Create Session Sub-Types
I think this is what the user who posted about adding a "category" varible was really getting at and was important enough to be addressed in 2019 release: https://studioplus.uservoice.com/forums/560392-studioplus-product-suggestions/suggestions/34523479-online-booking-provide-main-categories-with-sess#comments
I second the need for organization of online booking, and I would add another benefit to the update: it would help simplify statuses in workflows: I'm using Session Types for event photography, and I have to have both many unique Session Types (so that you can pick an event using online booking platform) and also many Session Statuses for each of those Session Types (so that I can do multi-stage uploads over multi-day events, uploading each day as we go). I did not realize there was not a way to just duplicate a list of Statuses the same way you can duplicate a Session Type.
It seems to me that if your location is setup to use Session Statuses by Type and you duplicate a Session Type, the new Session Type should also have duplicate Statuses or at least you could be prompted to ask if you wanted to duplicate associate Session Statuses.
I think the long-term solution is actually to create a Session Sub-Type so that Session Types can be for "categories" (just like user in initial post requests) of shoots and Session Sub-Types can be discrete shoots of the Type class. That way, I could just use "General Kind of Event" as Session Type (say, Executive Portraits) and setup Session Sub-Types for all of my specific coverage options (On-site, in-studio, etc.). This would also allow me to use online booking and have things like user suggests - Baby Portraits, Child Portraits, etc. - to make online booking easier to navigate for clients while still providing them with a comprehensive entry point for booking something with my business.
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Mike Comer commented
Here's an email I sent to support that further teases this out:
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I'm trying to understand how the 2019 release addressed this client's idea to make "Main Categories with Session Types as Sub Items." It was apparently important enough that it got added to the 2019 release, yet when I look at the release notes, I think the way it was addressed didn't solve the original problem...
What I understand the guy to mean is that instead of having a million Session Types like Executive Portraits Studio, Executive Portraits On-Location, etc. all listed with online booking along with all the other Session Types you'd have for Baby Type 1, Baby Type 2, etc., he'd prefer the ability to have a "category" variable in the Session Type Reference so that he can just show Executive, Baby, etc. categories, so that users can get it in the ballpark with the category like Executive and then pick the specific Session Type On-Location. It's about being able to navigate the online booking easily.
I looked at the release notes for 2019, and it appears the way S+ addressed it was making the Session Types targetable individually so that you can just have a link to a direct to the Session Type, but... how do you get that link? It's like "security by obscurity" would be working against you on this if you are a client: I go to my photographer's Web site, but I need to know the exact link for booking the Session Type I want... you'd need a list of links (just like the list of Session Types we're trying to avoid in Online Booking) to choose from, and while you'd bypass the selection on Online Booking, you'd still have had to look at a cluttered list. It's true that if you had different Web pages for each service, you could add a direct link there (I think this is what S+ had in mind? But it's an assumption and makes a lot of extra work for photographer). It's also true that you could send the direct link to a client if you knew what they were intersted in. But really I think what the guy was asking for was just a way to organize online booking - where he in fact does want all of his service "categories" listed - for easier end use. I had this same issue when I used to have all 2,500 teams in the USA listed in a dropdown for teams on my sport signup form. Eventually, I broke them out by state so you'd first pick your state and then your team. I don't want to make 50 Web pages on my site that ask what state you're from and then put a link on each one to a Session Type relevant to your state.
I go into this in detail because this guy's "categories" idea is nothing more than another way of my requesting Session Type and Sub-Types directlyI think it's possible I may just be misunderstanding the 2019 update. If there are categories, then it would solve my problem with online booking, though not in as elegant a way as I suggest as with Sub-Types since Sub-Types would have the added benefit of simplifying Session Statuses by Type complexity. If I did not misunderstand the situation and the solution didn't solve the user's problem, then it would add consensus to my own ask, and hopefully my idea about sub-types could give everyone an even better solution.