Booking Engine — How-To Guide

Prerequisites: SMF Works Pro subscription active. Setup complete (see SETUP.md).

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Table of Contents

1. How to Set Up a Booking Page
2. How to Configure Your Availability
3. How to Serve Your Booking Page
4. How to View and Manage Appointments
5. How to Cancel an Appointment
6. Automating with Cron
7. Combining with Other Skills
8. Troubleshooting Common Issues
9. Tips & Best Practices

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1. How to Set Up a Booking Page

What this does: Creates a booking page with a name, service description, and duration.

Steps

Step 1 — Navigate to the skill.

cd ~/smfworks-skills/skills/booking-engine

Step 2 — Create a booking page.

python3 main.py create

Interactive prompts:

Booking page name: 30-Minute Consultation
Service description: A focused 30-minute call to discuss your project
Appointment duration (minutes) [30]: 30
Timezone [UTC]: America/New_York
Daily booking limit [10]: 5

✅ Booking page created: BOOK-A1B2C3
   Name: 30-Minute Consultation
   URL: http://localhost:8080/BOOK-A1B2C3

Step 3 — Note your BOOK-ID.

You'll use this ID for all subsequent commands. Run python3 main.py list at any time to see your IDs.

Result: Booking page created. Next step: set availability.

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2. How to Configure Your Availability

What this does: Sets which days and times you're available for bookings.

Steps

Step 1 — Add availability for each day you're available.

python3 main.py availability BOOK-A1B2C3 --add monday:09:00-17:00
python3 main.py availability BOOK-A1B2C3 --add tuesday:09:00-17:00
python3 main.py availability BOOK-A1B2C3 --add wednesday:13:00-17:00
python3 main.py availability BOOK-A1B2C3 --add thursday:09:00-12:00

Each command outputs:

✅ Availability added: monday 09:00–17:00

Step 2 — Verify your availability.

python3 main.py availability BOOK-A1B2C3

Output:

📅 Availability: 30-Minute Consultation

Monday:     09:00 – 17:00
Tuesday:    09:00 – 17:00
Wednesday:  13:00 – 17:00
Thursday:   09:00 – 12:00

Result: Clients will see these days and times as available on the booking form.

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3. How to Serve Your Booking Page

What this does: Starts a local HTTP server that shows the booking form and accepts bookings.

Steps

Step 1 — Start the server.

python3 main.py serve BOOK-A1B2C3 --port 8080

Output:

🌐 Booking Server Started
   Page: 30-Minute Consultation (BOOK-A1B2C3)
   URL: http://localhost:8080/BOOK-A1B2C3
   Press Ctrl+C to stop

Step 2 — Open the booking page.

Go to http://localhost:8080/BOOK-A1B2C3 in your browser.

The page shows:

• Your service name and description
• A calendar with available time slots
• Name and email fields

Step 3 — Share the URL with clients.

For clients on your LAN, share your machine's local IP:

# Find your local IP:
ip addr | grep "inet 192"
# Share: http://192.168.1.100:8080/BOOK-A1B2C3

For local demos, share your screen and let clients select a time slot while on a call.

Step 4 — Monitor incoming bookings.

The terminal shows each request:

[10:15:22] GET /BOOK-A1B2C3 200 — booking page served
[10:15:45] POST /BOOK-A1B2C3/book 200 — booked: 2024-03-18 10:00 — Alice Smith

Step 5 — Stop the server when done.

Press Ctrl+C.

Result: Your booking page is live and accepting appointments.

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4. How to View and Manage Appointments

When to use it: Before starting your day or week to see who you have calls with.

python3 main.py appointments BOOK-A1B2C3

Output:

📅 Appointments: 30-Minute Consultation

Upcoming:
1. APPT-20240318-A1B — 2024-03-18 10:00 — Alice Smith — alice@example.com
2. APPT-20240319-B2C — 2024-03-19 14:00 — Bob Jones — bob@techco.io
3. APPT-20240321-C3D — 2024-03-21 09:30 — Carol White — carol@startup.io

Past:
4. APPT-20240315-D4E — 2024-03-15 11:00 — Dan Morrow — dan@co.io — Completed

Use the client email to reach out with a confirmation or calendar invite.

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5. How to Cancel an Appointment

When to use it: A client needs to reschedule, or you need to clear a slot.

python3 main.py cancel APPT-20240318-A1B

Output:

✅ Appointment cancelled: APPT-20240318-A1B
   Note: Consider notifying the client manually.

After cancelling, notify the client using the email address from appointments.

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6. Automating with Cron

Example: Daily morning appointment reminder

0 8 * * * python3 /home/yourname/smfworks-skills/skills/booking-engine/main.py appointments BOOK-A1B2C3 >> /home/yourname/logs/appointments.log 2>&1

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7. Combining with Other Skills

Booking Engine + Task Manager: After each appointment, create a follow-up task:

python3 ~/smfworks-skills/skills/task-manager/main.py task add "Follow up with Alice Smith" --project client-work --priority high --due 2024-03-20

Booking Engine + Coffee Briefing: See your calendar events in your morning briefing (Coffee Briefing reads Google Calendar, Booking Engine manages its own storage — for manual cross-referencing).

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8. Troubleshooting Common Issues

No time slots showing on the booking form

Fix: Add availability for at least one day: python3 main.py availability BOOK-ID --add monday:09:00-17:00

Address already in use: port 8080

Fix: Use a different port: --port 9090. Or kill the occupying process: lsof -ti :8080 | xargs kill

Client gets "slot unavailable" error

Fix: The slot was already booked or the daily limit was reached. Check appointments and daily limit settings.

Booking doesn't appear in appointments list

Fix: Ensure the server was running when the client booked. Submissions are only saved while the server is active.

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9. Tips & Best Practices

Set a realistic daily limit. If your limit is 10 appointments per day but you only have 4 hours of availability with 30-minute slots, the effective limit is 8. Set the limit slightly higher than your actual slot count.

Keep the server running only during booking windows. Don't leave the server running indefinitely — stop it when you're not accepting new bookings to prevent unexpected appointments.

Always contact clients to confirm. The system doesn't send confirmation emails. After each booking, reach out to the client using their email address to confirm and send calendar details.

Use separate booking pages for different service types. Create one for "30-min intro call" and another for "60-min strategy session" — each with its own availability and duration settings.

Review appointments each morning. Run appointments BOOK-ID daily so you're never surprised by a booking you forgot about.