How to add custom fields

Solidres has two kinds of custom fields, and they do different jobs:

On this page:

1. Custom fields for the booking forms
   • Installation
   • The forms you can customise
   • The default fields
   • Creating a field
   • The input name
   • Field types
   • File upload
   • The order of the fields
   • One field, some properties or experiences
   • Fields that depend on an extra
   • Examples
   • The inquiry form
   • Where the answers are shown
   • The guest profile
   • Translating the fields
   • Removing a field
2. Property and room type details
   • The built-in fields
   • Adding a field of your own
   • How to show a field on the website
   • One field, several languages
   • Removing a field
3. Troubleshooting

Custom fields for the booking forms

Without the Custom Field plugin, Solidres asks every guest the same fixed set of questions. With it, the forms are yours: rename a field, make it optional, remove it, or add a new one, all from the administrator.

Installation

1. Download Solidres Custom Field from your Download page on solidres.com.
2. In your Joomla administrator, go to System → Install → Extensions and upload the package.

The plugin is enabled by the installer. If it has been disabled since, enable Solidres - Custom Field plugin under System → Plugins.

The forms you can customise

Each form has a field list of its own. A field belongs to the list it was created in and is shown in that form only.

The default fields

The plugin installs the fields Solidres needs. They are marked in the Default column of the list.

A default field can be changed, within limits:

Creating a field

Open the list of the form you want to change and select New.

The input name

Solidres handles the answers of a form together with the other data of the booking, and tells them apart by their input name. Use lower-case letters, digits and underscores, give every field its own name, and start the name with the prefix of the form. The prefix keeps your field clear of the names Solidres uses itself:

Any other character, a space included, is replaced by an underscore when the field is saved.

Field types

File upload

• Not in the room form. The type is available in the guest form, not in the room form.
• Size and file types follow Joomla. The limits are those of the Joomla Media options: Content → Media → Options. A file that Joomla would refuse in the Media manager is refused here.
• Files are kept private. A file can be downloaded by an administrator, by the partner who owns the property, by the guest who made the reservation, and through the link in the reservation emails, which carries the reservation code.
• Not part of the profile. A file belongs to one reservation. File fields are left out of the guest profile.

The order of the fields

The forms show the fields in the order of the list. To change it, sort the list by the first column and drag a field by its handle. The guest form splits the list over two columns: the first half on the left, the second half on the right.

The Optional column of the list is a switch. Select it to turn a field from optional to required and back, without opening the field.

One field, some properties or experiences

A field without Categories is asked everywhere. To ask a question in some places only, select one or several categories in the field. Which categories the list offers depends on the form:

Example for properties: your hotels need a passport number, your holiday apartments do not. Create the field Passport number in the guest form and select the category Hotels. Guests of the apartments never see it.

Example for experiences: your cooking classes need to know about food allergies, your city walks do not. Create the field Food allergies in the Experience guest form and select the category Cooking. An experience can be in several categories: the field is asked when one of them is selected in the field.

The fields of the inquiry form and of the partner subscription form are asked everywhere. The Categories setting has no effect there.

Fields that depend on an extra

Some questions only make sense when the guest buys an extra: the flight number for the airport transfer, the age of the child for the cot. A room form field with Assigned extras stays hidden until the guest ticks one of those extras for the room.

1. Go to Solidres → Coupons & Extras → Extras and note the ID of the extra.
2. Open the field under Solidres → Reservations → Custom fields.
3. Enter the ID in Assigned extras. For several extras, separate the IDs with commas, without spaces: 4,7.

Examples

The inquiry form

The inquiry form is shown on the property page when it is enabled in the property. With the plugin, it is built from the list under Solidres → Reservations → Inquiry fields, and every answer is part of the email the property receives.

• Start every input name with inquiry_.
• Keep the two fields inquiry_full_name and inquiry_email, and keep them required. The name goes into the subject of the email, and the address is the one the property replies to.

Where the answers are shown

In the administrator, Confirm Email is left out: staff enter the address once.

Columns in the reservation list

Guest form fields can be shown as columns of the reservation list. Open the Solidres options, select the Reservation tab, and enter the input names in Custom fields in reservation list, separated by commas and without spaces:

customer_arrival_time,customer_company

Finding reservations by a field

A field with Searchable set to Yes is added to the Filter Options of the reservation list. A text field becomes a search box that finds a part of the answer, a field with options becomes a list of those options. This works for fields of the guest form and of the room form.

The guest profile

The guest form fields are also part of the account of a registered guest, under the heading Profile details:

• in the registration form and the profile form of Joomla,
• in the profile of the Solidres customer dashboard,
• in the customer and the Joomla user in the administrator. There, every field is optional.

When a logged-in guest books, the guest form is filled in from the profile, so a returning guest answers your questions once. Note, Email, Confirm Email and file fields are not part of the profile.

Translating the fields

There are three ways to show a field in the language of the guest:

Removing a field

The answers guests gave to a field that is unpublished or deleted stay in the database, but they are no longer shown with the reservations.

Property and room type details

These fields describe a property or a room type. You fill them in on the property's Policies & facilities tab (the social links on its Details tab) or on the room type's Room details tab, and the website shows them on the property page. They are part of Solidres: there is nothing to install or enable.

The built-in fields

Some of them can be made required or left out of the form. Open Solidres → Options → Form fields and choose Required, Optional or Disabled for the check-in time, the check-out time, the cancellation and prepayment policy, the children and extra beds policy and the pets policy of a property, and for the room facilities, the room size and the bed size of a room type. A required field must be filled in before the form can be saved. A disabled field is left out of the form, and a text entered in it before is kept and still shown on the website.

With the Hub package, partners fill in the same fields in the partner dashboard, on the same tabs of their property and room type forms, and the Form fields settings apply to them too.

Adding a field of your own

The forms are part of Solidres, and an update of Solidres replaces their files, so a field added to them by hand would be lost. A field of your own goes in a small Joomla plugin instead. The plugin adds the field to the form each time the form is built, an update of Solidres leaves it alone, and the text entered in the field is saved with the property or room type like the built-in ones.

Writing the plugin takes a developer who knows Joomla, but not long: the example below is complete. It adds a Dining field to the Facilities section of a property and a View field to the Facilities section of a room type. Its six files go in a folder named plg_system_mydetails:

plg_system_mydetails/
    mydetails.xml
    services/provider.php
    src/Extension/MyDetails.php
    forms/property.xml
    forms/roomtype.xml
    language/en-GB/plg_system_mydetails.ini

Step 1: the plugin

mydetails.xml describes the plugin to Joomla:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<extension type="plugin" group="system" method="upgrade">
    <name>System - My details</name>
    <version>1.0.0</version>
    <description>Adds my own fields to the Solidres forms.</description>
    <namespace path="src">My\Plugin\System\MyDetails</namespace>
    <files>
        <folder plugin="mydetails">services</folder>
        <folder>forms</folder>
        <folder>src</folder>
    </files>
    <languages>
        <language tag="en-GB">language/en-GB/plg_system_mydetails.ini</language>
    </languages>
</extension>

services/provider.php creates it:

<?php

\defined('_JEXEC') or die;

use Joomla\CMS\Extension\PluginInterface;
use Joomla\CMS\Plugin\PluginHelper;
use Joomla\DI\Container;
use Joomla\DI\ServiceProviderInterface;
use My\Plugin\System\MyDetails\Extension\MyDetails;

return new class () implements ServiceProviderInterface {
    public function register(Container $container): void
    {
        $container->set(
            PluginInterface::class,
            fn () => new MyDetails((array) PluginHelper::getPlugin('system', 'mydetails'))
        );
    }
};

src/Extension/MyDetails.php does the work. When Solidres builds the property form or the room type form, it adds the fields of the matching XML file:

<?php

namespace My\Plugin\System\MyDetails\Extension;

\defined('_JEXEC') or die;

use Joomla\CMS\Event\Model\PrepareFormEvent;
use Joomla\CMS\Plugin\CMSPlugin;
use Joomla\Event\SubscriberInterface;

final class MyDetails extends CMSPlugin implements SubscriberInterface
{
    // Loads language/en-GB/plg_system_mydetails.ini on every page, the website's included.
    protected $autoloadLanguage = true;

    public static function getSubscribedEvents(): array
    {
        return [
            'onReservationAssetPrepareForm' => 'addFields',
            'onRoomTypePrepareForm'         => 'addFields',
        ];
    }

    public function addFields(PrepareFormEvent $event): void
    {
        $files = [
            'com_solidres.reservationasset' => 'property.xml',
            'com_solidres.roomtype'         => 'roomtype.xml',
        ];
        $form = $event->getForm();
        $file = $files[$form->getName()] ?? null;

        if ($file !== null) {
            $form->loadFile(JPATH_PLUGINS . '/system/mydetails/forms/' . $file);
        }
    }
}

Step 2: the fields

forms/property.xml holds the fields of a property:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<form>
    <fields name="reservationasset_extra_fields">
        <fieldset name="facilities">
            <field
                name="dining"
                type="textarea"
                rows="5"
                label="PLG_SYSTEM_MYDETAILS_DINING_LABEL"
                description="PLG_SYSTEM_MYDETAILS_DINING_DESC"
                filter="safehtml"
            />
        </fieldset>
    </fields>
</form>

and forms/roomtype.xml those of a room type:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<form>
    <fields name="roomtype_custom_fields">
        <fieldset name="facilities">
            <field
                name="view"
                type="text"
                label="PLG_SYSTEM_MYDETAILS_VIEW_LABEL"
                description="PLG_SYSTEM_MYDETAILS_VIEW_DESC"
                filter="string"
            />
        </fieldset>
    </fields>
</form>

The <fields> tag says where the text is saved, and must be named as in the example: reservationasset_extra_fields for a property, roomtype_custom_fields for a room type. The <fieldset> tag says in which section of the form the field appears, after the section's own fields:

A <field> tag has the following attributes:

Step 3: the labels

language/en-GB/plg_system_mydetails.ini gives the language constants their text: the labels of the form, and the labels the website shows, which How to show a field on the website explains:

; The labels on the property and room type forms
PLG_SYSTEM_MYDETAILS_DINING_LABEL="Dining"
PLG_SYSTEM_MYDETAILS_DINING_DESC="Where and when guests can eat at the property."
PLG_SYSTEM_MYDETAILS_VIEW_LABEL="View"
PLG_SYSTEM_MYDETAILS_VIEW_DESC="What guests see from the room, such as Sea view."

; The labels on the website, which the property and room type pages look up
SR_CUSTOMFIELD_DINING="Dining"
SR_CUSTOMFIELD_VIEW="View"

Because the plugin sets $autoloadLanguage, Joomla loads this file on every page, in the administrator and on the website. For another language, add a copy of the file translated, such as language/fr-FR/plg_system_mydetails.ini, with a line for it in the <languages> tag of mydetails.xml.

Step 4: install it and fill it in

Zip the folder, install the zip in System → Install → Extensions, and enable System - My details in System → Manage → Plugins. Edit a property and open the Policies & facilities tab: the Dining field is at the end of the Facilities section. Enter a text and save. The room type's View field is at the end of the Facilities section of its Room details tab. With the Hub package, partners see the two fields in their forms too.

To add more fields later, add them to the XML files of the plugin. The plugin is yours, so an update of Solidres does not change it.

How to show a field on the website

The built-in fields are shown by the templates of Solidres. A field you added with your plugin is saved, but no template knows it yet, so it has to be added to one. Do this in a template override, a copy of the file inside your Joomla template, and leave the file of Solidres as it is: an update replaces it.

There are three files. For each one, the first line is the file of Solidres and the second line is the place of your copy, both inside the folder of your Joomla installation:

• The facilities and policies of a property

  components/com_solidres/tmpl/reservationasset/default_information.php
  templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/html/com_solidres/reservationasset/default_information.php

• The same, for a property shown with the apartment layout

  components/com_solidres/tmpl/apartment/default_information.php
  templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/html/com_solidres/apartment/default_information.php

• The fields of a room type

  components/com_solidres/layouts/roomtype/customfields.php
  templates/YOUR_TEMPLATE/html/layouts/com_solidres/roomtype/customfields.php

To show the dining field of the example, open your copy of default_information.php and add the name of the field to the list of facilities:

$facilities = [
    'general',
    'activities',
    'services',
    'internet',
    'parking',
    'dining',
];

The template looks for the label of a field under the constant SR_CUSTOMFIELD_ followed by the name of the field in capitals, here SR_CUSTOMFIELD_DINING, which the plugin's language file holds. The new field is now shown on the property page, below Parking. A field that is left empty in a property is not shown.

A field of a room type is added the same way. In your copy of customfields.php, add a block for it. For the view field of the example:

if (!empty($roomType->roomtype_custom_fields['view'])) :
    echo '<p><strong>' . Text::_('SR_CUSTOMFIELD_VIEW') . ':</strong> '
        . htmlspecialchars($roomType->roomtype_custom_fields['view']) . '</p>';
endif;

One field, several languages

The facilities and policies of a property can hold a text per language. With Speedy Translate, the fields of the property's Policies & facilities tab have language tabs: type each language in its own tab. Without it, wrap each text in a language tag that carries the URL language code of the language, the one set under System → Content Languages: en, fr, de. The property page shows the text of the current language:

{lang en}Breakfast is served from 7:00 to 10:30.{/lang}
{lang fr}Le petit-déjeuner est servi de 7h00 à 10h30.{/lang}
{lang de}Frühstück gibt es von 7:00 bis 10:30 Uhr.{/lang}

A text without a language tag is shown in every language.

Removing a field

To remove a field of your own, delete its <field> tag from the XML file of your plugin, or uninstall the plugin to remove all its fields. If you added the field to a template override, remove it there as well. The texts entered in the field stay in the database, unused, and come back if you add the field again under the same name.

A built-in field cannot be removed, but it can be hidden: leave it empty, or set it to Disabled in Solidres → Options → Form fields if it is one of those listed there. To hide the whole Facilities or House rules section of a property page, turn off Show the facilities below on the property page or Show the house rules on the property page on the property's Policies & facilities tab.

Troubleshooting