New 1.5 alpha 1 release available

A new 1.5 alpha 1 release is now available for download and testing!

Attention: this is a pre-release version and is currently under active development. Please do not install, run or test this version on production environments, but only evaluate this new version on test and development servers.

Contribute to the testing rounds

Testing is a crucial aspect of software development, offering a meaningful opportunity for everyone to contribute, regardless of experience level.

You can install this package just like the original Easy!Appointments version and click through the existing and new functionality, making sure that the app works as expected.

Should you encounter any issues, please share them in the Github Issues page, in the Support Group, on the Discord Server or directly to info@easyappointments.org.

What’s new in Easy!Appointments 1.5

This version major release will enhance and refine your control over the process of accepting and managing your online bookings, offering a plethora of new and exciting features.

CalDAV Sync

CalDAV (Calendar Distributed Authoring and Versioning) is an open standard protocol that enables synchronization of calendar data between different devices and servers. It allows users to access and manage their calendars across various platforms, such as computers, smartphones, and tablets, while ensuring consistency and integrity of the calendar information.

LDAP Integration

LDAP SSO support allows users to access multiple applications and services using a single set of login credentials stored in a central LDAP directory. By integrating LDAP SSO, organizations can streamline user authentication processes, reducing the need for users to remember multiple passwords and enhancing security through centralized user management. This feature simplifies access control and enhances user experience by providing seamless authentication across various systems and applications.

Themes

App theme support enables applications to adapt their appearance based on the user’s system-wide theme settings, providing a consistent and cohesive user experience across different devices and platforms. By leveraging app theme support, developers can design their applications to seamlessly integrate with light and dark themes, ensuring readability, accessibility, and visual consistency for users. This feature enhances user satisfaction and usability by allowing applications to dynamically adjust their interface elements, such as colors, typography, and layout, to match the user’s preferred theme.

Webhooks

Webhook support enables applications to receive real-time notifications or data updates from external services or systems. Developers can configure webhooks to trigger specific actions or workflows within their application when certain events occur, such as a new user registration or a change in data. This allows for seamless integration between different software systems and enables automated responses to events, enhancing the efficiency and functionality of the application.

UI Changes

Easy!Appointments has received many user interface changes, aiming to provide a more user-friendly scheduling experience. There are new actions, updated styling and minor fine tuning that significantly increases the efficiency while working with your events.

Compatibility

Many of the 3rd party components were updated to their latest available release and as such also the PHP compatibility was raised to PHP 8.1 as the minimum requirement for this version.

Those are just some of the most important changes but there are so much more. Make sure you check the change log session below for more information on what to expect of this new release.

Changelog

Added

• Display month with the earliest available day (#1075)
• Allow admins to define the business closed dates (blocked-periods) (#432)
• Allow working plan exceptions to be defined as non-working days (#1383)
• Create an official docker image of the project and host it on Docker Hub(#1116)
• Automatically select the next available date in the booking page or display a message if this month is unavailable (#1204)
• Add Open Graph information to the public booking page so that it renders nicely once shared on social media apps (#1382)
• Preselect the date with a query parameter (#1376)
• Add the location and notes fields to the appointment email notifications (if a value was provided) (#1341)
• Add date, from and till query parameters to the filter the appointments index results by date (#1134)
• Allow the users to define their own status and assign them to appointments (#244)
• Add new setting for limiting new public bookings in the future (#1203)
• Automatically enable the secure cookie config if the current installation uses HTTPS (#1126)
• Add language and timezone properties to the customer API resource (#1157)
• Add support for the definition of custom webhooks via the settings page (#581)
• Allow the user to select their own preferred language (#1263)
• Support multiple Bootswatch themes for the app (#1205)
• Providers and secretaries must only be able to see and manage their own customers (#1199)
• Use the default service duration if the user just clicks on a calendar slot for creating a new appointment (#1237)
• Google Calendar synchronisation failure when symbols/emoji appear in events to be imported (#1182)
• Add the customer timezone field in the appointment modal of the calendar page (#1094)
• Add a new setting that toggles the login link of the booking page (#1148)
• Add custom Matomo analytics integration (#974)
• Prefill the form field though url parameters (#1021)
• Color code events by provider or service (#422)
• Service duration values shorter than 5 minutes should be acceptable via the services page (#1110)
• Add a new “is_private” flag to services and providers so that they do not appear in the booking page (#378)
• Skip the first booking step when only one service and one provider are available (#349)
• Enable the change of the brand logo and colors from the backend (#789)
• Add the ability to temporarily block new appointments / set away message (#940)
• Add optional (configurable with setting) phone number validation (#820)
• Add an option to deactivate the remove-all-data function for customers (#808)
• Skip the first booking step if both provider and service are preselected (#1117)
• Make delete appointment via API to send emails just like the calendar page does (#1101)
• Create new layout structure for the markup, so that common HTML markup is being reused (#1152)
• Have an option to hide customer data fields during booking (#1081)
• Add a SECURITY.md file to the repository (#1122)
• Add support for custom fields on customers (#1133)
• Add from email/name and reply-to settings in the email.php configuration file (#1465)
• Create a new setting that will define the default timezone of the application (#1390)
• Integrate CalDAV Protocol for appointment syncing (#209)
• Add LDAP / Active Directory integration (#128)

Changed

• Do not allow a customer to book the same hours multiple times (#1420)
• All the user roles with access to the backend calendar page can filter by services (#956)
• Update Bootstrap to version 5 (#1150)
• Update FullCalendar to version 5 (#1151)
• The availability generation algorithm needs performance improvements when many appointments are stored in the system (#1171)
• Support for relative paths when loading resources or working with the session (#1158)
• Support line breaks when displaying the service description (#1149)
• Remove the CodeIgniter fork from the composer.json file and re-import the system directory (#1109)

Fixed

• Sync all the providers without errors, when the user clicks on the “sync” button and “all” is selected in the calendar page (#1365)
• Non-working time not showing correctly in the week view of calendar (#1381)
• Make sure the booking cancellation is a post request and has a reason value provided (#1178)

Removed

• Remove the engine directory and files form the app (they’re deprecated) (#971)
• Remove the PHPMailer dependency from the app and use the built-in CodeIgniter mailer (#970)

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