Meta Settings API

FluentBooking persists arbitrary key/value data in two tables:

Table	Columns	Used For
fcal_meta	object_type, object_id, key, value	Polymorphic meta for calendars, calendar events, availability schedules, Pro webhooks.
fcal_booking_meta	booking_id, meta_key, value	Booking-specific meta (booking-form answers, location payload).

Use FluentBooking\App\Services\Helper to read and write these tables — model classes do not expose getMeta() instance methods.

Calendar / Event / Polymorphic Meta

use FluentBooking\App\Services\Helper;

// Read (returns the stored value, or null)
$color = Helper::getMeta('calendar', $calendarId, 'custom_branding_color');

// Read and return the Meta model row instead of the raw value
$row = Helper::getMeta('calendar', $calendarId, 'custom_branding_color', true);

// Write (creates the row if absent, updates if present)
Helper::updateMeta('calendar', $calendarId, 'custom_branding_color', '#2653C7');

// Delete
Helper::deleteMeta('calendar', $calendarId, 'custom_branding_color');

The first argument ($group) is the object_type discriminator. Common values:

$group	Purpose
calendar	Per-calendar meta.
calendar_event	Per-event-type meta.
availability	Availability schedule rows (the schedule body itself).
webhook	Pro webhook configs (Webhook model is a subclass of Meta).

Values are stored serialized through maybe_serialize(), so arrays and objects round-trip safely:

Helper::updateMeta('calendar_event', $eventId, 'integration_payload', [
    'webhook_url' => 'https://example.com/hook',
    'headers'     => ['Authorization' => 'Bearer ...'],
]);

$payload = Helper::getMeta('calendar_event', $eventId, 'integration_payload'); // array

Booking Meta

Bookings use their own table for performance. The API is similar:

use FluentBooking\App\Services\Helper;

// Read
$company = Helper::getBookingMeta($bookingId, 'custom_field_company');

// Write
Helper::updateBookingMeta($bookingId, 'custom_field_company', 'ACME Corp');

There is no public deleteBookingMeta helper — delete via the model when needed:

use FluentBooking\App\Models\BookingMeta;

BookingMeta::where('booking_id', $bookingId)
    ->where('meta_key', 'custom_field_company')
    ->delete();

Iterating All Meta on a Booking

The Booking model exposes the booking_meta() relationship:

use FluentBooking\App\Models\Booking;

$booking = Booking::with('booking_meta')->find($bookingId);
foreach ($booking->booking_meta as $row) {
    // $row->meta_key, $row->value
}

For calendars and events, eager-load metas() and event_metas():

$calendar = \FluentBooking\App\Models\Calendar::with('metas')->find($calendarId);
$event    = \FluentBooking\App\Models\CalendarSlot::with('event_metas')->find($eventId);

Plugin-Wide Settings

For settings that apply to the whole plugin (not a per-record), use the settings helpers instead of the meta API:

use FluentBooking\App\Services\Helper;

$value = Helper::getGlobalSettings('default_timezone');
$features = Helper::getFeatures();
$adminSetting = Helper::getGlobalAdminSetting('some_admin_key');

These read from the fluent_booking_settings / fluent_booking_admin_settings options, not from fcal_meta.

Performance Notes

• Reads inside loops trigger one query per call. Eager-load relationships when iterating.
• Booking metas are indexed by booking_id; per-booking lookups are fast.
• Avoid storing megabyte payloads in value — prefer a dedicated table when the column would store more than ~64KB regularly.