Events, performances and going on sale

An event is the show ("Cinderella"). A performance is one dated occasion of it (Saturday 7:30pm). Buyers pick a performance, then their seats or ticket quantity, then pay.

Ticket types

Ticket types are the kinds of ticket you sell: Adult, Child, Concession, Family, Member, whatever suits you. Set them up once and reuse them across every event. Prices are set per performance and per price band, so a Child ticket in the Circle can cost something different from a Child ticket in the Stalls.

Creating an event

1. Add the event with its name, description and image. This becomes the event page on your site.
2. Add one or more performances. For each one choose the venue (or set a capacity for general admission), the date and time, and the price for each ticket type in each price band.
3. Set an on-sale time if you do not want tickets available immediately.
4. Publish.

Event pages are created for you automatically. To list everything that is coming up, drop the shortcode [tempo_box_office_events] on any page and you get a what's-on grid.

Going on sale

On-sale times flip themselves at the appointed second. Nobody has to press publish at 9am while the phone is ringing.

Box Office is designed for the moment everyone arrives at once:

• Event pages are fully cacheable and do no database writes, so a caching plugin or your host's cache can serve them under load.
• Live seat availability comes from one small endpoint, so the map stays current without hammering the database.
• A unique database index makes it impossible to sell the same seat twice, however many people click at once. If two buyers race for one seat, one wins and the other is told straight away.

Seat holds

When a buyer selects seats, those seats are held for ten minutes while they pay, with a countdown shown on screen. The hold is enforced by the server, not the browser, so pausing or closing the page cannot extend it. If the buyer walks away, the hold expires and the seats go back on sale automatically. Nothing needs tidying up.

Renaming things

Performance, Seat, Attendee, Ticket, Venue, Section, Row and Event can all be renamed to your own words in the settings. Your words carry through to the buyer pages, emails and PDF tickets.