small_server_thingies/mrbs_coworking

I deployed a silly room booking system to manage the split of the working areas with the guys at the transforma coworking.

This explains how to deploy and configure the system.

Links

• Project page: https://mrbs.sourceforge.io/
• Unofficial Docker-ized version: https://github.com/dorianim/mrbs-docker
• Config file reference: https://github.com/meeting-room-booking-system/mrbs-code/blob/main/web/systemdefaults.inc.php

Deployment

Copy the docker-compose.yaml in your server and start it up. You might want to adjust some of the settings, like the ports and such.

On the first startup, you will be asked to create the admin user. After that, you have a few chores to do:

• Configure an "area" (like, your office)
  • This includes what are the opening hours, limits on how much can someone book, whether bookings can be private or not, etc.
• Configure rooms within your area
• Create any users you need

There is a config file in the path config/mrbs/www/config.inc.php. The app has a gazillion config parameters. You need to restart the docker instance for changes to take effect.

Afterwards, you can redirect your reverse proxy to the http address to run it over the internet.

Useful stuff for the transforma BBO instance

• How to set up private mode (forces login): add this line so that only logged in users can make bookings: $auth['deny_public_access'] = true;
• 2 weeks advanced max booking: in the area config.
• Max hours per week and month booking: in the area config.

My numbers on how to set reasonable max times for our sharing space

desks = 4 hours in a month per desk (WORKAHOLIC WA assuming 9 to 21 opening) = 12 * 5 * 4.3 = 258 hours in a month per desk (NORMAL N assuming 9 to 17 opening) = 8 * 5 * 4.3 = 172 monthly desk-hours WA = 4 * 258 = 1032 monthly desk-hours NA = 4 * 172 = 688

coworkers = 6

WA numbers max_monthly_hours = 1032 / 6 = 172 max_weekly_hours = (172 / 4.3) = 40

NA numbers max_monthly_hours = 688 / 6 = 115 max_weekly_hours = (115 / 4.3) = 27