Mr stuck
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12/05/12 05:44 AM (13 years ago)

how easy or hard is it to make a booking screen?

I would like to make some kind of a booking screen. For example a taxi booking. Customer inputs pick up and destination etc > info sent to taxi company > taxi company accepts/rejects booking > Customer gets message confirming accept/reject with a reason for any reject ie. Fully booked or closed etc. Any help much appreciated.
 
MacApple
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12/05/12 06:13 AM (13 years ago)
Easily done with a form with text fields or drop downs buddy. Once submit is hit it emails the content to taxi firm. There are other ways but that would be simplest way. You'll want to validate all the info submitted though since it is kind if mission critical.
 
LA
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12/05/12 07:04 AM (13 years ago)
@Mr stuck, You would probably need connection to some sort of database also. LA
 
Mr stuck
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12/05/12 07:26 AM (13 years ago)
Thanks @MacApple. I agree that would work and was pondering the idea of doing it that way but it seems it would only work well for large companies who can accept every booking. The booking would have a pickup option of "now" or "later". If a small company who have only 2 or 3 cars received 10 booking to be picked up now then they simply could not cope. It would require to gave some kind of mechanism for the booking to be accepted by the company to prevent overbooking or to reject any unwanted bookings. Any other suggestion as to how this could be achieved?
 
Mr stuck
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12/05/12 07:48 AM (13 years ago)
@LA i agree also that a database if some type may be required. I dont know much about database setup. Just getting something in place to send and receive bookings with accept or reject built in would be great. There must be some way.
 
MacApple
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12/05/12 08:01 AM (13 years ago)
You don't necessarily need a DB unless you want to store the details. If you are just emailing the form and then taxi firm is emailing or texting back to confirm there is no need to store data. Make sure form gets validated for true email and phone number and you should be good. More than one way to skin a cat though. Although you really shouldn't skin cats or I'll come after you!
 
Mr stuck
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12/05/12 10:37 AM (13 years ago)
Thanks. Is there any more complex way so the confirmation is instant in the app. Like the app sends an instant message to the company who see the requested booking then instantly accept or reject? And user gets instant popup advising?
 
MacApple
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12/05/12 10:42 AM (13 years ago)
You can open native SMS app and per populate with some info.... Thinking...
 
Mr stuck
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12/05/12 01:00 PM (13 years ago)
Thanks @MacApple. I can Hear you thinking from here lol. There are taxi apps in the market that use real time gps on the vehicle (I don't want that) but what is interesting is that the user fills out details on the form and submits and that then pops up on the taxi drivers screen. The driver accepts and the customer is advised instantly that it has been accepted. Recreating that kind if function in a form would be great
 
GoNorthWest
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12/05/12 10:22 PM (13 years ago)
I think this would be relatively easy, and many good suggestions are above. This is how I would do it: * User brings up a form with their current location already attached, and which includes their phone number for call/SMS confirmation. Here's a tutorial that shows how to get the lat/long and write to database: https://www.buzztouch.com/forum/thread.php?tid=6A0E0F30B5413FF704B3A04 * Form information is submitted to database, and dispatcher seem updated requests on a web page or app map. * Dispatcher taps on pin location for person he wants to accept request for. That causes a call/SMS to be sent to the user letting them know that taxi is enroute. * Database entry changes from requested to in progress (or something similar). That's a super rough outline. I think you'd want to use a database to keep track of requests made...that's veritable gold for data mining (in the future you could have multiple cars stationed at particular areas at particular times). Lots of ways you could do this! Mark
 
Mr stuck
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12/06/12 03:32 AM (13 years ago)
Wow Mark. That sounds awesome. It also sounds relatively hard to me as i don't have any experience with databases. I would like to give it a try though if it would be ok to call on your assistance with it. I guess the first thing to do would be to get a database setup. Any recommendations on how to do this easily? And can the webpage simply be a dropbox hosted page connected to map and some kind if sms sending program. Thanks for your input it sounds great
 

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