Public Booking Plugin

Overview

The Public Booking plugin lets new leads and patients book an appointment from a public link, with no portal account. The visitor picks a service, a location, and a time, then enters their name, date of birth, phone, and email. The plugin books against the same provider and room availability that the Scheduling with Rooms modal offers staff, matches the visitor to an existing chart or creates a new one, holds the room, sends a portal invite, and creates a staff task.

Booking page:

https://<your-instance>.canvasmedical.com/plugin-io/api/public_scheduling/booking

Who should use this plugin

Practices that want new patients to book themselves from a link or a "Book now" button on their website, including practices whose visits need both a provider and a room.

Problem it solves

Canvas's native self-scheduling lives in the patient portal and requires a login, and visits that need a room are coordinated by the Scheduling with Rooms plugin. The Public Booking plugin gives prospective patients a public page that books against provider and room availability together, and hands the booking to staff with a task.

Before you begin

• Install the Scheduling with Rooms plugin first. Public Booking reads its room configuration and stores its own settings in the same Custom Data namespace.

• In Scheduling Admin, set up the visit types, durations, and room mappings you want to offer.

• Make sure each bookable provider has Clinic availability events at the locations where they see patients. An event with no allowed note types allows every visit type.

• To text booking confirmations, install the Patient Communications plugin and turn on its confirmation SMS channel in Notifications Admin.

Install the plugin

canvas install public_scheduling --host <your-instance> \
  --secret namespace_read_write_access_key=<Scheduling with Rooms read_write key>

The namespace_read_write_access_key value is the same key set on the Scheduling with Rooms plugin. After installing, open Online Booking Admin from the provider menu to choose the bookable services and providers.

Configure the booking page

Open Online Booking Admin from the provider menu. Any signed-in staff member can open it, and changes apply to the booking page as soon as they are saved.

Each Pages section has a Preview button that shows unsaved changes against live services, locations, and times. A preview cannot book.

How patients book

1. Service. The patient picks a visit type.

2. Location. Only locations that offer the chosen visit type are listed. A location qualifies when a provider has availability there for that visit type and, for a visit type mapped to rooms, one of its rooms does too. The step is skipped when only one location qualifies.

3. Time. A month calendar highlights dates with openings. Picking a date lists its times grouped into morning, afternoon, and evening.

4. Details. The patient enters their name, date of birth, phone, email, and any reason for visit or booking questions you turned on.

5. Review. The patient checks the appointment and their details. Nothing is booked until they confirm.

6. Confirmation. The page offers an "Add to Google Calendar" link and an .ics download for Apple Calendar and Outlook.

If Location is placed before Service in Booking flow, the same rules run the other way: a location lists only the services it offers.

What happens after a booking

• Chart. The booking attaches to an existing chart only when exactly one active patient has the same first name, last name, and date of birth and a matching phone or email. Otherwise a new chart is created. A name and birthdate collision flags the task for staff review.

• Appointment and room. The appointment is booked on the provider's calendar, and when the visit type uses a room, the room event is created and linked the same way Scheduling with Rooms links it. Canceling or rescheduling in Scheduling with Rooms releases or moves the room as usual.

• Reason for visit. A reason the patient entered is added to the visit note as a Reason for Visit command, left uncommitted for the provider.

• Portal invite. A portal invite is sent when the patient has an email and has not registered.

• Staff task. Each booking creates a task titled "Online booking: ..." with the reason, booking question answers, and any review note.

• If the time was taken. When a new chart's time is taken before the appointment is booked, staff get a task to call the patient instead.

Booking links for a specific service or location

A link can choose the service, the location, or both for the patient:

https://<your-instance>.canvasmedical.com/plugin-io/api/public_scheduling/booking?appointment_type=<note type code>&location=<practice location id>

• appointment_type is the visit type's note type code, as listed on the Services tab.

• location is the practice location id, with or without dashes.

• A value set by the link is chosen for the patient, and that step leaves the flow, so the patient cannot change it. The other steps run as usual.

• A value that is not offered online (unknown, hidden on the Services or Locations tab, or not a scheduleable visit type) is ignored, and so is a location that does not offer the chosen service. The patient then chooses that step as usual.

• A link with neither parameter opens the full flow.

Build a link

1. Open Online Booking Admin and go to the Links tab.

2. Pick a service, a location, or both.

3. Click Copy, or Open to try the link in a new tab.

Links are built from saved settings. A link built from unsaved changes works once they are saved.

Add booking to your website

Add a "Book now" button or link on your website that opens the booking link in a new tab. The booking page cannot be shown in an iframe on another website: Canvas only allows its own pages to frame plugin pages.

Protections on the public page

• An hourly limit on bookings per IP address, set by RATE_LIMIT_PER_HOUR, and a higher limit on page reads.

• Optional CAPTCHA with Cloudflare Turnstile or Google reCAPTCHA.

• A hidden honeypot field that silently discards automated submissions.

• Every input is validated, and the chosen time is rechecked before booking.

• Booking stays closed until at least one visit type is offered and at least one provider is bookable.

• The admin pages require a staff session. The public page never changes settings.

Plugin variables

Variables marked * can also be set in Online Booking Admin, which takes precedence when its field is filled in.

Troubleshooting

Related articles

• Managing Provider Availability