To add the session times that will be available for choosing when opening your App, go to Edit > Configurations and navigate to the Booking area.
There are two ways your booking can be done. Periodic or Session, and a combination of the two.
First let’s explore both.
Booking Mode: Periodic
On the Periodic Booking Mode one can select weekly time intervals that will be repeated every week. It is also possible to restrict some date ranges or allow only one particular set of dates to be displayed.
Weekly Configuration of Session Times
On Weekly time intervals, click the Add button. Then select a time on the On and Off options and the days of the week where that time applies.
On Weekly time intervals, click the Add button. Then select a time on the On and Off options and the days of the week where that time applies.
Due to the nature of bingo sessions, the OFF option must be set to exactly 1 minute after the ON option.
In the example below the session starts at 5PM (17:00), so we will be using ON 17:00 and OFF 17:01.
Mark only the days of the week that apply. These date/times will be shown on the booking date selector on the App, right on the start of the ordering process.
Each date/time combination must be an entry, and you can have as many entries as needed on the Weekly Time Intervals. So if you have extra sessions on different times, say a session on a Saturday at 8PM (20:00) you should repeat the steps.
Restricted Time Intervals
If the hall will not be playing a particular date, you can use Restricted Time Intervals to avoid a specific date – or range of dates – from being displayed in the session picker.
To do that, click Add on the Restricted Time Intevals area.
Each entry is a time range that will be blocked from being displayed on the session picker, as long as it was there in the first place.
In the example above the hall plays every day at 3PM (15:00). By adding a restriction between 5/4 10:55 and 5/4 16:55 (4:55PM) that particular Monday (5/4/2021) will not be displayed on the session picker.
Allowed Time Intervals
There’s a third option that can be used. You can restrict your session times to exactly the ones displayed on the Allowed Time Intervals section.
Due to the nature of bingo sessions, the OFF option must be set to exactly 1 minute after the ON option.
Each entry is a time range that will be exclusively displayed on the session picker, as long as its within the rules defined by previous configurations.
In the example above the hall will play only on 6/2 4 PM and 6/26 9 PM.
On this same panel you can configure when sales will start and stop, based on the intervals set. To do that follow the instructions on this article.
Booking Mode: Session
In the Session Booking Mode session date an times can be configured separately, including the opening time for sales and closing time for sales.
Click the add button to configure a new session.
Setup the session date and time on the first selector. This is date when the session will happen.
Give the session a name. On this mode you can name sessions, very useful to custom your bingo even more.
Sales opening time and sales closing time. Configure the exact dates and times when sales should start and when sales should stop.
Sort sessions. Use this checkbox to make sure sessions will be displayed sorted by date on the session selector screen on the live app.
Booking Mode: Both
It is also possible to combine both booking modes together, using the power of weekly repeated sessions with individually created dates for special events.
To do that, select the booking mode to BOTH and configure accordingly. The booking restrictions and dates will be applied using a top-to-bottom priority system, where the later configurations will take precedence over the earlier.
In the example below, the hall will be hosting sessions every Sunday at 10AM and every Tuesday at 6PM (18:00), except between 6/5 and 6/12 when it will be closed. Any session displayed under the Weekly Time Intervals will take in consideration the opening and closing times set by the Maximum booking time and Minimum booking time (view this article on how to configure these times).
Apart from the regular sessions there’s a special 4th of July session configured below. This session has specific opening and closing times that will differ from the regular booking times.
It is also possible to change menus and item pricing according to which session was selected.
To learn how to do that, please review this article.
How to Change the Message when There’s no Booking Available
When a user opens the App and selects a hall, the system will use the current local date/time and apply the Weekly Time Intervals, the Minimum Booking Time, Maximum Booking Time and the Restricted Time Intervals to calculate which session date/times should be available for that user.
If no session is available for purchase at the moment (hall is closed) a message will be displayed. That message can be configured on the Glossary section. Proceed to Edit > Glossary then search for Message when there is no booking option.
Change the message to whatever you like. Once finished, don’t forget to click save on the top bar to commit your changes. Changes will be instantly made available on your live App.