Several AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript and XML) endpoints are available for use with the Appointment Scheduling feature to retrieve reading room and appointment information in various contexts and to handle creating and rescheduling appointments. Each endpoint will return a JSON response as detailed below.
JSON Object Returned | AJAX Endpoints
JSON Object Returned
Successful calls to one of these endpoints will return a JSON object with a status property that has the value "success" and a data property that contains the data returned from the operation.
{ "status": "success", "data": { .... }}Unsuccessful calls to one of these endpoints will return a JSON object with a status property that indicates whether the request failed because insufficient information was submitted (status = 'fail') or because there was an unrelated server error (status = 'error'), along with a message property to explain the error.
{ "status": "fail", "message": "AppointmentID is a required field."}
{ "status": "error", "message": "Unable to retrieve appointment details."} AJAX Endpoints
GetAppointments | GetReadingRooms | GetAppointmentAvailability | GetAppointmentAvailabilities | CreateAppointment | RescheduleAppointment
GetAppointments
Returns a list of available appointments for a user or their researcher that are still pending (i.e. their StopTime is still in the future). If the reading room does not require appointments, an empty result will also be included in the result set to allow for submitting a request without an appointment.
Parameters
| Name | Required/Optional | Description |
| ReadingRoomID | Required | The ID of the reading room to which the appointments must belong. |
| ResearcherUsername | Optional | If ResearcherUsername is provided, the AJAX method will return only appointments for that researcher that are available to proxies and only if the current user is a proxy for the said researcher. Otherwise, it will return only appointments for the current user. This information is determined from the user's active web session. |
| TransactionNumber | Optional | If TransactionNumber is provided and the transaction has a linked appointment, that appointment will be included in the results even if it doesn't meet the other criteria or has already passed its expiration date. |
Data Returned
A JSON object representing the list of appointments.
GetReadingRooms
Returns a list of reading rooms, restricting the list to those associated with a specific site if this parameter is provided. This AJAX method is available anonymously, i.e. it does not require an active web session.
Parameters
| Name | Required/Optional | Description |
| Site | Optional | When provided, the list of returned reading rooms will be limited to those associated with the given site as determined through the ReadingRoomsForSites database table. |
Data Returned
A JSON object representing the list of reading rooms.
GetAppointmentAvailability
Returns a list of available appointment slots for the given reading room and date.
Parameters
| Name | Required/Optional | Description |
| ReadingRoomID | Required | The ID of the reading room. |
| AppointmentDate | Required | The date of the appointment. |
Data Returned
A JSON object containing the standard AppointmentAvailability fields (UTCStartTime, StartTime, SeatsAvailable, and MaximumAppointmentLength) as well as an additional field named StartTime-ISO8601. This field will contain the StartTime data formatted in the ISO 8601 standard for convenience of use, while the UTCStartTime and StartTime fields will be formatted using the system standard (e.g., month/day/year for US servers).
GetAppointmentAvailabilities
Returns a list of available appointment slots for the given reading room across the specified date range.
Parameters
| Name | Required/Optional | Description |
| ReadingRoomID | Required | The ID of the reading room. |
| AppointmentStartDate | Required | The start of the date range for which to retrieve appointment availability information. |
| AppointmentEndDate | Required | The end of the date range for which to retrieve appointment availability information. |
Data Returned
A JSON object containing an array for each available appointment slot in the specified date range. Appointment slot arrays will contain the fields detailed in the GetAppointmentAvailability endpoint documentation above and will be grouped by date key for each date in the range. Any date for which no appointment slots are available will return an empty JSON array under that date key.
The following is an example of data returned for a specified start date of November 1st, 2022, and an end date of November 3rd, 2022. Note that an empty JSON array is returned for November 2nd, 2022, meaning that no appointments are available for the reading room on that date:
{
"status": "success",
"data": {
"2022-11-01": [
{
"UTCStartTime": "2022-11-01T13:00:00.000",
"StartTime": "11/1/2022 9:00:00 AM",
"StartTime-ISO8601": "2022-11-01T09:00:00.000",
"SeatsAvailable": "1",
"MaximumAppointmentLength": "120"
},
{
"UTCStartTime": "2022-11-01T13:15:00.000",
"StartTime": "11/1/2022 9:15:00 AM",
"StartTime-ISO8601": "2022-11-01T09:15:00.000",
"SeatsAvailable": "1",
"MaximumAppointmentLength": "120"
},
{
"UTCStartTime": "2022-11-01T13:30:00.000",
"StartTime": "11/1/2022 9:30:00 AM",
"StartTime-ISO8601": "2022-11-01T09:30:00.000",
"SeatsAvailable": "1",
"MaximumAppointmentLength": "120"
}
],
"2022-11-02": [],
"2022-11-03": [
{
"UTCStartTime": "2022-11-03T13:00:00.000",
"StartTime": "11/3/2022 9:00:00 AM",
"StartTime-ISO8601": "2022-11-03T09:00:00.000",
"SeatsAvailable": "1",
"MaximumAppointmentLength": "120"
}
]
}
}CreateAppointment
Creates an appointment for a given user, reading room, and time slot.
Parameters
| Name | Required/Optional | Description |
| ReadingRoomID | Required | The ID of the reading room in which to schedule the appointment. |
| StartTime | Required | The start time of the appointment in the time zone of the reading room. |
| StopTime | Required | The end time of the appointment in the time zone of the reading room. |
| Name | Optional | The name for the appointment. |
| ResearcherUsername | Optional | If specified, the appointment will be created for the researcher instead of the current user. |
| AvailableToProxies | Optional | Specifies whether the appointment will be available to proxy users. If ResearcherUsername is provided, this value will default to true. |
Data Returned
A JSON object representing the created appointment.
RescheduleAppointment
Reschedules an existing appointment.
Parameters
| Name | Required/Optional | Description |
| AppointmentID | Required | The ID of the appointment being rescheduled. |
| StartTime | Required | The start time of the new appointment time slot. |
| StopTime | Required | The end time of the new appointment time slot |
| Name | Optional | Specifies a new name for the appointment. |
Data Returned
A JSON object representing the rescheduled appointment.