Use these URL Parameters to control which Start and End date are shown on the Booking Form

When to use this feature

1. If you want to send your customers links that have personalized start and end dates within which the customer can make their booking.
2. If you offer a link on your website or Salesforce Community/Experience site and want to control the window of dates for when the booking can be made

URL Parameters

Start Date "sd=yyyy-mm-dd" - this is the first possible date that will be shown as available for booking on the booking form.  Note - The times shown depend on what is actually available on that date and may not show any if there are no times available to book.

End Date "ed=yyyy-mm-dd" - this is the first possible date that will be shown as available for booking on the booking form.  Note - The times shown depend on what is actually available on that date and may not show any if there are no times available to book.

Example use case & scenario

• The customer takes the first of two vaccination shots on the 1st of May.

• The second shot must be administered no less than 14 and no more than 21 days later.

• In Salesforce, we use formulas to calculate the start date for the next booking window as the 14th of May and the end for the booking window as the 21st of May.

• The customer is then sent a URL with the Appointment Type of Second Vaccination shot and is only able to book times within the timeframe of May 14-21.

In Salesforce

We need to calculate the relative date and save that in a custom field and then add it dynamically into the URL using a formula field.

1. The dates are saved in the Booking Start Date and Booking End Date fields. (The fields must be written precisely in the yyyy-mm-dd format so they can be used in formula fields etc.)

2. The fields are generally saved on the same object that we are already appending to the URL (the cId or rId) so that the formula fields can easily reference the needed dates.

3. They add the Booking Window Start Date (sd) and Booking Window End Date (ed) values after the sd and ed URL parameters the same way they currently do for the related object or the Contact/Lead object. (Using a formula field or whatever method they want)

You don't have to use both start date and end date together

• There might be a start date only.

• There might be an end date only.

Where this works and how to make it even better

• This works great in the scenario described- where the start date and end date are stored on the related object or contact record. 

• Use these linked articles to see how you can combine Start Date and End Date parameters with the Customer ID URL parameter and this article for the Related ID URL parameter to get even more specific with the bookings.

• It will also work for “general” appointments where the Customer ID and Related ID are not known. You just need to make sure your general appointment link is dynamically updated with new relative dates whenever it is shown on your web page.

• Another common use case is setting up a campaign, adding the Start Date and End Date parameters, and adding the Campaign ID in the Related ID so that all appointments booked will be automatically associated with that campaign…