Question 1

What does Avail API do?

Accepted Answer

Avail API calculates available appointment slots based on your requested date, timezone, business hours, appointment duration, buffers, busy periods, and blackout periods.

Question 2

Does Avail API store my scheduling data?

Accepted Answer

No. Avail API is stateless. Availability is calculated from the data you provide in each request and is not used as a persistent calendar or scheduling database.

Question 3

Do I need to connect a calendar?

Accepted Answer

No. Avail API does not require a connection to Google Calendar, Outlook, or another calendar provider. You provide the periods that are already unavailable, and the API calculates the remaining available slots.

Question 4

What information do I send?

Accepted Answer

A request can include the date, timezone, available hours, appointment duration, slot interval, buffer time, busy periods, blackout periods, and recurring weekly blackouts.

Question 5

Can I specify split business hours?

Accepted Answer

Yes. You can provide multiple availability periods for the same day. This allows you to represent schedules such as 9:00 AM–12:00 PM and 1:00 PM–5:00 PM.

Question 6

Can I block specific times?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Busy periods and blackout periods can be supplied to prevent those times from appearing as available slots.

Question 7

Can I define recurring weekly blackouts?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Avail API supports recurring weekly blackout periods, allowing you to represent recurring unavailable times such as weekends or regularly scheduled closures.

Question 8

What is the appointment duration?

Accepted Answer

Appointment duration determines how much time each generated appointment requires. For example, a 60-minute duration produces one-hour appointment slots.

Question 9

What is the slot interval?

Accepted Answer

The slot interval determines how frequently potential appointment start times are generated. For example, a 30-minute interval can produce start times at 9:00, 9:30, 10:00, and so on, subject to the other scheduling constraints.

Question 10

What is a buffer?

Accepted Answer

A buffer adds additional unavailable time around an appointment. This can be used to account for preparation, cleanup, travel, or other time needed between appointments.

Question 11

Does Avail API create or book appointments?

Accepted Answer

No. Avail API calculates availability; it does not create or confirm appointments. Your application remains responsible for booking and managing appointments.

Question 12

Does Avail API prevent double-booking?

Accepted Answer

No. Avail API calculates slots based on the busy periods provided in the request. Your application or booking system should update its availability data when an appointment is created.

Question 13

Can I use Avail API with my own booking system?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Avail API is designed to work as an availability calculation layer for booking systems, scheduling applications, marketplaces, and other software that needs to determine open appointment times.

Question 14

What timezone should I use?

Accepted Answer

Provide the timezone that should be used when interpreting the requested date and schedule. Using an appropriate IANA timezone, such as America/Chicago, helps ensure that availability is calculated using the intended local time.

Question 15

What happens if there are no available slots?

Accepted Answer

The API returns an empty availability result when no slots satisfy the requested scheduling constraints.

Question 16

Is Avail API suitable for recurring schedules?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Recurring weekly blackouts can be supplied as part of the availability calculation, while your application can make requests for whatever dates it needs to evaluate.

Question 17

Can I use Avail API for different appointment types?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Your application can supply different appointment durations, intervals, buffers, and availability rules for different types of appointments.

Question 18

Does Avail API require a database?

Accepted Answer

No. The API itself does not require a persistent database for availability calculations. Your application can maintain its own users, appointments, calendars, and other scheduling data.

Question 19

What happens if a request fails?

Accepted Answer

A failed request is not considered a successful availability calculation. Check the returned error information and validate the request parameters before retrying.

Question 20

Where can I report a problem?

Accepted Answer

When reporting an issue, provide the endpoint, request parameters, response or error message, and approximate time of the request. Do not include API keys or other credentials.

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