In this episode, we take a big-picture look at how we'll build up the availability system for booking services. Instead of jumping straight into code, we step back and think about why we're organizing things the way we are—trust me, it'll make the next episodes much easier to follow!
We start by imagining the problem: a customer wants to book a service with an employee. To handle this, we'll need a detailed list of when each employee is available, broken down by dates and then by time slots throughout those dates. Each slot (like 9:00 or 10:00) is based on the service duration, and within each slot, we'll track which employees can actually fulfil that appointment.
A key part of the logic: we first generate every possible slot from midnight to midnight across our range of days. Then, for each slot, we check which employees are free, fill in their IDs, and afterwards clean up any slots where no one is available (say they’re on holiday or already booked).
This approach helps keep things organized, flexible, and efficient—both for the code and the user! In the following episodes, we’ll start building this up step by step, beginning with a quick intro to time periods using a handy package to make those slots. Stay tuned for more as we fill in the details and build out a robust scheduling system.