The idea
Your bookings, in the calendar you already look at.
Nobody wants a second calendar. The diary is where a booking is made, but the phone in your pocket is where you find out what today holds, so I put bookings there. Everything on this page flows one way, out of Doris and into your calendar. I never read a calendar and I never bring anything back. That rule is what keeps the diary the one place that is true.
Add one booking to a calendar
Every confirmed booking, opened from My bookings, offers Add to Google Calendar, Add to Outlook, and an .ics file to download for Apple Calendar and everything else. Nothing to set up: the link carries the room, the venue address, the time and the booking reference. It is a copy, made once. If the booking later moves, the copy does not know.
For example
A member books the hall for a Saturday, opens it in My bookings and taps Google Calendar; it is in her phone before she has put it down. The .ics file does the same for Apple Calendar and anything else.
Leave it alone if
You would rather have every booking arrive by itself. Then skip to the feed, and never tap these.
Your own feed
Your Account page has a Calendar feed: one link, made on request, that you subscribe to in Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, Outlook or any app that takes a calendar link. It carries your own confirmed bookings across every organisation you belong to, from a month ago to as far ahead as each organisation lets people book. When a booking is moved or cancelled the feed changes, and your calendar app catches up on its own schedule, which can be up to an hour. The link is private to you and needs no password; if it ever gets out, Regenerate makes a new one and the old one stops working at once.
For example
A therapist who books at two practices gets her feed link from her Account page and subscribes to it in Apple Calendar. Both practices' sessions appear alongside her dentist, and when she cancels a session in Doris it is gone from her phone the next time the app looks.
Leave it alone if
You book once a year. Then the Add to calendar link is plenty.
The organisation feed, for admins
An owner or admin can also hold the organisation feed: every confirmed booking in the building, each with the booker’s name in the title, plus your closed dates as all-day events. It is the calendar twin of the diary, and it is checked on every fetch: if that person stops being an admin, the link stops working at once, with nothing to revoke. Because it carries names, only owners and admins may hold it.
For example
The caretaker, an admin, subscribes to the organisation feed on his phone. Every booking in the building sits in his calendar with the booker's name, and the closed dates show as all-day events, so he never opens up for a hall that is shut.
Leave it alone if
Nobody needs the whole building in their pocket. The daily digest email, part of Diary & Billing, is the lighter way to know what today holds.
What flows, and what does not
Only a confirmed booking reaches a calendar. One that is waiting for approval, or for a member’s acceptance, is not there until it is confirmed; a cancelled one vanishes rather than lingering crossed out. An event carries the room, the organisation, the venue address, the booking reference and a link back to Doris: never a form answer, and, on the organisation feed alone, the booker’s name. And it is one way. I do not read your calendar, I do not tell you when a booking clashes with your own appointments, and I never bring an event from your calendar into the diary. If you want an appointment to hold a room, book the room.
For example
A booking waiting for approval is not in anyone's calendar yet; it appears the moment an admin approves it. The custom question a hirer answered stays in Doris. The dentist appointment in your own calendar is invisible to me, and the room stays bookable.
Leave it alone if
You only ever wanted your bookings where you can see them. That is all this does, and you can stop reading.
What I never do
- I never read your calendar, and I never bring anything from it into the diary.
- I never put a booking in a calendar before it is confirmed, or leave one there after it is cancelled.
- I never put a member’s name in a feed that another member could hold. Names ride the organisation feed, for admins, only.
- I never send a calendar invitation by email.
Where it lives
The Account page, under Calendar feed, for your own link and, if you are an admin, the organisation’s. Add to calendar is on a booking’s detail, opened from My bookings. Settings, then Connections, is for other software, not calendars; its rows are on Connecting other software (bookwithdoris.com/guides/settings-connections). What a feed says about a member, and to whom, is on Member records and privacy (bookwithdoris.com/guides/member-records-and-privacy).