What Google Drive Sharing offers us!

I am doing a Podcast on portalZINE.TV since last year and always host a backup of the MP3 episodes on Google Drive.

The link that you create, when enabling file sharing on Google Drive, can not be used to actually embed it on your website.

The link looks something like that:

To actually use it directly, we need to get the ID. Sure, you  could just extract the ID, but often we just want to copy and paste. The sharing link is also your actual reference to the original file, which I store together with the podcast.

Apply a simple RegEX

We use a simple Regex to extract the ID:

PHP

JAVASCRIPT

Just use it!

This ID can than be used to embed the file directly using HTML5 audio controls.

Its important to use the “https://docs.google.com/uc?export=open&id=” url to open the file, as it provides the direct access to the shared file

Die erste Folge nach einer langen Pause ;)

Folge 104

BOOKING SOLUTIONS 202x

This is my take on a subset of booking, appointment, PMS or reservation solutions for WordPress.

Update 11.10.
Moving down the rabbit hole again :)
Will be diving a bit deeper into some the solutions and their feature-set. Might split this up into multiple posts :) Will see, which of the developers is interested in an open review or not.

Those currently on board:

1. Crocoblocks / JETPlugins: First in line will be crocoblock with JETbooking / JETappointment. Thanks goes out to crocoblock for helping out and making this review possible :) More about this soon …
2. PluginHive: Will be sticking to the base information provided by PluginHive and their test setups. This means that I am not currently deep testing their solution.
3. MotoPress: waiting for an answer :)
4. PinPoint: waiting for an answer :)
5. YITH: Will be taking a closer look at Yith as it combines booking & appointments.
6. WooCommerce Booking: Will setup the plugin and look at this again, but pretty undecided right now. Had my problems with it in the past.
7. VikWP: I might be looking at it a bit closer in the future, but currently not a right fit to compare, as its target audience is the single property owner. But I still think it belongs into the list ;)

Some rules … before I start!

There are so many booking / appointment solutions out there, that its really hard to decide, which solution is the right one for your specific project and needs.

I will only list those that fit my own internal criteria.
Not all of them will always match, but it should be as close as possible :)

1. Its not just a cheap theme bundle or addon. There are 100s of solutions out there, that claim to be free and just sell / promote their PREMIUM themes with a nice little addon. Might be enough for you, but not for me ;)
2. Has a solid standing in the community.
3. Has been around longer than 6 months.
4. Has a real set of developers behind it, that work on new features.
5. Has a support or community forum, where actual help can be found.
6. Has documentation for the future administrator of the plugin.
7. Has documentation for developers, helping to make it work for their clients. Extendability is always a plus.
8. Has good theme or framework support.
9. Has a good feature to price ratio.
10. Has multi-language support (WPML)
11. Makes me want to use it myself or promote it to my clients.

Just to be clear, this is highly opinionated, as is every other list claiming to have the best available solutions for you ;)
But this is how I would approach it together with my clients!

---

Property Management System ( PMS )?

A Property Management System ( PMS ) or Hotel Operating System ( HOS ) is an overkill for most projects, but provides booking, reservations, appointment logic, logistics, accounting and many other features.

My main focus is not the PMS market, but its always nice to have the option to extend a setup in the future, if additional requirements come up.

SaaS ( Software as a Service)

This is about full WordPress solutions, but there are also solutions that integrate with WordPress, but are hosted externally.

Like Checkfront for example and their WordPress integration.
You pay a monthly fee, depending on your yearly requirements.

The problem with a SaaS, is that you are limited to their feature set. If you want to integrate your own features and develop a specific extension for them, it is not always possible.

Some provide API access for extendability, but extending upon that can be pricey. And often its hard to decide, which service will really stick around and not vanish at some point.

But they are a nice quick solution, to get you started.

Bundled Theme / Theme Framework / Your Own Theme

This is where many offers try to lure you in. They offer premium themes that look amazing with demo content, bundled with a basic addon that features common functionality for the hotel booking market.

Some are pretty basic, some of these addons go pretty far.

For a B&B or hotel owner, it is pretty difficult to decide, which is the right one to choose.

You just see pretty pictures, perfect matching text and a workflow of many things, that just seem to work.

But does it really work for your feature-set?
How good is the documentation for the booking addon?
Do they provide a community forum to help with adjustments?

If none of the above is satisfying, please RUN :)

Don’t waste your money and stay away from frustration!

Most of the booking solutions are based around WooCommerce and there are 1000s of themes that are compatible.

There is no reason to bundle theme and booking addons, unless you really have a feature-set, that perfectly matches and will not grow in the future!

Choose a theme that is well supported, uses the framework of your choice and liking OR find someone to build a unique theme for you.

OTA (Over-The-Air) Channel Manager

A Channel Manager is a module that allows you to connect & synchronize your OTA channels (such as Booking.com, AirBnB, Expedia, Hotels.com, HomeAway, Trip Advisor, etc.).

The goal is to have no overbooking, just one calendar to manage all reservations, rates & availability.

This is a big topic and complicated in many ways. Some solutions offer some kind of 1-way or 2-way sync via iCal.

You can also use external services like Syncbnb or OTA Sync. This alone is a rabbit-hole of its own :) Not going there yet …. But it is an important question, if you plan to offer your bookings externally and do not wish to sync availability / reservations manually.

Lets prepare some initial questions for you!

Before choosing anything you should really pinpoint your own requirements.

1. What is my current budget? What I am willing to pay for updates or on a regular basis?
2. When do I plan to start? (development timeframe)
3. Which features do I need right now?
4. Which features do I need in the coming 6 months?
5. Which features are nice to have?
6. Which features are a must-have?
7. Will I do the required updating and support for the system myself?
8. Do I want to be responsible for security and the handling of personal data?
9. Will I use my own theme, a framework or premium theme?
10. Do I require or need WooCommerce integrated?
11. Do I need multi-language support ( WPML )?
12. Do I need an OTA Channel Manager to sync with Booking.com or any other external channel?

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MY CURRENT PICKS

This is a starting list of solutions, that I handpicked following the rules I set myself. This list might grow in the future, depending on additional plugins I discover.

I have a new WPML client, that is starting fresh and already leaned on a theme based solution. He has some project requirements, that already leave him stuck in certain areas.

That is why I decided to take a deeper look at things currently available. I have touched many of these before, but taking a fresh look at them ;)

I am not comparing features, just presenting those that are good candidates to build a great booking setup.

You will need to do a feature matrix for your project and see which areas are covered by each plugin. No way around that :)

#1 Vik Booking (E4J)

Certified booking system and PMS Plugin for Hotels, B&B, Villas and Apartments.

E4J started with Joomla CMS integrations and added WordPress in 2018.

From their website: “The project VikWP – VikWordPress.com was born in 2018, it’s a newly born project, but it has more experience than ever by background. The company E4J has been one of the leading extensions development companies for Joomla since 2009. That’s how we started to get known with our software. “

Not many websites talk about it, but it has an amazing feature-set at a pretty descent price for the Pro version.

This plugin has no WooCommerce support and relies solely on their own payment integrations. They offer full PCI-DSS compliance for their payment gateways.

They offer a free and pro version, with the free version already having a good set of features.

One of the biggest benefits of the Pro Version is the possible integration of the channel manager, which allows you to sync your bookings with other external services (booking.com, airbnb …)

And if PMS features are important to you, the Pro version is the right plugin for you.

The price can quickly accumulate, depending on the payment gateways needed, which is not so much different to WooCommerce ;)

You also have to calculate in the Channel Manager, if you want to sync with external service providers.

The plugins target audience is more single properties or appartment complexes.

#2 Pinpoint – Booking System Pro ( Pinpoint World LLC )

Pinpoint Booking System comes with a clean interface, a multipurpose functionality and an amazing range of booking features.

Suitable for businesses such as hotel accommodation, guesthouses rentals, appointments, scheduling conferences, and meetings or rental businesses to simplify the booking process for their customers.

• Booking calendar – Demo
• Book days
• Book hours/minutes
• WooCommerce support
• Multi-language support
• Reservations
• Booking rules
• Discounts
• Coupons & vouchers
• iCal support for export & import
• More here

#3 MotoPress – Hotel Booking Plugin ( Jetimpex )

Motopress has been a go-to for many projects in the past. When you search for booking solutions, it will always come up.

“The MotoPress WordPress Hotel Booking plugin is an all-in-one property management suite for rental property websites. List unlimited accommodations and services, accept direct online reservations, synchronize all bookings across OTAs and more (no per-booking or per-property commission). This WordPress hotel booking plugin is perfect for running any hospitality business establishment regardless of the size, function or cost: a hotel, vacation rental, apartments agency, hostel and more.” – statement from their website.

• Two-way auto-synchronization of iCal with external booking platforms to exchange booking calendar data and avoid overbooking.
• Email notifications with booking details, booking confirmation / cancellation notes and other important messages for both admin and guests.
• Reservation of an unlimited number of accommodations during one booking session.
• Integration with the WooCommerce Payments add-on to get more payment gateways.
• Categorization of your accommodations according to any parameters (e.g. location, price range, etc.), which enables an advanced search for them.
• Creation of discount coupons with monetary value or percentage discount coupons.
• Demo availability to test both the back-end management area and front-end performance.
• Broad knowledge base with detailed and instructive video tutorials.

#4 WooCommerce Bookings and Appointments ( PluginHive )

Another plugin that has been around for a long time and grown in popularity as well as features.

• Offer Bookings in Minutes, Hours, Days or Months
• Allow users to book Multiple Days or Multiple Appointments at a time
• Offer Multiple Bookings for the same time slot
• Set a Minimum and Maximum Booking duration – For Eg: Users can book Minimum of 2 days up to 8 days
• Allow Booking Cancellations—Set a Time Limit until which Cancellations can be accepted before the booking starts
• Enable Booking Approvals/Confirmations from the Admin
• Convert your bookings calendar into Accommodation bookings.
• Allow per night bookings and display the Check-In and Check-Out date
• Email notifications to users and admin for a New Booking, Confirmations, and Cancellations
• Email Reminders to users for upcoming bookings
• Dynamic total Booking Cost calculation based on number of days or time slots selected
• Capture Additional information from the users by enabling the Booking Notes field
• Allow Buffer or Padding time between Bookings(Flexible Buffer After/Before a Booking)
• Change the Calendar Color to suit your Website Design/Theme
• Google Calendar Sync
• Staff Management–Add any number of Staff | Manage Staff Availability | Manage Prices | Manage Leaves
• WPML support
• More

#5 JETbooking for Elementor ( crocoblock )

“JetBooking plugin is a unique addon developed by the Crocoblock team specifically for rent and booking services, such as vehicles, dresses, apartments, etc.” – Introduction

If you love the possibilities and concept of Elementor, JetBooking could be of interest for you. The extension provides a different approach with similar features or better than those above.

Check their feature comparison here.

I have not played with JETbooking yet, but have worked with almost all their other extensions so far!
Love their style and integration with Elementor.

crocoblock offers a whole suite of plugins that enhance Elementor.
Really high quality extensions, with an amazing detail to design and functionality.

Feature highlights

• Custom booking post-type & setup
• Custom Booking Forms and fields
• Single-page booking
• WooCommerce integration
• Neat filter system
• Google Calendar / Integromat / Zapier / iCal synchronization

#6 YITH Booking and appointment for WooCommerce

I totally forgot about YITH, even though they are the poster child for good WooCommerce solutions.

The plugin implements a booking/appointment system to manage booking of services, rooms, accommodation facilities and more.

It feels more expensive than those above, but it has a huge feature-set and includes bookings and appointments!

YITH shines, when it comes to their documentation.

Conclusion

These are just some possible solutions. Hope this gives you a little jump-start.
D’ont just use the first best thing, even if it looks impressive on first glance!

I will adjust and tweak this article, as new things come up.

Enjoy coding ….

INTRODUCTION

This is not a tutorial, but more like sharing a nice geeky road-trip ;)

I have a pretty good understanding of the Youtube Data API, as I have actively used it on portalZINE TV in the past, to upload videos and dynamically link them to my local post-types.

For one of my latest customer projects (TYPEMYKNIFE / typemyknife.com), the task was a bit more complicated and the goal was to make it as future-proof as it can be with the Google APIs :)

Prerequisites / References to get you started:

• Youtube Data API Documentation
• Google Cloud Console
• OAuth 2.0 Playground / Generating a refresh token for Youtube API calls (a bit old, but close enough)
• Google API SDK / Composer
• OAuth 2 Simplified / Getting Started with OAuth 2.0

THE GOALS

The goal for the setup was to actively synchronize WooCommerce products with linked / attached videos, with their source at Youtube.

As the website is multilingual, WPML integration is critical as well. And as Youtube allows localization of title and description, that can be added into the mix quiet easily in the future ;)

The following product attributes should be mirrored and optimised for Youtube:

• Product Title
• Product Description (5000 character limit at Youtube)
  My customer already has a pretty long and detailed description, which is perfect for Youtube!
  We average around 2900-3000 characters.
• Product Tags (500 character length limit at Youtube)

The following attributes should be integrated into the description to enrich the Youtube description:

• Introduction
• Product Link to WooCommerce Product / Shop
• Socials
• Legal Information
• Hash Tags (local post-type to add recurring / important hash tags)
• Outro

All of these attributes will be collected internally and assigned using a simple template system, which allows the customer to move parts around freely and freely layout the description for Youtube.

The following stats will be collected for review:

• Products without a video linked (no relation)
• Products with the same video linked (duplication)
• Videos without a product in the system
• Total amount of videos / amount of video-pages (50 videos max per page)
• Total amount of products with videos

Youtube SEO

These are the relevant key aspects, that help to get your videos more views.

• Relevant text featuring at least 1,000 characters
• Keywords that are relevant on Google Search and YouTube and describe your video
• Hashtags, can also be used within the text
• Timestamps Links to related content / affiliate links

PREPARING AUTH / OAUTH2 AT GOOGLE

In the past access to the Youtube Data API was far easier and less limited, when it comes to offline / none expiring OAuth2 refresh tokens.

When you are building a server-side application that is only available to your customer or moderators, it makes no sense to run that app through the Google App verification. Your app will never be used in public.

The Youtube Data API and its scopes, are defined as sensitive and therefor require third-party security assessment for public access.

The scopes I am requesting are https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.upload + https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.

Because of that its far easier to just setup OAuth 2 in test mode and restrict access to your customer and specific additional accounts only (up to 100 test users allowed). What all these account need, is access to your own or Brand Youtube Channel.

Preparation in the Google Cloud Console:

• Activate Youtube Data API
• Create OAuth2 Client ID
  • Name
  • Allowed Redirects
• Setup OAuth-Consent Screen
  • Name of the App
  • Support Email
  • Logo
  • Allowed Domains
  • Typ: External
  • Setup all test-users, all of these need access to your Youtube channel already

A detailed description can be found here.

You can circumvent verification for the consent screen, by using an organisation setup at Google. Here some infos about that. With that setup offline refresh tokens should work fine.

Update: Just tried that, but wont work with a branded youtube account, even though the cloud user has admin access to it. Not giving up yet, but Google / Youtube really makes it difficult to just have a simple offline solution for specific tasks ;) BTW also forced the login hint, to make sure the right account is logged in : $client->setLoginHint(‘YourWoreksapceAccount’); !

You might have heard of the “The League of Extraordinary Packages“. It is a group of developers who have banded together to build solid, well tested PHP packages using modern coding standards.

They also offer an OAuth2-client + OAuth2 Google extension that can be used.

SERVER SETUP

On the server, the Google API PHP SDK can be easily integrated using Composer.

In my customer plugin I neatly separated all relevant areas in classes & traits:

• Online Authentification, with a 60 minute session
• Offline Authentification, with a 1 week expiration (might explain that in more detail in the future.)
• Error handling and debug information
• Listing of videos
• Updating of videos
• Updating of tags
• Updating hashtags
• Backup old data locally, before update. There should always be an option to restore, especially with 500 videos :)
• Settings & templates
• REST routes / endpoints

You can check the expiry time of your access token by accessing:
https://www.googleapis.com/oauth2/v1/tokeninfo?access_token=YOUR_TOKEN

“A Google Cloud Platform project with an OAuth consent screen configured for an external user type and a publishing status of “Testing” is issued a refresh token expiring in 7 days.” – Google

Basic Auth example from the SDK:

A simple upload example can be found here .

UPDATING A SINGLE VIDEO
BULK VIDEO UPDATES

All operations to and from the Youtube Data API are rate limited. What is important for us, are the queries per day.

The default quota is 10.000 queries per day, sounds a lot, but is easily gone after updating 150-200 videos. You can request this limit to be raised, but again a lot of paperwork and questions that are just not needed.

The above limit just means, that you need to cache as many queries as possible, to only query live when needed ;)

Something you learn fast, when experimenting with different things! I hit that limit multiple times in the first few days, with around 500 videos in the queue.

Different operation cost you different amount of units

• A read operation that retrieves a list of resources — channels, videos, playlists — usually costs 1 unit.
• A write operation that creates, updates, or deletes a resource usually costs 50 units.
  10.000 / 50 are 200 updates per day :)
• A search request costs 100 units.
• A video upload costs 1600 units. Glad we are not handling the upload as well, but technically easy ;)

It also helps to use the Google Developer Playground to testdrive the Youtube Data API with your own credentials while optimising your own code.
You can define your own OAuth 2.0 configuration by clicking the cog in the upper right corner.

I setup the bulk updating to allow splitting it over multiple days, if required. For this an offline refresh token is needed, as the standard token expires after 60 minutes.

My customer can also just update a single video, when changes are applied to the product or a new product has been added.

If more frequent updates are required, I will ask for a raise of the queries per day. You can circumvent the limit by using multiple Google Cloud Platform accounts with new OAuth credentials, but really an overkill right now. I have done that in the past ;)

LAYOUT & DESIGN

The GUI is just based of Bootstrap, to make it simple and clean. Using my own wrapper to make it work within the WordPress admin.

For all ajax operations, I am using htmx and _hyperscript, which I will talk about in another article in the future.

Really neat and clean way to build single page interfaces.

The whole plugin runs of its own REST API endpoint. Just love using WordPress as a headless system.

I used TWIG / Timber for the templates, to separate logic and layout. Timber has been my goto solution for years now. It drives my own and many customer websites.

CONCLUSION

This has been a lot of fun, maybe a bit too much LOL

I do geek-out about many of my projects, but this experience helped me to bring my WordPress toolbox to the next level. This will help to drive other things in the future.

Working so deeply with the Youtube Data API has been fun and feels so easy now, after all remaining problems have been solved.

Would have loved this during my portalZINE TV days ;)

I you read all this, you just earned yourself a badge for completion ;)

Need something similar or something else? Just say hi and we can talk.

ENJOY CODING ….

FINDING A COMMON GROUND!

THIS IS GOING TO BE
WAY TOO EXPENSIVE?

It doesn’t have to be at all!

There are approaches and solutions for every project size. Most projects can be split into phases to keep everything manageable and affordable.

My projects are always tailored personally and predefined as precisely as possible.
If you don’t ask, you end up paying more everywhere!

HOW CAN I HELP?
WHERE CAN I HELP?

I have been looking after private individuals, startups, medium-sized companies and larger companies for years.

As a full stack developer, I can provide my customers with a complete project overview and help classify the effort. I also have design and advertising experience, as well as an above-average basic commercial and legal knowledge.

My customers know that I have no problem sharing my knowledge and can provide assistance in all areas.

Again, just talk to me and lets find a common ground :)

MULTILINGUAL.
DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?
PARLEZ-VOUS FRANÇAIS?

Until about 5 years ago, my main focus was on international projects. But in the last few years I have also built a solid foothold in the German-speaking arena.

I have implemented projects with up to 15 languages. For me, English sometimes runs better than German, which is also reflected in my portfolio and my BIO . I can write, read and speak French well (even if it’s a bit rusty!).

If you want to set up a multilingual site or translate parts of it, you’ve come to the right place. Of course also for WordPress via WPML .

Again, just say hello or Moin!

ONE PAGER
STATIC WEBSITE
HEADLESS CMS
WORDPRESS
YOUR OWN SOLUTION?

For me everything is actionable and can be worked out together depending on the project. Nobody needs to pay more than is really absolutely necessary. Sustainability is also a big topic and flows into all my projects.

Over the years I have also developed many of my own internal solutions, in order to be able to implement special solutions quickly.

Every project puzzle can be solved!

SEO
ADVERTISING
SOCIAL MEDIA
DATA PROTECTION
COOKIE MANAGEMENT?

It does not work without those and cannot be disregarded in any development phase of a project. I have a lot of experience in that area and can also contribute ideas and solutions where needed.

WHAT ELSE?

There are certainly still a few things that could be listed here, but I would rather clarify this in a personal conversation.

Gladly by phone or live via Skype!

Just ask for an appointment!

Contact / About me

I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks for your interest!

Greetings