Apologies for replying a bit later, we don't work on weekends.
If you use a backup from a week ago, you will have the data saved until that moment in Amelia as well (when the backup was done). So, the data that is saved in your database for Amelia, will be restored to the moment when the backup was saved. You can maybe save the Amelia tables first if you want that, with the newest bookings (if that is possible, depends on why you are backing up your website) and then add them back to the database after you do the backup.
Basically, Amelia should not maintain its own calendar in the DB. It should push bookings into a company Google/Outlook calendar. It should also look to this calendar for existing bookings or other events. Employees can also connect their calendars so Amelia knows when employees are not available.
The reason why this approach solves the DB restore problem is the bookings are stored in the external calendar not within Amelia and not within the WP database.
The moment the website is restored Amelia is going to reach out to the Google calendar and pull in the events that are there when a customer tries to book with you.
At the moment I am still using Square Appointments. This is how their system works. A company calendar that bookings are stored in and read-only connections to other multiple calendars to pull events for blocked dates and times.
Amelia calendar sync is lacking in that it ONLY will pull from ONE calendar and it ONLY pushes to that ONE same calendar. I honestly don't understand how that is supposed to work effectively.
I am currently on the fence of requesting a refund and moving to another system or revamping how my company manages bookings. I would need to create a monster calendar of my business events and personal events all mashed into one calendar just to make sure that all my appointments are covered and unavailable dates/times are not shown to potential customers. Of course there is nothing in Google Calendar that will do this out of the box so I will have to rely on something like IFTTT to copy all my separate calendars contents into one monster mess. That means relying on multiple systems to get this done and if there is any breakdown in communications, headaches ensue.
Here's hopes that the Amelia devs rethink how bookings are managed in the system.
Amelia is a WordPress plugin and as such it stores its data in the database and WordPress. There are Google and Outlook integrations for it but the appointments can be managed in Amelia only, not in the external calendars. Thank you for the suggestion, I added it to our feature requests list so it can be considered.
Sorry to see you are thinking about refunding the plugin because of this.
If you have any other questions or concerns feel free to open a new ticket and we will gladly help.
Hi,
What happens to Amelia data when I restore a website to a few days ago?
For Example:
Let's say someone books an event right now.
The next day, my website breaks and I need to use a backup from a week ago.
If I restore my website to a week ago, will Amelia lose the appointments booked in the past week?
Meaning, does Amelia data (bookings) stay even after restoring a website to a previous state?
Thanks!
Hello Tristan,
Apologies for replying a bit later, we don't work on weekends.
If you use a backup from a week ago, you will have the data saved until that moment in Amelia as well (when the backup was done). So, the data that is saved in your database for Amelia, will be restored to the moment when the backup was saved. You can maybe save the Amelia tables first if you want that, with the newest bookings (if that is possible, depends on why you are backing up your website) and then add them back to the database after you do the backup.
So I posted a ticket talking about a situation that, if the concept is implemented, would solve this issue.
https://tmsplugins.ticksy.com/ticket/2524015/
Basically, Amelia should not maintain its own calendar in the DB. It should push bookings into a company Google/Outlook calendar. It should also look to this calendar for existing bookings or other events. Employees can also connect their calendars so Amelia knows when employees are not available.
The reason why this approach solves the DB restore problem is the bookings are stored in the external calendar not within Amelia and not within the WP database.
The moment the website is restored Amelia is going to reach out to the Google calendar and pull in the events that are there when a customer tries to book with you.
At the moment I am still using Square Appointments. This is how their system works. A company calendar that bookings are stored in and read-only connections to other multiple calendars to pull events for blocked dates and times.
Amelia calendar sync is lacking in that it ONLY will pull from ONE calendar and it ONLY pushes to that ONE same calendar. I honestly don't understand how that is supposed to work effectively.
I am currently on the fence of requesting a refund and moving to another system or revamping how my company manages bookings. I would need to create a monster calendar of my business events and personal events all mashed into one calendar just to make sure that all my appointments are covered and unavailable dates/times are not shown to potential customers. Of course there is nothing in Google Calendar that will do this out of the box so I will have to rely on something like IFTTT to copy all my separate calendars contents into one monster mess. That means relying on multiple systems to get this done and if there is any breakdown in communications, headaches ensue.
Here's hopes that the Amelia devs rethink how bookings are managed in the system.
Hello Adrian,
Amelia is a WordPress plugin and as such it stores its data in the database and WordPress. There are Google and Outlook integrations for it but the appointments can be managed in Amelia only, not in the external calendars. Thank you for the suggestion, I added it to our feature requests list so it can be considered.
Sorry to see you are thinking about refunding the plugin because of this.
If you have any other questions or concerns feel free to open a new ticket and we will gladly help.