This user guide explains how to administrate and configure AVAILACAL calendars. Further discussion on topics such as display options and troubleshooting can be found in the Support Area of the AVAILACAL web site.

Calendar Basics
This screen shot of a rental calendar from way back in November 2006 shows how a typical AVAILACAL calendar looks to somebody wanting to check the availability of a vacation home. Available dates are shown in green, unavailable dates are shown in red or orange.

Notice the small, pale rectangle in the lower left hand corner of the screen shot above. This is a password box which provides an authorized administrator with access to the administration controls for that calendar. The administrator password is typed in the box before hitting the Return (or Enter) key on the keyboard. A calendar account holder can assign different administrators to different calendars by providing calendar-specific passwords.

Calendar Administration


When the administrator is logged-in, a control panel like the one above appears above the calendar. To edit dates on the calendar; set a start date and an end date then select, from the drop-down 'Action' list, an action to apply to the chosen dates. Click OK and the changes will immediately appear on the live calendar.

Selected dates can be set as follows...

• Unavailable - Selected dates will be blocked-in in red.
• PM/Tails/AM - Similar to selecting Unavailable but the first day and the last day of the selection are given tails, i.e. morning of the first day and the evening of the last day are not blocked-in unless they are already marked as unavailable. (On the example calendar above, the block January 4-8 and the blocks in February and March all have PM/AM tails.)
• Available - This will return dates back to green e.g. for a cancelled booking or to correct an error.
• PM Unavailable - Used to block-in an afternoon or evening. The morning remains available.
• AM Unavailable - Used to block-in a morning. The afternoon or evening remains available.
• Set Orange - Orange dates can have any significance desired. In our example, orange dates signify 'Maintenance Days'.

To make a change to just one single day, set the start date, then make sure that the end date is set to either the same date or an earlier date. If the end date is earlier than the start date only the start date will be used. When this happens a red warning message is shown to let you know that the end date was ignored.

Please note that the Show x Months links have no effect on how the calendar is displayed to other internet users. The default number of months shown to other internet users can be adjusted from 1 to 24 by altering the calendar link URL. This is explained in the Support Area on the AVAILACAL web site.


Calendar Management
The Calendar Management functions provide greater control over all of the calendars in an account, including the ability to create and delete calendars. The account's master password is required to access these functions. Calendar-specific passwords (see below) do not allow access to the Calendar Management functions.

To access the Calendar Management Control Panel, log-in to availacal.com/login with your account name and master password, or, if you are already logged-in, click the 'Manage Calendars' link on the Calendar Administration panel. The Calendar Management screen lists all the active calendars in your account and tells you many calendars you have available.


To create a new calendar, click Add or Remove Calendar. A box will appear near the top of the page. Simply enter a name for the new calendar in the box as shown below then click Do It. You can then immediately start adding dates to the new calendar or return to the Calendar Management panel to set Advanced Options (see below) or add more calendars etc.


If you need to remove a calendar, the process is the same as adding a calendar except that you must enter the text DELETEyesDELETE before the exact name of the calendar you want to delete. (e.g. DELETEyesDELETERiverview Cottage). Removing a calendar is an irreversible process. You cannot get the calendar data back once you have deleted it.


The buttons let you to see and edit the calendar.

The buttons open the Advanced Options screen for the calendar (see below).

The dark blue text beginning http... is a URL link to the calendar. Use this link in your web page, emails or other announcements to take people straight to the calendar. It may be useful to copy and paste the link. If you are using Windows you can copy the link by highlighting the blue text and pressing Control+C on your keyboard. Use Control+V to paste it somewhere else. (On a Mac it's Command+C and Command+V.)


The Advanced Options Screen
The Advanced Options screen provides functions to change the time zone for each calendar. Any text to appear against the orange label shown in the key chart below the calendar, can be entered here, or the orange label can be removed if preferred.

You can also setup, or change, a calendar-specific password for that calendar. With this password you can give somebody direct access to the control panel for editing availability dates on that calendar. Entering a password here is essential if you will be editing the calendar from a WAP device. Note: A calendar can have only one calendar-specific password at a time. Calendar specific passwords do not permit access to either the Calendar Management or Advanced Options screens.

Further instructions are provided on the Advanced Options screen itself, as shown here...

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A NOTE ABOUT MOBILE ACCESS
The remainder of this user guide is devoted to the WAP functionality of AVAILACAL calendars. Because AVAILACAL calendars are designed for maximum bandwidth efficiency along with maximum browser and operating system compatibility, many portable devices now support full access to AVAILACAL calendars without the need to use the WAP capabilities we provide. Consequently the WAP Functionality section below may only be of interest if your portable device is not able to provide internet connectivity without using WAP.

If you need more information about working with AVAILACAL Calendars please visit the Support Area by clicking here.

We are interested to receive feedback from users of different portable devices. Please let us know how well or badly our calendar system works your mobile device either with or without using WAP.

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WAP FUNCTIONALITY
WAP stands for Wireless Application Protocol. Internet access using WAP is possible on many portable devices such as mobile phones, palmtops and PDAs. WAP is designed to be super-efficient to maximize data transmission speeds across low bandwidth mobile networks. The AVAILACAL WAP system shares the very same calendars as the standard AVAILACAL system, either can be used to view or edit those same calendars. A valuable use of the WAP system is the ability to check an availability situation and instantly update a calendar from your mobile phone. It is a great way to make sure your calendars are bang up to date at all times, wherever you may be. There are limitations to the WAP system:

• Due to small screen sizes and low bandwidth of WAP devices only one month is displayed at a time.
• Editing a calendar via WAP is only possible after a calendar-specific password has been set.
• Calendar management (creating new calendars, setting passwords etc.) can not be done via WAP.
• WAP calendars are text-based for compatibility with the widest variety of WAP devices.

Viewing a Calendar via WAP
To view or edit a calendar via WAP: Using a WAP device go to http://availacal.com/wap and enter the calendar ID as shown below (figure A) The calendar ID in the example shown is Example. Choose the calendar month that you want to view (B), and it will be displayed (C). Links below the calendar let you to scroll forward to the next month or back to previous month. Available dates are indicated by the presence of the month day number. Non-available dates are indicated by an X. Dates when either the morning or evening only is available are indicated by the symbols ] and [ respectively, along with the day number. A key is shown by scrolling down below the calendar (as in figure 1 in the next section of this guide).



Editing a Calendar via WAP
If a calendar-specific password has been set for a calendar, it is possible to edit the calendar via WAP. To do this; first display the calendar as shown in figures A, B and C above, then scroll down past the key. Two links are provided. The lower link, labelled "Home (Start)" will return you to screen A (above), perhaps to view a different calendar. Choosing the "Calendar Admin" link displays a box in which to enter the password for editing the calendar (2). When successfully logged in, a series of screens prompts you for the booking start day, month and year (3,4,5). This is then followed by the same sequence to set the end date.

After entering the end date of the reservation a drop-down list of possible actions appears (6), This works in the same way as the standard Calendar Administration panel (see above). On clicking CONFIRM the calendar data is updated with the new data.



Please note: WAP devices vary. Actual calendar and interface display screens on specific devices may differ significantly in appearance from the images shown on this page.