Attendee Information: Fields added to an existing Fieldset not being exported

[Michael Byrne]

Hi Support

A new event was created. An existing ‘Ticket Fieldset’ was added to the event. Extra fields were then added along with the existing Fieldset.

In the list of Attendees we can see all fields with the customers input. See screenshot https://www.screencast.com/t/HddHJWeu6yjR

However, when I run an export the additional field title is recorded but the customers input is not. See screenshot https://www.screencast.com/t/XitJbuBzCrf

On further investigation it doesn’t look like the DB has stored the information either.

Can you tell me why I can see the information on the Attendees list screen but the same information is not being exported?

The site is running WordPress 4.9.5 with Event Tickets Plus 4.7.1.

Your help is greatly appreciated

Michael

[Andras]

Hi Michael,

I just tested this with the most recent versions of our plugins and all worked well.

There are 2 things I can think of:

• There is a glitch in the versions of the plugins you are using. An update should fix this
• There is a glitch caused by the long field title
• Excel is messing around with the ‘N/A’ value, though it worked in my test

Can you please try the following:

• after creating a backup of your site (files and database) update the calendar and ticketing plugins to the latest versions
• Create the same scenario with a shorter field label
• Submit with some other value than ‘N/A’

Check if this solves the issue and let me know the results.

Cheers,
Andras

[Michael Byrne]

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly.

Without updating anything yet I ran a test. I added another field to an existing Fieldset with a long title. I then added 2 tests entering ‘N/A’ for one and ‘nil’ for another.

In my export both entries were recorded.

The examples I gave you were from last years events prior to a recent update of the plugin. Could data recorded in an older version be ‘lost’ on update?

[Michael Byrne]

Hi Andras

Further to my investigation.

I cloned an existing event. There are 2 extra fields not showing on export of the original event.

I added an extra field along with an existing Fieldset.

I entered details to event as a customer would.

When I ran an export all input has been recorded.

See screenshot showing existing and cloned events – https://www.screencast.com/t/TMiDvEwGse8

Going forward there doesn’t seem to be any glitches. However, our client requires certain information that is not being recorded for current events. We can’t do any DB export as it has not recorded there either.

Is there anything else you can suggest to get the information?

[Michael Byrne]

Hi Andras

I have updated plugins to current versions. Still no luck.

Here’s what I noticed in the View Attendee’s List….

In an older version of the plugin; the fields that were added in addition to a Fieldset are displaying differently than a current event:

– The original title is “Other attendee data:”, current is “Other Information”
– The original customer input has dash separated text, current does not
– See screenshot: https://www.screencast.com/t/hN2fRMCRGpC

Could this be the reason why the export will not work on existing events?

[Andras]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for running further tests and sharing the results!

Could data recorded in an older version be ‘lost’ on update?

No, not really. The recorded customer data is not touched at all when updating, deactivating or deleting the plugin. So if you would remove all calendar plugins now and re-install them in 6 months, your data would still be there.

On some rare occasions with new major releases of the plugins it can happen that we re-structure how data is stored in the database, but we always take big care to stay backwards compatible in order not to mess up the data users already have. So this is highly unlikely.

I cloned an existing event. There are 2 extra fields not showing on export of the original event.

Did the existing event contain already attendee metadata?

With the “2 extra fields” you refer to the fields themselves or the data submitted in them?

If you submit attendee data to the original event, does it get recorded? (If the event is in the past, then you can try to move it to the future. Best would be on a test site.)

Is there anything else you can suggest to get the information?

If the data wasn’t ever recorded in the database, then I’m afraid there is nothing to be done.

If the data was there at a point in time, but disappeared, then a backup of the database might contain that information.

What can happen – this is a glitch we know of and are working on a fix – is a user submits a ‘space’ character, which passes even if the field is required.

Or what I can think of is that the string the user puts in the field is somehow invalid / corrupt and doesn’t get recorded. Can you share with me some sample strings a user would be submitting? Can it happen that they copy the string from a website and it contains some HTML code?

Andras

[Andras]

Just read your current reply.

Could this be the reason why the export will not work on existing events?

I believe not, we just adjusted the wording and the looks on the back-end.

I would still be happy to receive a full database dump so I can dig into it. Please also share with me the ID or title of the event you are having issues with.

If the data shows on the back-end then it is recorded somewhere in the database.

Cheers,
Andras

[Michael Byrne]

Thanks for your replies Andras.

I will get you DB and Event info.

Michael

[Michael Byrne]

This reply is private.

[Andras]

Thanks Michael!

Please give me some time to investigate this.

Andras

[Michael Byrne]

Of course Andras, understood.

Michael

[Andras]

Hi Michael,

This took some time but managed to find the source of inconsistency.

Basically it boils down to this: If you change the label of the attendee meta fields after some ticket purchases have been made, then the data will not show up in the export any more.

This is how it works technically:

When you create the ticket product with the attendee meta fields, then the field names / slugs will be saved with the product.

When a ticket is purchased, all that data (slugs) is saved with the ticket.

When the export happens, then it checks the slugs for the product and exports those. If the ticket doesn’t have the same slugs, then it will not be exported.

In your case and with the sample data you pointed out, for the 2 fields with N/A:

Your ticket product has this slug saved:

... enter-n-a-if-not-applicable

But your tickets have this:

... enter-na-if-not-applicable

(See the difference between ‘na’ and ‘n-a’.)

My hunch is originally in the label it was “… enter NA if not applicable”, which then got changed to “… enter N/A if …”.

You short term solution for the past data would be changing the 2 labels to “… NA …” from the current “… N/A …”

I tested this on my local and it worked.

This goes for the two fields:

• If the attendee is being moved, what was their previous class? ENTER CLASS, DAY & TIME in the box below (Enter NA if not applicable)
• Medical Condition / Treatment (Enter NA if not applicable)

Obviously if you have made sales since then, then those might not show up properly in the new export. There is only a manual way to fix this. You will need to dig into the database and change the slugs for the purchased tickets manually.

In the long run you need to make sure that you don’t change the labels on the attendee fields, as that will change the slugs.

I hope this helps and let me know if you need further assistance.

Cheers,
Andras

[Michael Byrne]

Hi Andras

Thank you so much for your time and very clear explanation of the issue.

I understand how to avoid this happening in the future…some client training!

Your help was greatly appreciated.

Michael

[Andras]

Very happy to have helped Michael! Thank you for the kind words.

Since this is marked resolved I am going to close this ticket, but if you need anything else related to this topic or another please create a new ticket and we’ll be happy to help.

Cheers,
Andras

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