Create one event that runs over multiple weeks?

[David Walker]

Hi,

I’m trying to create one event that runs every Tuesday for 8 weeks. It’s not a “recurring” event, and when people register, they sign up for the full series.

Is this possible? I haven’t found a way to do this and haven’t seen anything in the documentation.

Example:
“Tuesday Book Club”
Start date: October 10
Start time: 1pm
End time: 3pm
Runs for: 8 weeks (end date of November 28)

Also, if people register (using Event Tickets or Event Tickets Pro), is there a waiting list function?

Thanks,
Dave

[Andras]

Hello Dave,

Thanks for going Pro and welcome to the forums!

That’s an interesting scenario that you are trying to set up there.

Unfortunately it is not possible to set up ONE event with multiple days which are separated in time, like you need.

At the moment there are 2 ways to set that up:

• One by one for every date
• as a recurring event

If you would like to sell tickets with ET+ for a recurring event, then you will only need to set up the ticket once, when you set up the event. The same ticket will be presented on all pages of that event. So if you have a stock of 100 tickets, then that is the stock for the whole series. And if people buy a ticket on any event page, then they buy it for the whole series basically.

I hope this clarifies.

At the moment there is no waiting list function for the tickets. It’s either buy, or not buy.

Please, let me know if you have any further questions I could help you with.

Cheers,
Andras

[David Walker]

Thanks for your reply András. I’l actually slightly surprised that this isn’t a scenario you considered when developing the software. It’s either a huge technical challenge or an oversight; I’ve been in many situations where events – especially courses and workshops – are run over several weeks and registration closes at the beginning of the event. All event management software seems to run on one-off events (Event Espresso is releasing this functionality in 2018), and all of the WordPress class or course management plugins are geared towards eLearning.

I will try to set up a course as described, but the waiting list functionality is make-or-break for my client.

Would you have any recommendations for software or plugins that you know of that would handle this functionality?

Cheers,
Dave

[Andras]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your feedback.

I’m actually slightly surprised that this isn’t a scenario you considered when developing the software.

Hmmm… definitely not for the sake of argument, but I don’t really see how what you want is different from a recurring event. The way I understand it, there is a Book Club, which has a meeting every Tuesday. From my perspective an event this Tuesday cannot be “the same” event as the one next Tuesday, simply because they are at different times. I see it as a series of events, or let’s call it a recurring event that happens every Tuesday.

If you are using our Event Tickets plugin for collecting registrations, then the registration can be closed at the beginning of the event with specifying and the “End sale”. (screenshot)

When you create an RSVP registration for an event series / recurring event, then the same registration is valid for all events in the series. So you whether you register on September 21 or October 5, you will still be registered for the whole series.

I would be happy to hear more details from you on how you imagine this, how it differs from what I drafted out. Then we could possibly create a user scenario, which will make it easier for us to decide whether this can be implemented in the future.

And of course if you have other question  regarding this I’m more than happy to help you further.

… the waiting list functionality is make-or-break for my client.

Would you have any recommendations for software or plugins that you know of that would handle this functionality?

I haven’t done or seen an implementation of this yet, and not quite sure what’s the exact functionality you need here, but…

If you are using Event Tickets Plus and WooCommerce as your ecommerce platform, then a plugin like WooCommerce Waitlist or YITH WooCommerce Waiting List could give you that functionality.

When you create a ticket with ET+, then it also creates the respective WooCommerce product. With the help of this article you can set up your system that you sell the tickets through the WooCommerce product page rather than the event page. And thus one of the waiting list plugins will give you the needed functionality.

Would this be a solution for you?

Andras

[David Walker]

Thanks Andras. The problem I’ve had with recurring events is that in all of my testing, users are forced to register for each instance of the event individually, rather than a series, or a course/class. I’ve played with the Event Ticket (not PRO), and although it seemed to work, the lack of waitlist stopped me from testing this thoroughly. I’d prefer not to install Woocommerce (I’m developing for a non-profit offering free eight-week long courses to their clients), but if this is the best way…

The website says “Please note that at this time, Event Tickets Plus will NOT support tickets for recurring events. Please keep this in mind before making your purchase.” Is this still the case? As a non-profit, $90USD is a lot of money for something that may or may not suit our needs.

Thank you for your response, and I apologize if I was a little short; this has been a frustrating project on a number of levels and if I took out my frustration, I’m sorry.

Cheers,
Dave

[Andras]

Hi Dave,

No worries and I’m really sorry if our plugins caused you frustration, though I hope it was rather something else. (And sometimes a little venting does help in getting a clearer head. ;o) )

I just want you to know that our ears are open, we are here for you, so if you have any issues, bugs or simply questions with our plugins, then pop it here in the premium forums, and our team will do the best to help you solve it.

Event Tickets Plus will NOT support tickets for recurring events

Yes, that is still the case at the moment. If I know correctly, then some mad inventors are trying to cook up something in our secret labs to make that possible, but I have no information of their progress. I know that they only get dry bread and water until they solve this. 🙂

I did some testing on the side to see what is actually happening. This is what I did and found.

• I set up a recurring event, 4 Sundays in October
• I set up an RSVP with a stock of 10
• I set up a ticket with a stock of 20
• I did an RSVP on October 1st
• Then another one on October 8 (I think)
• Then I purchased a ticket on the page of October 8
• I did a double RSVP on October 8 – because I didn’t remember if I did the first Oct8 on that date or not 🙂

What happened is that:

• the stock properly decreased for both the RSVP and the ticket, regardless of whether I did it on the Oct 1 or the Oct 8 instance of the event
• The attendee report on the back-end shows all purchases / RSVPs on one page, so for the whole series (screenshot)
• On the page of the first event in the series (Oct 1) I can see the message “You have 4 RSVPs and 1 Ticket for this Event. View your RSVPs and Tickets” (screenshot), which is proper
• If I then click on “View your RSVPs and Tickets”, then all is properly listed (screenshot)

However:

• when I check at any of the other instances of the event (e.x. October 8) in the front-end, then I don’t see the above messages

Is this the functionality that you are looking for? What else would you need?

I’m sorry if I seem slow in understanding, I would just like to get a better picture on what is missing here.

By the way we do like to support non-profit organizations. This article will give you more details on that.

Cheers,
Andras

[Support Droid]

Hey there! This thread has been pretty quiet for the last three weeks, so we’re going to go ahead and close it to avoid confusion with other topics. If you’re still looking for help with this, please do open a new thread, reference this one and we’d be more than happy to continue the conversation over there.

Thanks so much!
The Events Calendar Support Team

[Author]

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