Making reservations

[pinochico]

There is nothing easier than creating a payment method using standard payment and naming it Reservation and setting a new status after confirming the order - not Pending, but Reservation.

The order will be completed and other orders will no longer interfere with it.

Don't forget about setup send email and stock

[cback]

Wow, thank you so much for this idea!  I have got it working I think..... just one question, how do I add the little icons to make the system still send an email to me and the customer, and the icon to allow editing of the reservation order?  Please see attachment I can't find these settings anywhere....

[pinochico]

You don't' find really

I think TAB template

[cback]

I am sorry, I have no clue where to find that.... can you explain or do you have a screenshot?

[cback]

Because when I create the reservation order myself to test, I do not get the confirmation in my email.   BUT, when I canceled it, and choose 'notify customer', then I did get the cancellation message in my email.  So just need to make sure customers are getting the confirmations/cancellation messages as well.

[pinochico]

Config, TAB orders

[cback]

Thank you, have done this. 

But same freaky issue.

1. Customer just placed 2 reservation orders direclty one after the other, to test.  (22716 and 22717)
2. First order she places should have number 22716.  If you look at the numbering system, you will see it is missing (see screenshot).  But it's not really missing.
3. So I search for the number.   VM has now replaced a previous pending order of customer (226**), from 03 march, with this new reservation order and changed the old order number to this new one 22716.  Previous order number is gone and information (products and quantities) have been overwritten.

I am at a loss, have no idea what is going on here.

[pinochico]

First - sorry, im not your developer - I make only journey and other is about you (testing, setup)
Second - why is order in Pending? Do you read carefoull my idea? - After confirm reservation, then order change from pending to reservation status - this status is finally status before send payment info by email == not changed others NEW!!!! orders (not olders)....
Third - why check the old orders? Old orders is completely lost with new system - new idea will be ok only for new orders

[cback]

I know you're not my developer.  I don't have one, that's why I'm trying to learn and figure stuff out on my own, with a bit of help if possible 

To answer your questions:

Before your suggestion of creating a new payment method, the customer already had some pending orders, waiting for payment.  So the way it worked in the past was that they would follow all checkout steps and confirm the order, but then when PayPal window pops up, they close it.  This way, the order comes into VM backend and remains on pending.   This used to work just fine, until suddenly a few weeks ago, it didn't and all the orders started getting overwritten and order numbers missing.   So that's why I am here and I now created the new payment method (reservation) as per your suggestion and I am very grateful for the tip.
The reason I am mentioning older orders is because the older pending order from 3 march has now been overwritten bij the new reservation order.  The number of the older order is gone and replaced with new number from today.

Perhaps I need to cancel all pending orders of customer first.  I will try this.

I did notice though that when the new reservation emails come in (order confirmation email) there is strange information in subject line, not like it normally is.   COM_VIRTUEMART_MAIL_SUBJ_VENDOR_L     Is this something that can be fixed to show the correct subject like with regular orders which are not reservations?

[GJC Web Design]

->  COM_VIRTUEMART_MAIL_SUBJ_VENDOR_L

make an overide in the normal Joomla way - in the admin language - check the box  for both

[cback]

Thank you for the reply, but I don't have a clue what you're talking about.  I guess you really do need to have some basic understanding of VM before asking these complicated questions here on the forum. 
I guess I'll try and find someone who can help with this all, but I am very thankful for all the tips and suggestions so far. 

[pinochico]

Perhaps I need to cancel all pending orders of customer first.

Of course - old orders you have to change to new status Reservation

> COM_VIRTUEMART_MAIL_SUBJ_VENDOR_L

if you create new status with char L == you have to add new language constant to language ini file:

COM_VIRTUEMART_MAIL_SUBJ_VENDOR_L=="Reservation" (find other language constant where exist in FTP -> COM_VIRTUEMART_MAIL_SUBJ_VENDOR)

Don't forget - the best option the after creation language constant in override or putting in language INI file, then change name of new order status to language constant too (if you use multilanguage eshop)

If you don't understand about language constant, function and override - first learn about this something how function Joomla and language constant on Joomla:
https://docs.joomla.org/J3.x:Language_Overrides_in_Joomla
https://docs.joomla.org/Help310:Extensions_Language_Manager_Overrides/en
https://www.joomlashack.com/blog/joomla/language-constants/