Building a dynamic scheduling assistant with Zobot!

We received requirement for a bot that can dynamically generate date-time slots which do not overlap existing event timings in Google Calendar ie., if a slot is booked then it will fade away from the time-slot widget.

Bot Requirements:

A bot that can:

Construct dynamic non overlapping date-time slots
Exclude a specific date or week days while generating the slots

What does this Zobot do ?

When a visitor lands on the site, the bot displays a welcome message and asks for the visitor's name and email.
The bot will then display a list of date-time slots for the visitor to pick one to schedule the appointment. The slots displayed:

a) Do not overlap any existing appointments or events in the synced Google Calendar.

b) Do not include any dates in 'dates to exclude' and 'days to exclude' lists that were configured by you.

Once the visitor picks a slot, an event is created in the synced google calendar. The slot hence forth will not be displayed to visitors anymore.
If every slot has been filled and there are no slots to display, the Zobot will display a 'Sorry' message to the visitor and send out an email to a configured email ID with the visitor details.

Bot flow :

Capabilities:

Dynamic date-time slot generation : Generate and display slots that do not overlap existing appointments and events
Configurable list : You can include/exclude any number of dates and days in the calendar. You can configure the slots that should be initially available for all the dates and the number of dates from the current date to display in the slot .

Integrations :

Google Calendar : To retrieve events in the calendar

Steps to configure the bot :

1. Navigate to Settings > Zobot > Add. Provide the required information and choose the SalesIQ Script platform.

2. Copy and paste the Trigger Handler and Message Handler scripts from the sample script link below.

3. You should make the following changes in both Trigger Handler and Message Handler scripts:

• You should mention the number of dates to be display in the 'dateLimits' list.

• Add the the Initial set of time slots to be displayed for all the dates in 'staticTimeSlots' list.

• Mention the dates you wish to exclude from the list in the 'datesToExclude' list.

• If it is Week days ie., (Monday or Tuesday) you wish to exclude then mention the days in the 'daysToExculde' list.

//Number of dates to display
dateLimits = {"1","2","3","4","5","6","7","8","9","10"};
//Static time slots that will be initially available for all days
staticTimeSlots = {"10:00","12:00","15:00","17:00"};
//Dates to exclude from the slots
datesToExclude = {"02-04-2019"};
//Days to exclude from the slot
daysToExclude = {"Sunday","Saturday"};

To integrate with google calendar,

• Replace the existing one with your connection name

• Replace the calendar ID (if required.) By default, the events are created in the primary calendar of the synced Google account.

cal = invokeurl
[
url :"https://www.googleapis.com/calendar/v3/calendars/Calendar-ID/events"
type :GET
connection:Google-calendar-connection-name
]

4. Then, copy the context handler script from the sample script link below and paste it in the Zobot Context handler section and make the following changes

• You should customise the email recipient address and the email subject and body content

sendmail
[
from : zoho.adminuserid
to : recipient-email-id
subject : email-subject
message : email-body
]

To avail the sample scripts for this bot click on this link

Here is a small visual as on how this bot works:

To learn more about Zobot, visit our Developer guides. Happy Zobotting !!

Regards,

Fiaz

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