On Line booking & payment

[Ricesnaps]

I would like to look at some automatic date checking and booking for a couple of our websites - so this needs to be universal, not just disco related.

I am NOT a web design expert - the best you can expect from me is to paste HTML code into a page!

Would like something that allows clients to check I am free, select a pre-priced package and then if they choose, pay an on line booking fee via paypal / Nochex or similar.

At the very least, something that fires an email to me saying "we'd like to book".

On the same lines, is there any way of that email also generating a text message to tell me that I have an email?

Not asking too much I hope?

[Marc J]

If you want to do it all yourself, and don't want to get too technical, I'd suggest: -

Google Calendar (http://www.google.com/calendar) for an easy to setup and integrate date-checker.

Paypal Buttons (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/xcl/rec/singleitem-intro-outside) is probably the easiest way to integrate payments for pre-set packages into your site.

For a "we'd like to book" email, use any of the vast array of contact form scripts available. Just google for "formmail", "contact script", that kind of thing...personally I've used BNBForm (http://bignosebird.com/carchive/bnbform.shtml) for lots of sites, which is a CGI script, with good documentation.

Finally, you'll need to use an SMS gateway to send yourself texts when emails arrive. I've used Clickatell (http://www.clickatell.com/) in the past. For ease of use, you might want to incorporate it into a PHP script which initiates another action, rather than tie it in to the email process. For example, use a PHP contact script and, as well as emailing you, it also sends the text. The text and email are not related, just initiated by the same action (the form submission)....


EDIT: Just realised this probably isn't as simple as you were hoping for....but I think it's as good as you can hope for if you want to keep things simple!

[Tonsk]

Have you looked at DJIntelligence (http://www.djintelligence.com/) as it sounds like does everything you want... I know some of the sites may not be disco related, but you can change/taylor them to fit...

Plus you can copy and paste the html from their code generator..

[DMX Will]

The easiest way I can see you doing it is with a simple bit of PHP and PayPal Web Buttons.

Page 1 - Client vists page from link on your site, selects the date from a drop down list, hits submit.

Page 2 - Page checks a database for entries with that date (if none found) says "great we're free" or "sorry, we're booked" (if it finds one). You can then have a "click here to choose your package" link.

Page 3 - Client selects package

Page 4 - Enters their details (Name, Address, Event Title, Venue Info etc etc etc)

Page 5 - Pay deposit (button to PayPal - different button depending on deposit amount set for each package)

- PAYPAL BIT HERE -

Page 6 - "Thanks, you've booked. You will shortly recieve info through the post/phone"

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Then the behind the scenes bit.

Page 1 - Login

(Next pages come off links from the main login)
Page 2 - View Bookings

Page 3 - Mark date as "Booked" / Add Booking.

You can then get clever and add extra bits, like print invoices/contracts automatically with the clients information. The system described above is that of a less-complex system I am building at the moment. My site currently has a client area ontop of all of that, however something simple like that could be built (PHP knowledge required) in a couple of solid days work.