Collecting Attendee Names for Multiple Ticket Orders

[Adam]

Hi there. I’m not sure if you’ve seen this extension in the WooThemes repository, but it certainly looks like it can add checkout fields.

My question is… will it work with WooTickets to collect individual ticket information? (Minimum = Name. But we’d love to collect name, email address, tshirt size, stuff like that.)

Thanks for any input.

I really am trying to keep with the development of this little app of yours. But stuff like this and checkin lacking functionality is going to force me to look for another solution if we can’t solve some glaring wholes in the existing functionality.

[Brook]

Howdy Adam,

That is an interesting idea. Which plugin are you referring to? I am not sure what the name of it is.

Adding additional fields to checkout is certainly possible. But, most methods that I have seen for doing that only add (at most) an additional field for each item type in the cart, not an additional field for each item’s Amount #. So for instance if you have two products, like two tickets for two separate events, then you could get two additional fields. But what happens when a user orders 5 of each? You still only get two additional fields. Now, a solution to that is to request that your user input the names as a comma separated list. If they purchase a ticket for three people, then they would need to input the following into the additional field “Jane, Billy, Joe”.

We too are very interested in adding attendee information collection to our ticketing plugin. It is something we have started working on. However, we are still inside of our “summer of performance” releases. So such an extensive addition to our ticketing framework is still a ways out.

I know you have mentioned possibly looking for a new solution in the past. I hate that you might end up going that route. I really do wish that there was an immediate and complete solution. Maybe the additional fields thing will help tide you over? My advice would be to give that plugin a spin and see if it does what you need.

– Brook

[Adam]

Sorry for forgetting the link. Here it is: http://www.woothemes.com/products/woocommerce-checkout-add-ons/

Yes, we’re needing a solution that collects attendee info at the point of registration. For this falls events (7) we’re having to email each buyer, get that info, then maintain another list with that info so we can print name badges, do proper checkin, etc.

I’ve been able fudge to date. But patience from our teams is growing thin.

[Brook]

I hear ya. If there was something more I could do, other than being up front about our status, I would happily do it.

Regarding your inquiry, that plugin does look promising. I have not seen anyone try to use it in combination with our plugin, particularly in the way you would like to. However, based on the plugins description I do not see why it would not work. That said, it does breeze over a lot of technical details, to the point that I only have a fuzzy understanding of many thing.

All our ticketing plugin really does is create a new Woo product for each ticket. It assigns that Ticket to the “Tickets” category, and checks the box “Virtual” indicating that it is not a physical product. For most intents and purposes all tickets are ordinary Woo products, and so they tend to work remarkably well with other addons. The only thing that changes, is that there is no ordinary product page for tickets. Rather the product page is actually an HTTP redirect to the event details page. This can cause problems for any Woo plugin that relies on the Woo product page. But, based on what I am seeing it does not appear like this plugin would require access to that page at all, given that it is adding screens in the standard Woo checkout area which our plugin does not modify.  Especially if you are just interested in adding a variant of the checkout Gift field, which it looks like allows you to specify the names of who the product is for. Maybe armed with this extra info you could ask the folks selling the plugin if they foresee any conflicts? You might also check what their refund policy is. If it is anything like us you have a nice windows in which to try it out and make sure it works on your server.

Please let me know if I can be of further help. Thanks, Adam.

– Brook

[Adam]

Thank you. I do appreciate your forthrightness. I asked WooThemes if that would work and they said it would not, it wouldn’t add a field for each individual ticket, just for the entire order… which does me no good.

I’m going to look into commissioning someone to build a ticketing extension for WooCommerce that’ll meet our specs. I just don’t know what else I can do.

[Brook]

You are welcome, Adam! I am happy you are understanding about it, even if it is terrible news.

Thank you for clarifying on what that plugin does. I am going to archive this topic since it appears to have run its course. Let us know if there is something else we can help with in the future.

– Brook

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