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1 Contents 1. Avalon Diary - Web Publishing Module The Installation Process Running for the first time Notes for Web Administrator Charges... 9 Document produced By: Roger Burfitt and Julian Horsey Avalon Software (UK) Ltd 48a High Street Glastonbury BA6 9DX Telephone Web Site [email protected] E&OE This document is for information purposes only and does not constitute a formal offer or quotation Page 1

2 1. Avalon Diary - Web Publishing Module Avalon Software (UK) Ltd The purpose of this module is to provide the means to publish your bookings diary on the Internet so that either authorised viewers only, or prospective hirers, can view your resource availability. The Basic Principles of the Module Avalon Bookings Manager generates the files containing your bookings diary. This can be set to run as an automated process each night, or you can generate new files by manual intervention, at any time required. The generated files can be then be uploaded through a secure internet server to publish your Bookings Manager diary on the Web. NOTE: This should be done via your own web hosting supplier, possibly in conjunction with your web site developer. Alternatively our Internet Business Partner Vision ICT Ltd. server cluster. For further details including hosting costs, options please p contact the Avalon Software help desk on The published diary will be updated automatically each day to the specified internet Server at a time specified by the User. N.B This does require the computer that is running this program to have internet access at the specified time. If you have a web site, a link can be made from this back to the hosting Internet Server to enable the diary to be viewed. You may need to ask your web site designer to set up the link for you. If you have full content management control over your web site then you may be able to create the link yourself. Those viewing the diary will not be able to amend any details or make bookings directly into the diary. We suggest that you provide an link, such that if a prospective hirer has checked and found availability on the date/dates they require they can easily contact you to make a booking request. If the diary is to be published for viewing by the general public then it will not be appropriate to publish details of each booking, but to simply show booked and available dates/times. You can choose whether to publish bookings detail, or just availability. Page 2

3 This is an example of the web hosted diary screen, showing full bookings detail and therefore not appropriate for general public access. Page 3

4 The example below shows the diary where the option to not show bookings detail has been selected. The diary will just show booked dates and times in red and available dates/times in green and is therefore suitable for public viewing. Page 4

5 2. The Installation Process In the following pages we described the installation process. As will be seen this is quite simple and does not require any specialist technical knowledge. However, in our experience the Users Firewall on your computer may cause the one area of potential difficulty. We have found that some Firewalls will block the diary export to the web publishing service. If you encounter problems in this area you will need to contact your technical support team will provide guidance as to how to best achieve a solution. ABM Web Publishing Installation and Set up To run this you must have a broadband connection to the Internet. You need to make sure you are running the latest version of Avalon Bookings Manager. This can be downloaded from the Users Page the Avalon Software web site, You will need a password to access this area of the web site. If you have subscribed to the Avalon Bookings Manager support service, this password will have been provided to you. If you are not subscribing to the support service please contact [email protected] to re-instate your subscription. If you cannot remember the users page password send an to the above address and this will be provided. You can also download the web publishing software from the User page of the Avalon Website. This needs to be downloaded and saved somewhere on the host machine. Once the package has completed downloading you can double click on it and follow the instructions on the screen to finish the installation. This needs to be installed in the same directory as Avalon Bookings Manager; this is normally C:\Users/Public\Avalon Bookings Manager. If you have a PC network you may need to contact your IT Services provider to verify where the program is installed. Page 5

6 3. Running for the first time Once the Web Publishing Program is installed, you will have to set up certain parameters. To do this click on the Start button (bottom left of your screen) and select All Programs. Then select Avalon Bookings Manager then ABM Web Publishing this will show the screen below: - See the next page for a description of each field and the entries required. Page 6

7 Output Folder: This is where the diary pages will be placed. You can leave this to the default settings or change it to a folder that is more convenient for you. Diary Length: Extracting the data for Web publishing can take a little while. Normally this will not matter because the extract happens in the background and will not interfere with your normal working. Diary Start Date: Choose Today unless you want to to see previous bookings. Diary View: If you are running a Hall/Community centre choose Diary Detail to start with; once you are happy with the internet connection you can change this to Day detail. (This is selected from the drop-down on the upper right of your diary screen) For all other business types, choose Diary View. Start Publish at: The extract automatically runs once a day, this defines when you want the extract to start. Choose a time when you know the PC will be switched on. While the extract is running you may notice that the PC is running slightly slower than normal, so, if possible, choose a time when you are not quite so busy Diary Password: If you are a Hall/Community Centre you may want to restrict access to the diary and prevent the general public viewing the diary, in which case enter a password. If you are quite happy letting the general public view the diary then leave the password blank. Contact Name, Telephone number and E address: These will be shown on the published web page so that you can be contacted. Page Selection: If you have multiple pages setup then you can choose which ones to output. If you want all pages to be output, tick the All Pages entry. Do you want to show who has booked the resource on the web: If you tick this box then the diary will show who has the booking. If you think this information is sensitive leave this box blank and the bookings will be anonymous. Run publishing extract now: If you click this button, the extract will start as soon as you click on the OK button. Subsequently, if you want to change any of these parameters, click on the globe icon that will be in icons tray the bottom right of your computer desktop. Page 7

8 4. Notes for Web Administrator Avalon Software (UK) Ltd The web publishing facility will generate the following file(s) in the output directory: - Index.html If more than a week s data has been requested it will also generate: html, 002.html, 003.html,... If the data is password protected it will also generate: - Access.js Validate.js These files need to be sent to the web site on a daily basis. The mechanism to achieve this will be dependant upon the Web Host. For further details please contact the Avalon Software help desk on Depending on user selections, a number of files can be generated. The user will not want to send each file separately. Although a number of files can be generated, the data volumes are very small (kilobytes rather than megabytes). In order to avoid file name clashes with other pages on the site, we recommend that these files are put in their own sub directory. The customer will probably want a hyperlink from the web site to the diary. The hyperlink should point to Index.html. Page 8

9 5. Charges Licence Fee There is a one-off Licence Fee of plus VAT for the Web Hosted Diary Module Set Up Service If you need any help to install and set up the Web Hosted Diary Module on your PC we may be able to do this via remote PC access software. Please contact the Avalon Software help line for a quotation and to discuss the level of help needed. Page 9