MIDAS v4:
Buttons in MIDAS v3
Buttons in MIDAS v4
We’ve also increased the size of other buttons and some text elements – all in an effort to make MIDAS more accessible to tablet, iPad, and other touch screen users, and those using higher resolution screens!
We hope you’ll like the new look for MIDAS v4, but if you don’t, no problem! – There will be a version of the previous MIDAS v3 default theme available for v4 as well!
In summer 2012 we have a major update coming to our web based room scheduling software. Starting with version 4, MIDAS will use a 
