Thanks guys, this is very helpful! Glad to hear there are more options. We'll definitely check out Booked and LibRooms in addition to MRBS.
Dominic Bordelon Librarian I Computer Services East Baton Rouge Parish Library – www.ebrpl.com (225) 231-3720 -----Original Message----- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Mike Flakus Sent: Monday, April 06, 2015 3:26 PM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Meeting room reservations Thanks for the complement, Andreas. Here are some more details about the LibRooms application we created here at the Portland State University... We created this study room reservation application in 2012 after not being able to find an alternative application that fit our needs. We wanted the processes of scheduling a study room to be as simple as possible. Using our application, users can view a color-coded calendar showing the availability for all rooms and easily click/drag to select their desired reservation. The authentication setup can use local accounts or connect with external authentication systems, like ILS Patron APIs and CAS single sign-on. The main reservation calendar is publicly accessible at: http://library.pdx.edu/studyrooms/ (You need a PSU user account to complete a reservation) On the admin-side: rooms, users and many reservation policy settings can all be managed through the web application. There are a few predefined reports and a report builder that makes it easy to monitor usage in unique ways. The backend is PHP with the Pear DB database abstraction layer handling all the database operations. We currently use MySQL for the database, but a number of other database options can be plugged-in as alternatives. Over the last 3 years the service has been live here at Portland State we've gotten very positive feedback from our patrons. If anyone is interested in using our application, you can email me directly for more details or you can download our latest open-source version at https://github.com/pdxlibrary/librooms. We don't have the capacity to provide extensive technical support for this application, but we are happy to help where we can. Thanks, -Mike ----------------------------------------------- Mike Flakus Lead Web Programmer Portland State University Library (503) 725-4641 mfla...@pdx.edu ----------------------------------------------- -----Original Message----- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Andreas Orphanides Sent: Saturday, April 04, 2015 6:51 PM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Meeting room reservations Portland State has something called LibRooms that's got a pretty slick front-end, though I can't speak to back-end features: https://github.com/pdxlibrary/librooms On Sat, Apr 4, 2015 at 9:31 PM, Jason Griffey <grif...@gmail.com> wrote: > Take a look at Booked, formerly PHPScheduleIt: > > > http://www.bookedscheduler.com > > They push the hosted option, but it is an open source project. > > Jason > On Sat, Apr 4, 2015 at 7:52 PM lbspodic <lbspo...@ust.hk> wrote: > > > We use MRBS extensively, for managing about 60 rooms and have been > > quite happy with it for years. > > > > When we first began using it we needed to heavily customize it. In > > more recent years development of the software has been quite active > > and almost all our customizations are now available in the main core. > > > > We have groups of rooms which are fully unmediated (subject to set > > rules) with other rooms requiring staff booking. MRSB has capacity > > for > provisional > > booking subject to approval, etc, although we are not using that > > function at the moment. > > > > IIRC it is flexible in back end database selection, and I don't > > recall encountering much outdated/deprecated functions, although we > > don't run it in the most advanced server in the world :) > > > > - Edward Spodick, HK Univ of Science & Technology Library, > lbspo...@ust.hk > > > > - - - - - > > Sent from my iPhone - please forgive any wierd spelling errors. > > > > On 5 Apr, 2015, at 7:10 AM, Dominic Bordelon <dborde...@ebrpl.com> > wrote: > > > > > Hi all, > > > > > > we are looking for an open-source solution to manage scheduling > > > for our > > meeting rooms, including a way for patrons to reserve the rooms > > (with > staff > > approval). We are happy to modify something to fit our exact needs > > if it > is > > already solid. We've been trying to work with the vendor Evanced for > their > > Spaces product, but we have been disappointed by the lack of > > customizability and the black box problem. > > > > > > I'm aware of OpenRoom and MRBS, and searching the c4l archives > > > I've > > found discussion on this topic, but that thread was from nearly > > three > years > > ago. What are people using nowadays? > > > > > > I like OpenRoom's apparent simplicity, and that its feature set is > > nearly exactly all we need. However, my concerns with it are the use > > of php's mysql_* functions, which have been deprecated in favor of > > mysqli; > and > > the many notices/errors it shows when I've run it on a test server. > > (The installation guide seems to anticipate this: "If you are > > experiencing problems with OpenRoom such as being unable to log in, > > modules (such as > the > > calendar or day view) not loading, or random warnings or notices > appearing > > on pages, until the code has been corrected to fix these issues, you > > may want to try suppressing notices and warnings by modifying your > > php.ini > file > > in your PHP installation, and restarting PHP." But that provides > > scarce > > comfort.) Also, I can see recent patches on Sourceforge, but the > > forum there seems basically dead. > > > > > > I'm also looking at MRBS, but haven't installed it yet or formed a > clear > > opinion. I'm interested to hear others' thoughts, and whether there > > is a good solution out there I haven't heard about yet. > > > > > > P.S. Hat tips to Matt Sherman for suggesting OpenRoom, and Peter > > > Murray > > of Lyrasis for doing a free webinar about FOSS4Lib, which led me to MRBS. > > > > > > > > > Best, > > > Dominic > > > > > > > > > Dominic Bordelon > > > Librarian I > > > Computer Services > > > East Baton Rouge Parish Library - www.ebrpl.com > > > (225) 231-3720 > > >
