Getting Started!

[Murray]

My site is a WooCommerce site using Paypal for WooCommerce. I installed the free version of Event Tickets. Then I purchased the Event Tickets Plus add on and it as well. I cannot see a way to even add an event much less a ticket for that event! When I mouse over the Event option in my admin menu, I see only 3 subordinate choices: Settings, Help, and Event Add-ons. This is definitely not what is shown in your New User Primer. What’s up with that? I would appreciate any help here. Thanks in advance.

[George]

Hey Murray,

Sorry to hear about some of the troubles here — I took a look at your site’s “System Information” and noticed that The Events Calendar was not installed on your site. If you want to have “Events” and then add tickets to those, here is what you need:

• You need The Events Calendar (free) to add events on your site.

• Then, all of the tickets and payments stuff (Event Tickets, Event Tickets Plus, WooCommerce, etc.) adds tickets to those events.

The Events Calendar is free! Check it out here → https://wordpress.org/plugins/the-events-calendar/

Install that on your site — let me know if it helps at all!

Cheers,
George

[Murray]

That seems so obvious. But does it mean that event tickets and event tickets plus are not really usable without events calendar? I looked through the requirements and only saw that it was marked as optional.

[George]

Hey Murray,

If you want to add tickets to posts, pages, or other post types, then you don’t need The Events Calendar. But if you want to add them to events, you need The Events Calendar. Or some other plugin out there that adds events to your WordPress site.

Do you know what I mean? To clarify:

• Event Tickets and Event Tickets Plus just add ticketing and RSVP features to post types.
• By default WordPress does not provide an “Events” post type.
• So if you want “Events” on your site, and want to add tickets to those events, then you need to add a plugin on your site that adds an “Events” post type.
• The Events Calendar is a great and free way to do that. 😀

Cheers,
George

[Murray]

George – thanks so much for your help! Let me ask a few more questions, please. The site in question wants to sell a few tickets to a Halloween party and ghost-house tour. When a ticket is sold, they want to send an email to the buyer containing an individualized ticket for each such ticket purchased. I already have WooCommerce and PayPal for WooCommerce set up with the tickets as products (I believe there will be 5 different tickets in all) and orders can be taken and confirmed (it’s still in sandbox mode). You can see the products page here – http://www.mccoolesredlioninn.com/shop. It’s not linked in from the site yet. So my questions are:

1. Can I do what I want to do without getting into the event calendaring?
2. If so, then how do I integrate Events Tickets Plus (to trigger the individualized ticket emailing) with the ordering process?
3. Would I be better off defining the Halloween party and other things each as a separate event and using the Calendar pages?
4. How do I add the ordering facility to the calendar pages if this is the best way to go?

As you can see, I am still very much ‘at sea’ as to how to bring all of these capabilities together. If you could please help or direct me to some specific written material that will give me more information, I would really appreciate it.

[George]

Hey Murray,

Thanks for your followup.

So, if you don’t want to get into event calendaring, then the simplest way to go about this (making the tickets purchasable, have them go through the WooCommerce check out, etc.) is to make a Post or Page on your site for the Halloween event.

Add your tickets to that post or page.

Then direct folks who want to go to the event to that post or page.

They can select how many tickets they want to buy, click “buy tickets”, and check out from there.

Does this information help at all? Apologies if I’m not hitting the nail on the head here — let me know!
George

[Murray]

George – we are closing in on this! What I’m not clear on is the ticket part. How do I add a ticket to a post/page? And if I already have a ticket designed, how do I use that design? And how is it that when they buy a ticket, the plugin knows to send the purchased ticket(s) by email?

I’m not opposed to go either way (calendar or not), but I want to select the method that makes the most sense. In my early testing, when I go the event way, I am taken to a page that has a calendar on it and events listed, but clicking on one of those events does not give me any purchase options. On the other hand, if I just do the WooCommerce thing, I can complete a purchase, but no ticket email is triggered. How do I get tab A into slot B, so to speak?

[George]

Hey Murray,

You unfortunately cannot implement custom ticket designs without some rather extensive custom coding. 🙁

As for how to add tickets to a post or page, when you go into the edit screen for a post or page you should see a “Tickets” metabox where you can create tickets.

You can see screenshots and learn more about the ticket creation process here → https://theeventscalendar.com/knowledgebase/making-tickets/

Do you find that metabox when you view the edit screens for Posts or pages?

---

As far as your dilemma about Tab A into Slot B, let’s first make sure that tickets are working as expected and are properly available on posts and pages. If they are, I’ll think you’ll find that Tab A does mostly fit into Slot B already—ticket purchase options ARE easily viewable/clickable on the post/page/event once you click into it; the ticket emails DO send upon purchase; etc.

I apologize that your simple questions have gone into a more complicated exchange Murray—your patience is appreciated. There are a few potential places where issues can arise, and so it’s worth going through the support process here and working through individual questions like the ones I have posed above just to make sure things are working correctly.

If not, then we can go through steps to fix things and continue from there.

Refer back to my questions at the top of this reply and let me know what you find.

Thank you!
George

[Murray]

George – you are the one who has been patient! The link to the KB was the key to my enlightnment. I’m well down the road now, but there are still a few questions:

1. I want to add a handling charge to each ticket sold. It appears that the tickets are marked as virtual products in WooCommerce which does not trigger handling charges. What can I do about that?

2. In Events Tickets, I have checked the checkbox to set the order to complete in WooCommerce, yet it’s shown as Processing. Tickets are not emailed until that Order is marked as Complete. Is there anything I can do about that?

3. Finally, after placing one test order, if I go back to the post I do not see products or options. All I see is the words “Comments are closed.” What have I done wrong here?

Thanks so much for your persistence. I feel like I am very close now!

[Murray]

Update – Ignore my item 3! As often happens, it was operator error. With item 1, we have decided to include the handling in the ticket charge. I’d love to have a solution for the second one, however.

[Murray]

OK – now you’re in trouble!

EMAILED TICKET PAGE
1. Can I replace the URL shown just above the QR code with custom content that would appear on ALL tickets?
2. Can I suppress the QR code altogether?
3. Why does the Customizing Event Tickets link shown under “Help” in the Events > Settings > Help tab take me to a 404 page? It’s just what I need! 🙂

[George]

This reply is private.

[Murray]

George – your persistence with these replies is definitely exception and very much appreciated. You have gotten me well down the road, and I only have a few more questions/comments before going live.

1. The handling charge is taken care by just adding it to the ticket price; simple and effective.

2. The 5 tickets being sold are all marked as virtual tickets. According to my reading of WooCommerce docs, they should be automatically Completed with the order has been validated, but they are not. Now – I am still in sandbox mode – would that make a difference? It has been suggested that I install an Add On from Woo called “WooCommerce order status control”, but it’s a $29 charge for something that the base system should already be doing. I’d like to find another way if it exists.

3. Thanks for the correct link to the customizing doc. I’ll study it!

4. With regard to the email customization, I have been looking at the “email.php” file contained in plugins/event-tickets/src/views/tickets/email.php, and am wondering if I just comment out the line at the bottom of this file –

do_action( ‘tribe_tickets_ticket_email_bottom’ );
wouldn’t that eliminate the QR element from the emailed page? If so, can I then copy that edited file into a similar location under my theme to override the parent file?

Finally, I have made this a private reply, but I think there is information in the exchange that may be useful to the community. What would you suggest – a public summary?

[Murray]

Heh – oops…

[George]

Hey Murray,

Thanks for your follow-up. To address things in reverse order, yes you can just uncomment the do_action( ‘tribe_tickets_ticket_email_bottom’ ); line of code in that email.php template. There are numerous methods for hiding the QR code, and yes removing that line is one of them! 😀

As for the orders not being “completed”, the nature of being in Sandbox Mode may indeed be affecting things. Please hold off on buying that $29 add-on! Before considering tat, can you clarify:

1. What payment gateways have you activated for your WooCommerce site?

2. If you do test purchases with one gateway, e.g. PayPal, and then do test purchases with another and different gateway, e.g. “Pay by check”, does anything change with regards to orders being marked as “complete”?

3. Make a WooCommerce coupon code that applies a 100% discount. So that if used, the cart costs $0.00 and is free. If you use this coupon code at checkout, and make an order that is $0.00, does anything change with regards to this order being marked as “complete”? Does it still not seem to get set to “Complete” as expected?

Thanks!
George

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