DevExtreme React - Assign Appointments to Resources

The Scheduler widget allows you to assign appointments to a set of predefined resources. Consider the following example: in an educational center lectures are held in two rooms. In scheduling terms, a lecture is an appointment, a room is a resource instance, and all rooms are considered the resource kind.

To define resource kinds, assign an array of objects specifying them to the resources option. Each object must have at least the following fields.

  • dataSource
    All available resource instances (for example, room101, room102). For information on different techniques that you can use to provide data for resources, see the Data Binding topic.
  • fieldExpr
    The data field that binds an appointment to a resource instance.
jQuery
JavaScript
var rooms = [
    // Resource instances
    { 
        id: 1,              // Resource identifier
        text: "Room101",    // Resource name
        color: "red"        // Color for indicating appointments that use this resource
    },
    { id: 2, text: "Room102", color: "green" },
    // ...
];
var teachers = [
    // Resource instances
    { guid: "6F96", name: "John Heart", clr: "yellow" },
    { guid: "3F32", name: "Sandra Johnson", clr: "blue" },
    // ...
];

$(function() {
    $("#schedulerContainer").dxScheduler({
        // ...
        resources: [ 
            // Definition of the first resource kind 
            {
                dataSource: new DevExpress.data.DataSource({
                    store: {
                        type: "array",
                        data: rooms
                    },
                    paginate: false
                }),
                fieldExpr: "roomId",        // "roomId" is the data field in an appointment object that binds it to the resource
                label: "Room"               // Label displayed for this resource kind in the appointment details form 
            },
            // Definition of the second resource kind 
            {
                dataSource: new DevExpress.data.DataSource({
                    store: {
                        type: "array",
                        data: teachers
                    },
                    paginate: false
                }),
                fieldExpr: "teacherId",
                valueExpr: "guid",          // Resource instance's field used instead of "id" 
                colorExpr: "clr",           // Resource instance's field used instead of "color" 
                displayExpr: "name",        // Resource instance's field used instead of "text" 
                label: "Teacher"
            }
        ]
    });
});
Angular
TypeScript
HTML
import { DxSchedulerModule } from "devextreme-angular";
import DataSource from "devextreme/data/data_source";
// ...
export class AppComponent  {
    // ...
    rooms = [
        // Resource instances
        { 
            id: 1,              // Resource identifier
            text: "Room101",    // Resource name
            color: "red"        // Color for indicating appointments that use this resource
        },
        { id: 2, text: "Room102", color: "green" },
        // ...
    ];
    teachers = [
        // Resource instances
        { guid: "6F96", name: "John Heart", clr: "yellow" },
        { guid: "3F32", name: "Sandra Johnson", clr: "blue" },
        // ...
    ];
    resources = [ 
        // Definition of the first resource kind 
        {
            dataSource: new DataSource({
                store: {
                    type: "array",
                    data: this.rooms
                },
                paginate: false
            }),
            fieldExpr: "roomId",        // "roomId" is the data field in an appointment object that binds it to the resource
            label: "Room"               // Label displayed for this resource kind in the appointment details form 
        },
        // Definition of the second resource kind 
        {
            dataSource: new DataSource({
                store: {
                    type: "array",
                    data: this.teachers
                },
                paginate: false
            }),
            fieldExpr: "teacherId",
            valueExpr: "guid",          // Resource instance's field used instead of "id" 
            colorExpr: "clr",           // Resource instance's field used instead of "color" 
            displayExpr: "name",        // Resource instance's field used instead of "text" 
            label: "Teacher"
        }
    ];
}
@NgModule({
    imports: [
        // ...
        DxSchedulerModule
    ],
    // ...
})
<dx-scheduler ...
    [resources]="resources">
</dx-scheduler>

Note that every resource instance should have a special structure that includes id, color and text fields. If the structure of your resources differs, set the valueExpr, colorExpr and displayExpr options as shown in the code above.

View Demo

API

Each resource kind has the fieldExpr option. To associate an appointment with a resource, include a field specified in the fieldExpr option into the appointment's data object.

jQuery
JavaScript
var appointments = [{ 
    // Single resource of the "room" kind
    roomId: 1,              // Room 101 (id: 1)
    // Multiple resources of the "teacher" kind
    teacherId: [ 1, 2 ],    // Sandra Johnson (id: 1) and John Heart (id: 2)
    text: "Meeting",
    // ...
},
// ...
];

var resources = [
    // "Room" resource kind
    { 
        fieldExpr: 'roomId', 
        dataSource: [
            { id: 1, text: 'Room101', color: 'green' },
            { id: 2, text: 'Room102', color: 'red' },
            // ...
        ] 
    },
    // "Teacher" resource kind
    { 
        fieldExpr: 'teacherId', 
        dataSource: [
            { id: 1, text: 'Sandra Johnson', color: 'yellow' },
            { id: 2, text: 'John Heart', color: 'blue' },
            // ...
        ],
        allowMultiple: true 
    }
];

$(function(){
    $("#schedulerContainer").dxScheduler({
        dataSource: appointments,
        resources: resources,
        //...
    });
});
Angular
TypeScript
HTML
import { DxSchedulerModule } from "devextreme-angular";
// ...
export class AppComponent {
    appointments = [{ 
        // Single resource of the "room" kind
        roomId: 1,              // Room 101 (id: 1)
        // Multiple resources of the "teacher" kind
        teacherId: [ 1, 2 ],    // Sandra Johnson (id: 1) and John Heart (id: 2)
        text: "Meeting",
        // ...
    },
    // ...
    ];
    resources = [
        // "Room" resource kind
        { 
            fieldExpr: 'roomId', 
            dataSource: [
                { id: 1, text: 'Room101', color: 'green' },
                { id: 2, text: 'Room102', color: 'red' },
                // ...
            ] 
        },
        // "Teacher" resource kind
        { 
            fieldExpr: 'teacherId', 
            dataSource: [
                { id: 1, text: 'Sandra Johnson', color: 'yellow' },
                { id: 2, text: 'John Heart', color: 'blue' },
                // ...
            ],
            allowMultiple: true 
        }
    ];
    currentDate = new Date(2016, 4, 25);
}
@NgModule({
    imports: [
        // ...
        DxSchedulerModule
    ],
    // ...
})
<dx-scheduler 
    [dataSource]="appointments"
    [currentDate]="currentDate"
    [resources]="resources">
</dx-scheduler>

The following image illustrates appointments assigned to different resources. Each color indicates a relation to a definite resource.

Scheduler Appointment Resources

Appointments with several resource kinds are colored like the last one in the resources array. To color appointments in colors of another resource kind, set its useColorAsDefault option to true.

JavaScript
var resources = [{ 
    fieldExpr: 'roomId', 
    dataSource: [
        { id: 1, text: 'Room101', color: 'green' },
        { id: 2, text: 'Room102', color: 'red' },
        // ...
    ], 
    useColorAsDefault: true 
}, { 
    fieldExpr: 'teacherId', 
    dataSource: [
        { id: 1, text: 'Sandra Johnson', color: 'yellow' },
        { id: 2, text: 'John Heart', color: 'blue' },
        // ...
    ]
}];

User Interaction

The Scheduler shows all available resource kinds in the appointment details form. By default, the widget allows a user to assign only a single resource of one kind.

Scheduler Appointment Resources

To allow multiple resources, assign true to the allowMultiple option of the corresponding resource kind.

JavaScript
var resources = [
    { fieldExpr: 'roomId', dataSource: roomsDataSource },
    { fieldExpr: 'teacherId', dataSource: teachersDataSource, allowMultiple: true }
];

Scheduler Appointment Resources

See Also