Say Hello to the New Services UI

This week we’re very excited to be releasing a new and significant update for EDD Bookings, version 0.2. In this update we are introducing the new Services UI. What’s so new about it?

EDD Bookings previously relied on EDD’s “Downloads” post type to create and manage services, but we listened to your feedback and improved upon this. In fact, we went in the completely opposite direction and stopped depending on Downloads within the UI.

Introducing the new Services page

This new page is located under the “Bookings” menu item. It lists all services which can in turn be created, updated and deleted from this page. On the back-end, the services still use EDD’s “Downloads” post type in order to keep benefitting from the handling of customers, payments and so on.

If you’re wondering what’s so special about this update, here’s a quick overview.

1. Services are now more easily distinguishable from EDD’s Downloads.
2. All services still benefit from EDD’s e-commerce features, so data storage and management of payments, clients, and so on remains as easy as it was before.
3. You can activate or deactivate services (set to Draft or Published) at any time with a single toggle switch.
4. You can have a better overview of each service’s setup from the Services page.
5. The search function for the Services list is now quicker and more clear.

Along with these benefits, we have also introduced other changes and additions that are surely to enhance your service providing experience.

1. Every service can now be assigned a color. This color can be used in the admin bookings calendar view to distinguish between services.
2. Creating availability rules (the dates and times your service is available for booking) is now more clear thanks to a new UI. It now lists various rules which can be immediately previewed in a calendar for easy understanding.

Support built right into the plugin

We always strive to support you in the best way possible, so we’re always looking for ways to make your life easier. What’s easier than having our entire documentation and a way to contact us from within your own site?

That’s right, you can now find a support beacon within our plugin’s pages (only) on your site. From within this beacon you can not only search our entire knowledge base of articles and keep up-to-date with new tutorials and updates, but you can also contact us directly!

The next few months

All of the above changes are paving way for a few big features that are being worked on as of right now. These new features are the introduction of Staff and Locations and Google Calendar integration. 

These will be followed, in no particular order, by group bookings and the ability to book for multiple people, variable pricing options based on appointment durations, staff and locations assigned, and more, as well as other features such as padding time before and after appointments, the ability to disallow bookings before or after a period of time, and a few more.

If you have any feedback on any of these features, especially staff and locations, or there is something we haven’t mentioned yet, we’re eager to work closely with you. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or contact us directly