Configuration¶

Customizing your Django appointment scheduler is straightforward. In your Django project's settings.py file, you can override the default configurations to tailor the application according to your needs. Below is a breakdown of the configurations.

Essential Configurations:¶

These configurations are needed for the application to operate correctly; most of them can also be set in the Config model in the admin panel. However, you can also set them here. The values provided here represent the default settings. Change them to suit your needs.

APPOINTMENT_BASE_TEMPLATE = 'base_templates/base.html'
APPOINTMENT_ADMIN_BASE_TEMPLATE = 'base_templates/base.html'  # (optional) Specify a different base template for the admin panel
APPOINTMENT_WEBSITE_NAME = 'Website'  # Can be set in the Config model.
APPOINTMENT_PAYMENT_URL = None
APPOINTMENT_THANK_YOU_URL = None
APPOINTMENT_BUFFER_TIME = 0  # Can be set in the Config Model. Minutes between now and the first available slot for the current day (doesn't affect future dates)
APPOINTMENT_SLOT_DURATION = 30  # Can be set in the Config Model. Duration of each appointment slot in minutes 
APPOINTMENT_LEAD_TIME = (9, 0)  # Can be set in the Config Model. Start time of the appointment slots (in 24-hour format)
APPOINTMENT_FINISH_TIME = (18, 30)  # Can be set in the Config Model. End time of the appointment slots (in 24-hour format)
USE_DJANGO_Q_FOR_EMAILS = False  # Use Django Q for sending ALL emails.

Settings vs. the Config model

Where a setting says "Can be set in the Config Model", the database value wins when a Config row exists. The settings.py value is the fallback used when it doesn't. See the Config model.

Custom Template Configurations:¶

These control where the package looks for your template overrides. Both are optional and shown with their defaults:

APPOINTMENT_CUSTOM_TEMPLATES_DIR = 'custom'  # Directory (inside your templates dir) for page overrides
APPOINTMENT_CUSTOM_EMAILS_DIR = 'emails'  # Directory (inside your templates dir) for email overrides

See Custom templates for the list of template names you can override and the context each one receives.

Cleanup Configuration:¶

Appointment requests that never became an appointment (a client picked a slot, then abandoned the flow) pile up over time. The package deletes the stale ones for you:

APPOINTMENT_CLEANUP_DAYS = 7  # Delete unassociated appointment requests older than this many days

If django_q is in your INSTALLED_APPS, a daily cleanup task is scheduled automatically when the app starts — you don't have to register anything. Without Django Q, nothing is scheduled and you can run the cleanup yourself:

python manage.py cleanup_appointment_requests

# See what would be deleted without deleting anything:
python manage.py cleanup_appointment_requests --dry-run

Only appointment requests with no associated Appointment are removed; confirmed appointments are never touched.

Django Q Configuration:¶

For email reminders with Django Q, you can configure the following settings after adding django_q to your INSTALLED_APPS:

Q_CLUSTER = {
    'name': 'DjangORM',
    'workers': 4,
    'timeout': 90,
    'retry': 120,
    'queue_limit': 50,
    'bulk': 10,
    'orm': 'default',
}

If those settings are not provided, the application won't send email reminders. You also have to run python manage.py qcluster to start the Django Q cluster.

Sending all emails through Django Q¶

By default, only the 24-hour reminders go through Django Q; every other email is sent inline, during the request. If you're already running a cluster, it is worth offloading the rest of them too:

USE_DJANGO_Q_FOR_EMAILS = True  # Use Django Q for sending ALL emails, not just reminders

Django Default Settings Utilization:¶

The application leverages some of the default settings from your Django project. Ensure these values (DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL, TIME_ZONE) are set in your settings.py because they are used as:

APP_DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL = 'DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL'  # Default email for sending notifications
APP_TIME_ZONE = 'TIME_ZONE'  # Ensure the TIME_ZONE is set to your desired timezone

The package also reads ADMINS to decide who receives the admin notification emails for new and rescheduled appointments.

Deprecated Configurations:¶

The following configuration is no longer in use:

APPOINTMENT_CLIENT_MODEL = 'auth.User'  # Deprecated

It has been replaced with a more flexible approach: the package resolves the client model through Django's own django.contrib.auth.get_user_model(), which honours your AUTH_USER_MODEL.

AUTH_USER_MODEL = 'your_app.YourUserModel'  # Optional if you use Django's default user model

Ensure AUTH_USER_MODEL is correctly set in your settings.py if you use a custom user model.