Session Scheduler - Find Next Available Slot
Available from v3.22
Table of Contents
Using Find Next Available Slot
Available from v3.22, a new option to Find Next Available Slot is available in the Session Scheduler. This can be enabled in the Session Scheduler's page settings, by changing Show Find Next Slot Menu to true.
Once enabled, you can access the Find Next Available Slot menu from the Session dropdown:
On the first screen, you will be given the option to select a booking. This booking will pass its information into the next screen for filtering available timeslots, and allow you to update it to a chosen timeslot.
You can also choose to enter a date/time manually. This will still allow you to view available time slots, but there will be no booking to update.
The main screen provides the following filter options for finding available timeslots:
-
Facility - The facility to search for availabilities. This defaults to the booking's currently assigned facility (if any).
- Availability Required - If true, only slots where the facility is 100% available will be shown for selection. More details below.
-
Faculty - The faculty member to search for availabilities. This defaults to the booking's currently assigned faculty (if any).
- Availability Required - If true, only slots where the faculty member is 100% available will be shown for selection. More details below.
- From Date - Date to start searching for availabilities. This defaults to the booking's current date.
- To Date - Date to finish searching for availabilities. This defaults to the booking's current date.
- From Time - Time to start searching for available time slots each day. This defaults to the Session Scheduler's starting time.
- To Time - Time to finish searching for available time slots each day. This defaults to the Session Scheduler's finishing time.
- Time Slot Interval (Minutes) - Length of timeslots to evaluate. This defaults to the booking's current length.
- Student Availability Min. Threshold 0-100% - If students are currently enrolled in this Session, this will ensure only timeslots where the selected percentage of students are available will be shown for selection. More details below.
After populating the filters, clicking Find Available Slots will search for any available timeslots. A list of timeslots will appear in a table at the bottom of the screen.
Selecting a row and clicking Apply will update the booking to the new timeslot, and update the facility or faculty member if needed.
Availability Logic
Here is the detailed logic for checking availabilities:
Facility
- Session Bookings and Appointments - Any session bookings or appointments for this facility will cause it to be unavailable for the timeslot.
- Facility Availabilities - If Show Resource Availability is true, any Facility Availability records will cause it to be unavailable for the timeslot.
Faculty
- Session Bookings - Any session bookings with this faculty allocated (via Attendance) will cause them to be unavailable for the timeslot.
- Appointments - Any appointments with the faculty (via Contact Attendance) will cause them to be unavailable for the timeslot.
- Leave Requests - Any approved Leave Requests for the faculty will cause them to be unavailable for the timeslot.
- Availability Times - If Show Resource Availability is true, Availability Time records must be created. If there are no valid Availability Time records for the timeslot, the faculty will be unavailable.
Student Availability
- Session Bookings - Any session bookings where the student is currently enrolled (via Session Connection) will cause them to be unavailable for the timeslot.
- Appointments - Any appointments with the student (via Contact Attendance) will cause them to be unavailable for the timeslot.
Important note regarding timezones
If dealing with multiple campuses with different timezones, it's important to understand how the timeslots and availability logic interact with timezone conversion.
By default, all slots are generated based on your current user's timezone. Any records with DateTime fields (like Bookings) have timezone conversion handled automatically by Salesforce. Other records that use weekday names, Date, and stand-alone Time fields will also be generated from your timezone.
- E.g. if a faculty has an Availability Time for Wednesdays 1pm-5pm, it will assume they are available for any timeslot you generate on Wednesday from 1pm-5pm. But if the faculty is based at a campus with a different timezone to your user, these times might not match the expected behaviour.
In this case, you can use the Session Scheduler's Display Bookings in Campus Timezone setting. By enabling this feature and pre-filtering to the selected campus, now all timeslots will be generated in the campus timezone, and other records with weekday names, Dates and stand-alone Time fields will now also be generated from the campus timezone.