Roomr 4.1 – Search has arrived!

I’ve just submitted Roomr 4.1 to the App Store for approval. This version brings my first attempt at a search feature.

A few weeks back I was contacted by a user in the Netherlands, who wanted to use Roomr to improve the way they booking parking spaces at their company. They had an existing Exchange installation that used individual calendars for individual parking spaces. The then grouped this parking spaces into buildings using Room Lists. They found that searching and booking was quite difficult from Outlook.

Search was something that has been on the Roomr roadmap for quite some time, but I never got around to implementing it, simply because Exchange’s API don’t really allow for a general search. However,  with this request focused on Room Lists, I had a very clear requirement to work with.

After a few rounds of beta testing, I’m pleased to report that I have submitted Roomr 4.1 to Apple!

This search UI allows you to choose a Room List, date and a time range. All the rooms contained with the Room List are checked for availability. Once a match is found, the user can choose one of the rooms and open its calendar. As a shortcut, the date & time they searched for will be displayed within the calendar.

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Booking then works as normal.

This Search feature is also available with G Suite, so Google users haven’t been left out. It obviously doesn’t rely on Room Lists. Instead, all rooms with the domain’s Resources are searched to see if they are free at the specified time.

Roomr 4.1 should be available to buy from the App Store in the next couple of days.