Variations on tickets

[Melinda Dean]

Hi support peoples,
Just purchased the plugin, looks very powerful.
I have an event that I need to sell tickets for, but I also need the tickets to have variations (the attributes / variations portion of woocommerce is exactly what I need). I’ve tried creating the event/ticket, and then editing the “product” that was created and adding the variations, but while the “add to cart” button changes to “select options” on the listing page, once clicking through the only option is still to buy the individual ticket with no variations.

Also, if I add multiple ticket types to the event, is there any way to only allow a single ticket purchase? IE, I have single, double and family ticket types, but (due to the nature of the event) I need to prevent users from purchasing a) multiples of any ticket type, and b) more than one ticket type (eg, so if they select a single ticket, they cannot also purchase a double).

Starting to wonder if this is achievable – was just going to use woocommerce with its variations for this, but purchased the ticket plugin in the hope that I could easily distribute etickets and utilise the attendance list portions.

Thanks,
Min

[Nico]

Howdy Min,

Welcome to our support forums and thanks for reaching out to us. I’ll try to help you out on this!

If you where planning to use the product variations for the different ticket types, I guess to correct way to do so would be to add different ticket types to the event as you later mention. I’m not sure if product variations are compatible with tickets -not a WooCommerce expert myself- Can you describe a bit what you where planning to use them for?

Regarding the limit of tickets per customer, there’s no built in feature for that but what you can do here is limit the purchase via front-end. You can perform a template override of the tickets form -be sure to check our Themer’s guide for details on how to do this- and replace the tickets amount selectors for radio buttons or something similar. You can also check if there are products in the cart before allowing the user to add a ticket.

Please let me know if the tickets form customization sounds like something that could work for you – I can outline the steps to achieve that,
Best,
Nico

[Melinda Dean]

Hey Nico, thanks for the prompt reply. For the limiting of tickets purchased, the radio button idea is just what I need. I’ll consult the themer’s guide, should be able to figure it out. Thanks!

As for the variations, I think it’s where it might get a bit trickier. The site I’m building is still local or I’d send a URL. It’s for a book launch, and the tickets come with a choice of book, which needs to be specified at point of sale. There are also two sessions, due to the early numbers that have been calculated, and it would be useful to be able to differentiate between the two (however, they need to remain as the one product, as we need people to choose between the sessions, not select to come to both).
I’ll post some screenshots instead, on how I was intending to sell the tickets through woocommerce:
http://obernewtyn.net/media/red-queen/book.png
http://obernewtyn.net/media/red-queen/type.png
http://obernewtyn.net/media/red-queen/session.png
Selling them this way makes the front end experience exactly what we want, but it leaves the process of issuing etickets and marking off attendees as they arrive entirely to us and I was hoping to be able to expedite that portion using the ticket addon.

When I started creating the tickets through an event (as opposed to creating the event as a product, just through woocommerce), after adding the plugin, I noticed that it would result in a huge list of ticket types, books and sessions. There are 18 variations in total.
http://obernewtyn.net/media/red-queen/tickets.png
This is when I thought (/noticed) that as each ticket was created, a corresponding “product” was created in woocommerce, so perhaps it would just be a matter of changing the display to catalogue/search, and changing the created product from simple to variable. When I did, what I mentioned initially happened; the “add to cart” changed to “select options”, but clicking through to the product went to the main event page with all the ticket options.

This is getting wordy…sorry. TL;DR: I’d love for a way to be able to retain the select box style used within the woocommerce variable product (using attributes, perhaps? Familiar only with the woocommerce context of attributes, though, not the event calendar context), while still use the e-ticket issuing and attendance list/check off of the ticketing plugin. Not sure if it’s possible, just outlining the ideal for our scenario.

Failing that I’m thinking that perhaps it would be better, in this instance, to revert simply to woocommerce, and find another way to manage the issuing of etickets.

Thanks for any thoughts/help on the matter. I know it’s a bit of a curly one, and if I had read more of the documentation prior to buying the plugin I may have read what I needed to find out whether it was possible or not, but as well as trying to run a web development business I’m a mother of a (relentless) 9 month old so my development time is limited.
Cheers,
Min

[Nico]

Hey Min,

Thanks for the detailed follow-up, I can totally get your point now!

I’ve dug a bit into this, and I can confirm that unfortunately product variations are not supported in WooTickets 🙁

Due to the ‘complexity’ of this use case I think that the best option is to go ahead and use product variations with WooCommerce instead of using WooTickets. Product attributes aren’t supported as well and they don’t let you change the product price anyway.

I can’t even imagine the struggle of just being mother and run a business at the same time. So don’t worry about it!

If you think WooTickets won’t be useful this time, you can request a refund to support /at/ theeventscalendar /dot/ com. If you do so include the ‘invoice’ email that was sent when you made the purchase and mention that the reason you are requesting this is ‘WooTickets doesn’t support product variations which is needed in the project’ and include a link to this thread. That should make things go faster 🙂

Please let me know if there’s anything else I can help you with,
Have a great weekend,
Nico

[Melinda Dean]

Hi Nico,
Again thanks so much for your help and swift responses. I didn’t realise how complicated a case it would be when I started integrating it, and I still have a few challenges ahead to deal with…but that’s beside the point. Thanks again! Will definitely keep the plugin in mind for future projects that aren’t quite so one-off / randomly complicated.
Cheers,
Min

[Nico]

Hey Min,

You are welcome! Hope to see around here soon 🙂

I’ll go ahead and close out this thread, but if you need help with anything else please don’t hesitate to create a new one and we will be happy to assist you.

Best of luck with your projects,
Nico

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