Design of a Calendar System : A Plugin for WordPress

Abstract: The company Ehandelslösningar works within web development, primarily with e-commerce where they have both individuals and companies as their customers. Some of these companies offer services of their own and as a result, these companies have their own customers whom they have to meet and interact with on a daily basis. This led to Ehandelslösningar wanting their own calendar system, so that these companies could then use it to set up appointments. The requirement was that the developed calendar system had to be user-friendly, contain necessary functionality, and that it had to be implemented as a WordPress plugin. The project was therefore divided into two parts, the first centering on how to design a calendar system, and the second being the development and implementation of the calendar system as a WordPress plugin. The project began with a literary study of the different aspects that make up this project, such as calendars and WordPress, as well as user-friendly design and plugin security. Existing WordPress calendar plugins and other online calendar systems were chosen for analysis. The analysis was done in order to identify strengths and flaws in the design of calendar systems, which in turn would help the development of the WordPress plugin. Based on the analysis, features were selected and then implemented into the developed WordPress plugin, which is named EHLCalendar. The admin of a WordPress website can create time slots, practitioners and services once they have activated EHLCalendar. Visitors select a service, the practitioner they want, and a date in order to see the available time slots and book an appointment.