I've always thought of resouces as 'virtual representations of physical objects', not as an inventory where you can do LIFO or FIFO.

I can see asking for a categorized view that let's you see and count down available resource types, but at the end of the day, you're reserving a REAL object. It seems to me that you should be able to print out a sheet saying that you've reserved item SN: 123452435B and present it to get said item.

But... I'm not Demoting - this is just the way I'm thinking about it.

I agree with Craig. Even if you label the projectors for simplicity, "1," "2," etc., you should still be referencing an actual projector.

The real issue (and someone, please, write the program to fix this) is getting the users to actually reserve the room or resource. < end rant >

-- Grant

I see your point and actually agree as well.
However this request is user-driven and came out of a need for "simplicity"...
If they need a resource, why do they have to choose between resource 1, 2 or 3. They just want to know if such a resource is available or not.
That's why I posted it here, to see if it makes any sense.

That makes sense Andreas, so really you need some way of reserving a 'resource' based on type..

e.g. I book room A1 and I simply tick that I want a projector (or whiteboard or whatever) and one is allocated - or I am told that a projector isn't available.

So yes the principle is sound - you shouldn't have to pick a particular projector.

(i'm not sure how this idea jam thing is meant to work - can you refine your original idea?)

As long as you can still differentiate between different types of resources within a category then I think it may be worth doing.

Agreed. Having to select <n> projectors to see which one is available when checking schedules, can be annoying. If you need to select projector one afterwards, fine. A countdown claiming (there are no resources of this type available for your selected time) is helpful.

@4 - Scott you should have an edit button on ideas that you submitted. Please feel free to go and edit the idea. I'll leave it up to you how you highlight the changes to your idea. Good to see such great feedback :-)

The concept of a 'resource pool' from which the staff pulls which ever available resource and provides it is a concept few have asked for so it never gets any attention by those who bless feature requests.

Resource searching ("Find me a "Projector" at the Westford Site") seems to work for most customers. The users only really have to get back any available matches and then pick one. Most don't seem to care that they are picking the specific one in the UI. The only time the current model does not work smoothly is when the staff have to replace one resource with another (assuming they actually match the resource to the request every time). However I have not heard many complaints about the current way things are so changes are likely to be slow in coming there.