Administrator Guide

Installation

Introduction

Easy!Appointments is a web appointment scheduler that can be installed and run in web servers. Users will be able to reach the application through their web browsers by using an active internet connection, just like visiting a normal website. The installation process is very similar to other popular web systems like WordPress and Joomla, so it is very likely that you will be familiar with the next steps. Follow this article strictly in order to complete the installation with no problems. After that, read the “Configuration” section for adjusting the system to fit your needs.

Installation

There are 6 steps you must follow during the installation process.

  1. Make sure that your server has at least the following applications/tools installed: a web server such as Apache (v2.4) or NGINX, PHP (v8.2+) and MySQL. Easy!Appointments needs these programs to run. PHP also needs the curl, json, mbstring, gd, simplexml and fileinfo extensions installed and enabled. There is no hard minimum MySQL version enforced, but a current release is recommended (the official Docker setup uses MySQL 8.0). Most of the web hosting companies provide these tools within their Linux hosting plans. If you want to install Easy!Appointments on your local server use one of the pre-made bundles available on the web (XAMPP, MAMP, WAMP …), all of which are free to use.
  2. Create a new database (or use an existing one). The database is necessary for storing the system data. Therefore, your hosting plan must include at least one MySQL database. You must also get the database administration credentials because they will be needed later on.
  3. Upload the Easy!Appointments source files to your server. You can place the files into a directory with named “easyappointments” or “appointments” or “book” etc. Make sure that you mark the Easy!Appointments folder URL because it will be needed in the following step. For example, if the system files are placed in this directory “…/httpdocs/easyappointments/” then the URL to this folder will be “http://your-domain.com/easyappointments“. This URL will be needed in the following steps.
  4. Ensure that the “storage” directory is writable. Session information, logs and any other kind of files will land into the “storage” directory so make sure that it has the correct permissions and that is writable.
  5. Edit the “config.php” file and set your server properties. Like other web systems, Easy!Appointments needs to know how to connect to the database and the base URL of the installation. If you want to use the Google Calendar Sync feature, enter your Google API credentials later in the backend under Settings > Integrations > Google Calendar. The commented-out Google constants in this file are only optional fallbacks. NOTE that you will need to create the credentials in the Google Cloud Console first.
  6. Open a web browser and head to the Easy!Appointments installation folder URL. The first time you open this page, an installation guide will be shown. Fill in the administrator user and company settings and press the “Install Easy!Appointments” button. That’s it! You can now use the application at your own will.

Behind a reverse proxy

If Easy!Appointments sits behind a reverse proxy (nginx, Traefik, Cloudflare, a load balancer), set the PROXY_IPS environment variable to the proxy’s address so the application reads the visitor’s real IP from the forwarded headers. It accepts a single address, a comma separated list, or a CIDR range:

PROXY_IPS=172.18.0.0/16

Leave it unset when there is no proxy in front of the application. Setting it when nothing forwards requests makes every visitor look like the same client, and rate limiting then applies to all of them at once.

Configuration

When you finish the installation, Easy!Appointments will only contain an administrator user, a test service, a test provider, a test customer and some default settings. You will need to configure the system with your own business logic, but before that you can try adding a test appointment before proceeding with the following steps.

  1. Head to backend section by entering the Easy!Appointments URL http://installation-url/index.php/calendar in your browser. When logged in, click on the “Settings” menu item on top of the page. Click on the “Business Logic” tab and apply the working plan of your company. Press the “Save” button when you are finished. This will be the default working plan for all new providers. To copy it to the existing ones as well, press the “Apply To All Providers” button.
  2. Next you will need to add the services that your customers will book appointments for. You can optionally organize these services by using custom categories. Add some records and make sure you fill the required fields.
  3. Once you are ready with the services you will need to add the service providers of your company. By doing so, customers will be able to select the employee they want to provide their preferred service, during the booking procedure. Open the “Users” menu and pick “Providers”. Add a new provider user and set his working plan and services. If you wish to assign the appointments without using Easy!Appointments just create a single general provider user named with your company name. It is not necessary for the provider to know the login credentials, but if he does, he will be able to view his appointment plan and sync it with his Google Calendar account.
  4. If you have a secretary handling all the appointments for your company, pick “Secretaries” from the same “Users” menu and add a new user. Select the providers that she can manage and save the record. The secretary user will be able to manage the appointments only for the providers she is responsible.
  5. That’s it! Click on the “Go To Booking Page” link on the footer of the page and create a new appointment. The new appointment will be now be visible at the “Calendar” page of the backend section. The customer’s data have also been saved and can be found in the “Customers” page.

Finally, just add a link in your website that points to your Easy!Appointments installation with a caption similar to “Book Appointment”. Whenever a customer clicks on that link they will be redirected the booking page.

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