Daily archiving of patient appointments (technical)

Which clinics/databases/records are included in bookings?

All bookings from all databases are included. However:

Bookings older than 30 days are archived into bookings_arch.

Recurring bookings (created with recurrence rules) are handled separately and not archived in the same way.

Deleted bookings are archived immediately.

Why do we see old bookings in the bookings table?

Bookings remain in the live bookings table until the nightly archive job runs and moves them. If they are recurring bookings, they can still appear in the main table even if the original booking date is older.

What is meant by a “recurring booking”?

A recurring booking is created with a recurrence rule (not the same as a rebooked/changed appointment).

To view them in the app:

Go to Bookings & Invitations > Bookings

Set the date range (e.g., 2024-01-01 – 2024-11-25)

Open More search options → check Include recurring

Are patients in booking_attendees also archived?

Yes. All booking-related tables are archived nightly to improve performance.

Active table: booking_attendees

Archive table: booking_attendees_arch

Which other tables are archived?

booking_attendees → booking_attendees_arch

booking_exdates → booking_exdates_arch

booking_rrule_by_days → booking_rrule_by_days_arch

booking_rrules → booking_rrules_arch

bookings → bookings_arch

emails → emails_arch

sms → sms_arch

snail_mails → snail_mails_arch

How does the archiving process work?

A nightly job moves all records older than 30 days from active tables to _arch tables.

This applies across bookings, attendees, communication, and recurrence data.

Goal: keep the booking system fast by reducing the size of active tables.