This blog post describes the main steps on how to create a schedule table, which shows the allocation of college rooms to different courses. Users can filter the courses by lecturer(s).

I. Initial Setup

We start by copying the JavaScript scheduler files that we’ll use in the directory of our project. These are:

• MindFusion.Scheduling.js – represents the Js Scheduler library
• MindFusion.Scheduling-vsdoc.js – provides Intellisense support
  standard.css – in a subdirectory “themes”, this is the CSS theme styling of the resource table
• planner_lic.txt – paste your license key here to disable the trial version label.

We create then 2 more files specifically for our application:

• ResourceView.html – the web page of the application
• ResourceView.js – the JavaScript code that implements the dynamic features of our application.

II. The HTML Page

In the head section of our web page we first create a reference to the theme file:

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="themes/standard.css">

At the end of the web page, just before the closing </body> tag we add a reference to the Scheduling.js file that contains the scheduling features and the ResourceView.js files that we’ll write for the application:

<script src="MindFusion.Scheduling.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="ResourceView.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

The calendar library requires an HTML <div> element, which is used to render it. We add one:

<div id="calendar" style="height: 100%; width: 100%;">&nbsp;</div>

It is important that you add an id to this <div> because we need to reference it in the JS code behind file.

III. Basic JavaScript Settings

At the top of the JavaScript code-behind file we add a reference to the Intellisense file. We also create a mapping to MindFusion.Scheduling namespace:

/// 
var p = MindFusion.Scheduling

Then we create the calendar object. We need a reference to the <div> element that will render it:

// create a new instance of the calendar
calendar = new p.Calendar(document.getElementById("calendar"));

For this sample we will use the ResourceView The currentView property specifies that. In addition, we set the count of visible cells in the calendar to 7. That is done through the resourceViewSettings property of the calendar

// set the view to ResourceView, which displays the distribution of resources over a period of time
calendar.currentView = p.CalendarView.ResourceView;

// set the number of visible cells to 7
calendar.resourceViewSettings.visibleCells = 7;

The itemSettings proeprty lets us customize the items in the schedule We use titleFormat and tooltipFormat to specify how the title and tooltip of each item will be rendered. Both properties use special format strings:

• %s – the start date will be rendered
• %e – the end date of the item will be rendered
• %d – the details of the item will be rendered.

You can specify the way dates and time are formatted by adding the desired format in brackets:

// show hours on items
calendar.itemSettings.titleFormat = "%s[HH:mm] - %e[HH:mm] %h";
calendar.itemSettings.tooltipFormat = "%d";

Then we set the theme of the calendar to standard, whose css file we referenced in the web page:

calendar.theme = "standard";

and we make one more adjustment – the name of contacts will be taken from the last name of the person. Possible valies are “F”, “M” and “L” – for first, middle and last name.

calendar.contactNameFormat = "L";

IV. Resources

When the calendar initially loads there are several contacts and locations available. The objects that represent them are instances of the Contact and Location classes. After we create them we add them to the contacts and locations collections of the calendar schedule.

var resource;

// Add professor names to the schedule.contacts collection.
resource = new p.Contact();
resource.firstName = "Prof. William";
resource.lastName = "Dyer";
calendar.schedule.contacts.add(resource);

resource = new p.Location();
resource.name = "Room D";
calendar.schedule.locations.add(resource);

Now, when the user creates a new course they will see the Contact and Location in the Options pane of the “Create Item” form:

V. Items

The items are instances of the Item class. They represent the classes of the different lecturers. We use the startTime and endTime properties of Item to specify when the class takes place. The subject property gives the name of the class:

//always start with the current date
var date = p.DateTime.today();

item = new p.Item();
item.startTime = p.DateTime.addHours(date.addDays(1), 14);
item.endTime = p.DateTime.addHours(item.startTime, 1);
item.subject = "Classical Mechanics";

We use the location and contacts properties to set where the lecture takes place and who teaches it. Note that the contacts property is of type collection and we can assign several lecturers to one class:

item.location = calendar.schedule.locations.items()[0];
item.contacts.add(calendar.schedule.contacts.items()[0]);

We get the location and the contact from the schedule’s lists with locations and contacts We must also set the details of the item – they will be rendered as a tooltip, if you remember. We want the tooltip to show the two names of the lecturer and the location. Here is how we must define it:

item.details = item.contacts.items()[0].firstName + " " +
item.contacts.items()[0].lastName + " - " + item.location.name;

We must add the item to the items collection of the schedule we render the calendar render the calendar

calendar.render();

VI. Events

When users create new items we must set their details to tell the name and the location of the new class. We handle the itemCreating event to do this:

// attach handler - creating an item
calendar.itemCreating.addEventListener(handleItemCreating); 

function handleItemCreating(sender, args) {
    handleItemModified(sender, args);
    if (args.item.contacts.count() > 0) {
        //the details field is used by the tooltip
        args.item.details = args.item.contacts.items()[0].firstName + " " +
                args.item.contacts.items()[0].lastName;

        if (args.item.location != null)
            args.item.details += " - " + args.item.location.name;
    }

}

The itemCreating event provides an instance of the ItemModifyingEventArgs class as a second argument to the handler method. There we use the item property that tells us which item is being modified. We then take the desired contact and Location information from the contacts and location properties of the item.

When a new course item is dragged to another location we must change its color accordingly. We do this by handling the itemModified event.

// attach handler - modifying an item
calendar.itemModified.addEventListener(handleItemModified);

The diferent background color of the items is achieved by custom CSS classes. We use the cssClass property of the Item class. The CSS styles are defined in the <HEAD> section of the web page:

 .mfp-planner.standard .itemClass1 .mfp-item {
            background-color: 	#0c71af;
        }

.mfp-planner.standard .itemClass2 .mfp-item {
            background-color: #f81e1e;
        }
...........

The handler method checks the new location and assigns the appropriate CSS style:

function handleItemModified(sender, args)
{
    // you don't have to check any other conditions like dragging to another room, 
    // as it will stay the same color if you make other changes (other than dragging to a different room)
    if (args.item != null){
        switch (args.item.location.name) {
            case "Room A":  //we can also implement it with for
                args.item.cssClass = 'itemClass1';
                console.log("a");
                break;
            case "Room B":
                args.item.cssClass = 'itemClass2';
                break;
            case "Room C":
                args.item.cssClass = 'itemClass3';
                break;
            case "Room D":
                args.item.cssClass = 'itemClass1';
                break;
            case "Room E":
                args.item.cssClass = 'itemClass2';
                break;
            case "Room F":
                args.item.cssClass = 'itemClass3';
                break;
            default:
                args.item.cssClass = 'itemClass1';
        }
    }
}

The item property of the args parameter of the handler method provides access to the item that was modified.

VII. Filtering Professors

We want to add one last feature to our application. We want the user to be able to render courses only by a given professor.

We first add checkboxes with the names of the lecturers. Each checkbox has the same handler method for the click event:

<input id="dyer" checked="checked" name="subscribe" type="checkbox" value="Dyer>
<label for=">Prof. William Dyer

<input id="fletcher" checked="checked" name="subscribe" type="checkbox" value="Fletcher">
<label for="fletcher">Prof. Ann Fletcher</label>
...........................

The handler method needs to look at two cases. The first case is when the class is taught by a single professor. In this case we cycle through all items and make the item visible or not depending on whether the check box with the name of the professor is checked:

// if there is at least one present professor from the lecture professors, the lecture will not disappear
function handleClick(cb) {
for (var i = 0; i < calendar.schedule.items.count(); i++) {
        var item = calendar.schedule.items.items()[i]; //we iterate through every element
        if (item.contacts.count() == 1) {
            if (item.contacts.items()[0].lastName == cb.value)
                item.visible = cb.checked;
        }
      }
.......................
}

In the second case we look at courses that are taught by more than one lecturer. In this case we show the item if the checkbox with the name of at least one of the lecturers is selected:

else if (item.contacts.count() > 1) {
for (var j = 0; j < item.contacts.count() ; j++) {
                if (item.contacts.items()[j].lastName == cb.value) { // the checked/unchecked professor is in the contacts of this item
                    if (cb.checked == true) item.visible = true; // if there is a check, the item must be visible
                    else { // if there is no check, we see if there is at least one professor in the list of contacts of the item
                        item.visible = professorPresent(item);
                    }

                }
            }
        }

Finally we repaint the calendar:

// repaint the calendar
this.calendar.repaint(true);

Here the professorPresent method checks if at least one of the check boxes with professors that are present as lecturers in the item that we provide as argument are selected:

// return true if even 1 professor from the item's contacts is present, false otherwise
function professorPresent(item) {
    console.log(item.contacts.count());
    for (var j = 0; j < item.contacts.count() ; j++) {
        var checkBoxId = item.contacts.items()[j].lastName.toLowerCase();
        var checkBox = document.getElementById(checkBoxId);
        if (checkBox!= null && checkBox.checked == true) {
            return true;
        }
    }
    return false;
}

And that’s the end of this blog post. Here is a link to download the complete source code of this application:

Download The Sample Resource View Application

About MindFusion JavaScript Scheduler: MindFusion Js Scheduler is the complete solution for all applications that need to render interactive timetables, event schedules or appointment calendars. Fully responsive, highly customizable and easy to integrate, you can quickly program the JavaScript scheduling library according to your needs. Find out more at https://mindfusion.eu/javascript-scheduler.html