Appointment Request Association
An appointment answers when a researcher is coming in; the requests linked to it are what they want to look at while they're here. Tying the two together is what lets you pull material ahead of a visit, print call slips for everything that researcher needs that day, and keep a researcher's reading-room day organized around a single appointment.
Most of the time the link forms on its own: when a researcher books an appointment on the web and places requests for it, those requests arrive already attached to the appointment. Staff reach for the tools on this page in the gaps — a request came in without an appointment and you want to attach it, a researcher's proxy placed requests that should ride along on the researcher's appointment, or you're creating a fresh request for someone who's already booked.
- You're prepping for a visit and want to see — or print call slips for — everything a researcher has requested for a specific appointment.
- A request landed in a queue without an appointment, and you want to attach it to one the researcher already has.
- A researcher's proxy placed requests that belong on the researcher's appointment.
- You're entering a brand-new request on behalf of someone who is already booked, and you want it linked from the start.
In older versions of Aeon, attaching or removing a request from an appointment could only be done in the desktop client — the web client could show an appointment's requests but not change them. Aeon 7 closes that gap: everything described below happens in the web staff client.
How the link is stored
The association lives on the request, not the appointment. Each request carries (at most) one appointment; an appointment can have many requests. That detail matters because it explains the rules:
- You attach and detach requests by acting on the request (individually or in bulk), or by creating a request that's pre-linked. The appointment detail panel shows the linked requests and lets you jump to them, but you don't add or remove them from the panel itself.
- A request can only be linked to an appointment that belongs to the same researcher (the request's user, or its researcher when the request was placed by a proxy).
- Cancelling a request clears its appointment link automatically.
Viewing the requests on an appointment
The fastest way to see what's attached to an appointment is the appointment detail panel.
- Open the Appointments calendar and click the appointment — for example, a confirmed appointment for researcher jdoe next Tuesday.
- The detail panel opens on the Details tab. If the appointment has any linked requests, an Associated Requests card lists them, with a count in the header (for example, Associated Requests (3)).
- Each request shows as a row with its transaction number (for example, #12345), a status badge (such as Awaiting Request Processing), and the item title. Click a row to open that request.
From the Associated Requests card header you also have:
- View All — opens a search results list of every request linked to this appointment, handy when there are more than a few and you want to filter, sort, or select them in bulk.
- Add Request — starts a new request that will be linked to this appointment (see Creating a new request already linked to an appointment below).
Because the link is stored on the request, the detail panel is read-and-navigate only for existing requests — there's no detach control here. To remove a request from an appointment, act on the request itself (see Removing the link).
Assigning requests to an existing appointment
When one or more requests already exist and you want to attach them to an appointment the researcher has booked, use the bulk selection bar from a request list.
- Open a queue, a search result, or the researcher's Requests — anywhere requests are listed with checkboxes.
- Select the request or requests you want to attach. For example, check requests #12345 and #12348, both placed by jdoe.
- In the bulk action bar that appears, open the Appointment menu and choose Assign to Appointment….
- In the Assign Appointment dialog, find the appointment — there's a Search appointments… box to narrow the list — select it, and click Assign.
The dialog header confirms the scope (for example, Select an appointment to assign to 2 requests.). On success, you'll see a confirmation that the appointment was assigned to those requests, and the detail panel for that appointment will now list them.
Assign to Appointment… is only available when every selected request belongs to the same user. If your selection mixes researchers, the option is disabled and the bar shows Requests must belong to the same user. Narrow your selection to one researcher and try again.
If any of the selected requests were placed by a proxy on a researcher's behalf, the picker only offers appointments that researcher has marked Available to Proxies — the same appointments a proxy is allowed to request against. This keeps a proxy's requests from landing on an appointment that wasn't opened up to proxies.
If the researcher has no eligible appointments, the dialog shows No appointments found for {username}. Create an appointment for them first, then assign.
Creating a new request already linked to an appointment
When you're taking a request for someone who's already booked, you can start it from the appointment so the link is in place from the first save.
- Open the appointment in the calendar to bring up the detail panel.
- Click New Request in the action bar, or Add Request in the Associated Requests card header.
- The new-request form opens with the researcher's username and this appointment already filled in. Complete the citation and item details as usual and save.
- After saving, Aeon returns you to the appointment with it selected, so you can confirm the new request now appears under Associated Requests.
A request tied to a future appointment may route to Awaiting Future Request Processing rather than straight into the active processing queue, then move into the active queue on its own as the appointment date approaches. How far ahead this kicks in is governed by a lead-time setting (the Request Min Lead Days customization). This is normal: the request isn't stuck, it's waiting for the visit to get close.
Removing the link
To detach a request from its appointment, act on the request — not the appointment panel.
- In bulk: select the requests in a list, open the Appointment menu in the bulk action bar, and choose Remove Appointment. A Remove Appointments confirmation asks you to confirm — it notes that this only clears the appointment field on each request and that the appointments themselves are not deleted. Confirm, and the link is cleared from each selected request.
- Automatically: if you cancel a request, its appointment link is removed as part of the cancellation. Likewise, assigning a request to an activity clears its appointment — a request can carry an appointment or an activity, not both.
On a multi-site instance, you can only assign or remove appointments for requests at sites you have access to. If a selection includes requests from a site you can't reach, that request is left out of the action. The appointment picker, in turn, only lists appointments for reading rooms tied to your sites.
- The Appointment menu in the bulk action bar — both Assign to Appointment… and Remove Appointment — is available with the Edit level of the Appointments permission. Without it, the menu is disabled. (Because both actions edit the request behind the scenes, they also require Edit on Requests, which the same staff normally have.)
- Viewing an appointment's associated requests and opening them follows your normal Appointments and Requests view access — anyone who can open the appointment and the request can see the link.