Bookman - configuration

This article explains how to set up the Raley Bookman app on your Atlassian instance.

Prerequisites

• Jira Service Management cloud

• Jira cloud (if you're keeping assets as Jira work items)

• Jira/JSM admin access

• JSM Premium or Enterprise edition (if you're keeping assets in JSM Assets)

Jira configuration

NB! This section is applicable only if you're keeping assets to be booked as Jira work items

Your Jira instance will be used as the Asset management system that keeps track of your bookable assets. In other words, a single issue (work-item) in Jira will be used to represent a particular single Asset that will be shown for bookings via JSM Portal.

An example of such an asset might be a: 

• Meeting room

• Corporate vehicle

• Appointment slot with a professional

You define your assets in Jira in one or several projects. Projects can be Company or Team managed. You can use any workflow or issue type for your assets that makes sense for your organization.

When you have your Jira configured, use Issue navigator to easily produce a JQL expression which defines the subset of Jira tickets eligible for bookings. 

An example of such JQL could be: project = ABC and issueType = "Corporate car"

Assets configuration

NB! This section is applicable only if you're keeping assets to be booked as JSM Assets

Your JSM Assets will serve as a source for the assets that Raley Bookman will allow to be booked. The whole process for configuring JSM Assets is well described here, so as soon as you have your JSM Assets configured, you should be able to produce an AQL expression which defines the subset of JSM Assets eligible for bookings.

To obtain the required AQL expression, navigate to Assets (in the Jira top menu), then choose the Schema which contains the objects of interest. Press on the Filter button and choose Advanced AQL tab. There you can play around with the AQL to get the right subset of objects.

The screenshot below demonstrates this in detail:

Open

JSM configuration

Your JSM Portal will be used as a front-door where customers or employees can make bookings for assets. As Jira admin, define one or several request types that correspond to the type of assets that you want to be bookable via the portal.

An example of such Request type configuration is below:

Open

Here we have 4 request types for different types of assets that we'll display for bookings. Now, let's go to the Bookman configuration console (Apps → Raley Bookman) and add the corresponding mappings as shown on the screenshot below:

Open

In this example, we use one Service Desk called Assets Booking and map the JSM request type to a JQL/AQL statement which defines asset issues bookable through that request type. 

For example, if a user wants to book a golf car, then the Bookman app will show all JSM Assets found by AQL objectType = "Golf Car".

On the other hand, if a user wants to book a training studio, then the Bookman app will show all Jira work items found by JQL issueKey in (AMPL-1, AMPL-2).

There are no additional requirements regarding your Booking Request types - they can contain any fields that you may find useful in your organization. Also, you have complete freedom in the workflow configuration for your Booking project in JSM.

Customization of Booking configuration

Essentially, every booking consists of 3 pieces:

1. From

2. To

3. Asset

The are two requirement that Bookman imposes on every booking:

1. Booking TO must be greater than Booking FROM

2. Asset must be available (no other overlapping bookings exist) for the chosen period from-to

However, your can also enforce additional rules that are applicable when making a booking.

Booking durations

Booking durations define for how long users can book a specific asset. They’re configured per booking configuration as shown below:

Open

Given the example above, when making a booking in via the portal, the user will be presented with a screen similar to the following:

Open

Depending on which booking duration is chosen, the calendar availability will be refreshed by Raley to show slots available for a booking. On this example, user can book 1h training session with any pro between 09.00 - 18.00

Booking schedule

Defines a CRONtab whitelist of specific times when a booking can start. Using the same example as in previous chapter:

Open

we see, that a booking may be started at any full hour between 9 and must finish by 17. Moreover, the booking can only be made on working days from Monday till Friday. The booking whitelist will be evaluated against timezone specified in TimeZone combobox. When the actual booking is performed by a user his or her timezone (taken from JSM profile) will be adjusted to the timezone specified in booking configuration to show correct booking slots availability.

Have a look at the CRON expression website to get more ideas on what can be customized with your booking schedule. Here are some examples of the CRON that we support:

Booking From and To customization

Once you’ve clicked on a resource timeview, a booking slot will be marked. If you click on it, a popup will appear where you can adjust the desirable from and to booking times as shown below:

Open

The behaviour of the tab will depend on the booking configuration. There’re 4 options:

Asset Access

If you're using JSM Assets, then you also have to provide a token through which Raley Bookman will be pulling Assets-related information from your JSM instance. 

You can find more information on the generation of Atlassian tokens here: https://support.atlassian.com/atlassian-account/docs/manage-api-tokens-for-your-atlassian-account/

Once you have the token generated, connect it to your email on Bookman configuration → Settings panel