Settings - Plugixa Car Parking

Open Car Parking -> Settings. In the app’s sidebar it is the last item of the Configuration group.

The screen is split into sections, listed down the side. The free plugin has five: General, Bookings, Payments, Notifications and Advanced. Pro PRO adds six more.

Who can open it

The Settings screen needs the plugixa_carparking_manage_settings capability. Administrators have it. Somebody without it does not see Settings in the menu, and the address shows the no-access screen.

The Advanced section is shown only to users who can administer the site (the WordPress manage_options capability).

Saving

All sections share one draft and one Save button. A change on one section is still pending when you move to another, and an Unsaved changes label stays visible until you save. Discard throws the pending changes away. Leaving the page with changes pending asks first.

After a save the screen confirms with “Settings saved.”

Each section has its own address, so you can link to it: admin.php?page=plugixa-car-parking#/settings?tab=bookings. The section names in the address are general, bookings, payments, notifications and advanced.

General

Business

Option	Default	Notes
Business name	Plugixa Car Parking	“Printed as the company on a booking summary.”

Currency

“How prices are written. Every amount is in this one currency.”

Option	Default	Choices and limits
Currency code	USD	“The three-letter code, such as USD or EUR.”
Currency symbol	$	Free text
Symbol position	Before the amount	Before the amount, After the amount
Decimal places	2	0 to 4
Thousands separator	Comma (,)	Comma, Full stop, Space, Apostrophe, None
Decimal separator	Full stop (.)	Full stop, Comma

A Preview line under the fields writes 1234.5 with the current choices. If the two separators are the same, a warning says: “The thousands and decimal separators are the same, so an amount cannot be read. Choose two different ones.”

The currency is a label. Changing it does not convert any stored amount.

Dates and times

“How a date and a time of day are written across the app.”

Option	Default	Choices
Date format	Y-m-d	Y-m-d, d/m/Y, m/d/Y, d.m.Y, j M Y, M j, Y. Each is offered as an example date.
Time format	24-hour (14:30)	24-hour (14:30), 12-hour (2:30 pm)
Week starts on	Monday	Any day of the week

A note under the fields names the site’s timezone: “Times follow the site’s timezone. It is changed in WordPress, under Settings, General.” A booking’s entry and exit are the car park’s own clock time, in that timezone.

Units

Option	Default	Notes
Length unit	Metres	Metres or Feet. “The unit a new space type’s dimensions start in.” See Space types.

Bookings

New bookings

“What a booking starts with when nothing more specific says otherwise.”

Option	Default	Notes
Status of a new booking	Pending	Pending or Confirmed. “Pending waits for you or for a payment. Confirmed takes the booking at once.”
Reference prefix	PKG-	“Put in front of every new booking reference.”
Default billing unit	Per day	Minute, hour, day, week or month. Stored, but version 1.0.0 does not read it: every location has its own Billing unit, and that is what a booking is priced in. See Pricing.
Default entry time	08:00	The time the admin booking form and the calendar start a new booking at.
Default exit time	18:00	The same, for the exit.
Accept coupon codes	On	“Off, no form offers the coupon field and no code is taken.” See Coupons.

The two default times apply to bookings you create in the admin. The public booking form picks its own starting dates.

Booking window

“How soon and how far ahead a stay can be booked, and how long it can be held or cancelled.”

Option	Default	Limits	Notes
Shortest notice (minutes)	0	0 or more	“0 lets a customer book a stay that starts now.”
Furthest ahead (days)	365	0 to 3650	“0 sets no limit.”
Hold an unconfirmed booking for (minutes)	30	0 to 10080	“How long a pending booking keeps its space before it expires. 0 keeps it until you act.”
Cancellation cut-off (hours)	0	0 or more	“How long before entry a customer can still cancel. 0 allows it up to the entry time.”

The first three are explained in Availability. The cut-off applies to the customer account page.

Statuses

“What each booking status is called on this site, and which of them keep a space taken.”

Option	Default
Status names	Pending, Confirmed, Paid, Completed, Cancelled, Refunded, No-show, Expired
Statuses that hold a space	Pending, Confirmed, Paid, Completed

Status names changes what a status is called. Statuses that hold a space decides which bookings count as taking a space: “A booking in one of these statuses counts as taking a space when availability is worked out.” See Bookings for what each status means.

Pages

“The pages of your site that customers are sent to.”

Option	Default	Notes
Booking page	None	“Where a customer lands after paying online. Left empty, the booking summary page is used, or a page that holds the booking form.”
Booking summary page	None	“The page that shows a customer their booking. Emails link to it. Left empty, no link is sent.”

The summary page is a page that holds the [plugixa_car_parking_summary] shortcode. See Shortcodes.

While neither page is chosen, the section shows a warning: “Neither page is chosen. A customer who pays online is sent back to a page that holds the booking form, and to the home page if there is none, where nothing tells them how the payment went. Choose at least one.”

Payments

Pay on arrival

“The customer books now and pays at the car park. You record the payment on the booking when it is made.”

Option	Default	Notes
Let customers pay on arrival	On	Switches the pay-on-arrival method on or off.
Instructions for the customer	Please pay on arrival at the parking entrance.	“Shown once a booking is placed, and on its summary.”

See Payments.

Notifications

Email

“Who booking emails come from, and who on your side is told about a new booking.”

Option	Default	Notes
Send booking emails	On	The master switch. “Switched off, no email below is sent, to customers or to you.”
Sender name	The site title
Sender address	The site’s admin email
Send new-booking notices to	The site’s admin email	“One address. It is told about every new booking.”

Email templates

A row of placeholders. Click one to copy it. “Each is replaced with the booking’s own value in a subject or a message.”

Placeholder	Replaced with
{booking_ref}	The booking reference
{customer_name}	The customer’s name
{customer_email}	The customer’s email address
{location_name}	The location booked
{entry_datetime}	When the stay starts
{exit_datetime}	When the stay ends
{quantity}	How many spaces were booked
{total}	The total, with the currency symbol
{status}	The booking’s status
{custom_fields}	What the customer answered in the fields your booking form adds, one to a line
{summary_url}	A link to the booking summary

The three emails

Each has a Subject and a Message.

Email	Sent	Default subject
Booking received	“Sent to the customer when a booking is placed.”	Your parking booking {booking_ref} is confirmed
New booking notice	“Sent to your own address when a booking is placed.”	New parking booking {booking_ref}
Payment received	“Sent to the customer once a booking is paid in full.”	Payment received for {booking_ref}

The default messages:

Hello {customer_name},

Your booking {booking_ref} at {location_name} is confirmed.
Entry: {entry_datetime}
Exit: {exit_datetime}
Total: {total}

Thank you!

A new booking {booking_ref} was placed by {customer_name} at {location_name}.

Hello {customer_name},

We've received your payment for booking {booking_ref}. Total: {total}.

Thank you!

See Emails for when each is sent and what is added to it.

Advanced

Uninstall

Option	Default	Notes
Erase all data when the plugin is deleted	Off	“Off by default: deleting the plugin removes its files and keeps your bookings, so installing it again picks up where you left off. Deactivating never deletes anything.”

Switching it on shows a warning: “Deleting the plugin will now permanently erase every booking, payment, location, form and setting. There is no undo. Nothing is erased while another copy of the plugin is still installed, because that copy uses the same data.”

Only a site administrator can change this option. See Privacy and uninstall.

Pro sections

With Pro installed, six more sections appear. Each is documented on its own page.

Section	Address	Documented in
Stripe PRO	#/settings?tab=stripe	Stripe
PayPal PRO	#/settings?tab=paypal	PayPal
Text messages PRO	#/settings?tab=sms	SMS and Telegram
Telegram PRO	#/settings?tab=telegram	SMS and Telegram
Reminders and reports PRO	#/settings?tab=scheduled	Reminders and reports
Map PRO	#/settings?tab=map	Map

API keys and other credentials entered in these sections are stored encrypted and are never sent back to the browser. A saved one shows as set, not as its value. Saving the form again without retyping it leaves it unchanged.

Settings without a control

Two stored settings have no field on the screen in version 1.0.0.

Setting	Default	What it does
items_per_page	20	How many rows a list shows per page to start with. Limited to 10 to 200.
custom_css	Empty	Extra CSS printed on the plugin’s public pages. Any HTML tag in it is removed. Only a site administrator can change it.

Both can be set through the settings route of the REST API.

Where settings are stored

Every setting lives in one WordPress option, plugixacarparking_settings. A partial save changes only the fields it carries. Settings that belong to a Pro feature stay stored when Pro is removed, so installing Pro again finds its configuration, API keys included.