TOPIC: Register for multiple events in one transaction

One of the reasons why I bought DT Register is because if offers a "shopping cart" feature to allow users to register for multiple events.

I have enabled this on our website
theforestfestival.com/ff2014

You can login using guest/guest.

After logging in, when I purchase my first ticket, (click Lineup, select event, click Register at bottom) I need to fill out name, and email, known fields are pre-filled from the CB profile.

This is ok.

Now I want to buy my second ticket for another event. I click Lineup, select a different event, click Register (for a single ticket).

Now I need to fill out again name and email and security code... Why is this? Every "normal" shopping cart system would just add the ticket to the shopping cart and ask all billing information ONCE at checkout. I do understand the questions for buying multiple tickets, as I want to capture the names for each registrant... But asking a logged in user who buys multiple tickets for different events constantly to enter the same data again and again is very annoying (to say the least).

Is there any way to change this behaviour through configuration?

Thanks
Hermann

DT Register is NOT a shopping cart. It DOES have a cart function, allowing multiple registrations with one payment. It's not a "normal" shopping cart though and we're not trying to be a shopping cart.

As every event can potentially have it's own unique set of fields and options, it is not feasible to just allow someone to check off the events they want, then fill out one form. We've discussed this quite a bit on our end and do hope to make some new options for this, but it is VERY involved to do so. The deep level of customization ability within each event makes this very complex.

What happens now when you leave the cart to add another event depends on your setup. Two scenarios:

1) You are using Community Builder or JomSocial integration... when you go to another event form, you'll get data populated from the synced user profile. You are seeing this happen already. You might consider adding more fields to the profile that users could setup so they have less data to re-type... for fields that you use regularly.

2) Non-logged in users or not profile sync setup... the additional event forms will auto-populate data from any similar fields from the record that's already in the cart.

So either way, users will NOT have to re-type everything. It has to be left open to how it is now though because many people will use the cart to make multiple registrations for different people in the same event. Not everyone wants to use it to just allow ONE person to sign up for multiple things at one time.

Yes there is room to develop further from here, but this is how it works at the present.

Hello Nathan,

Thanks for your detailed explanation of this process. I guess I can understand your point about flexibility. But I'm sure there are quite a few users out there who have the same set of fields for all events... And in that case it would be nice to have a more "streamlined" and easy purchase process.

But I think there is really a flaw in the purchase workflow. I have set user registration to be mandatory, as users should be able to cancel their registrations. Here's what happens:
- I visit the site without logging in.
- Now I register for the first event, and as part of that I create a new user account. I add it to my shopping cart, as I want to register for more events
- Now I go an register for the 2nd event... And the system shows me again the account creating fields for a new user. So I enter the same username again
- My cart now contains both registrations, and I click on Checkout
- Before I confirm payment, the system shows me again both registrations... everything seems fine
- I complete the checkout without error message. Now I login using my newly created username... And the password of the FIRST create user dialog
- The "My Tickets" screen only shows my first registration... the second one is "gone"

When I check the records in the admin screen after this transaction I see that the SECOND registration has all the user information, but is missing the relationship to the USERID (it's empty).

In my opinion this process clearly has a bug in the registration process, as the userid for the 2nd registration is not populated.

But there is also a "design flaw" in this process: Why ask users to create a userid for their 2nd (and following) registrations? If they don't enter the same usernames every time, their registrations get lost. And entering the userid and twice the password every time is confusing and annoying.

I'm aware that the process is ok if the user first creates an account and logs in. But I can't force users to do that - and many will probably do what I describe above.

We'll look into this scenario that you described and see what can be done about it. In the meantime, you might consider making your events private so the user has to create their login first, separately. This would work just fine. You can have the private event display a message to the non-logged in user or to redirect them to a page to create their login.

Or... what some people do with DT Reg is create one "event" that is solely for registering new users. Then setup other events to have that one "registration event" as a prerequisite event... so you can't register for other events until you have first registered for the first one... which also forces a login.

Nathan,

making events private avoids the problem I described in the beginning. But it's a bit restrictive to tell people they need to register before they can even see the full event list. So it's a workaround which will enable me to launch my website next week, but I don't think it's a permanent solutions.

Cheers,
Hermann

Sorry, but that is not correct. Making events private does NOT affect who can VIEW the list of events. All private events are still visible to non-logged in users. The private feature kicks in when the user clicks on an event to register. Then it either gives an onscreen message about needing to login (which you customize in config) OR redirects to a URL (user login or signup most likely)... whichever you configure it to do.

The only way users would be restricted from SEEING events based on logged in status or user access level would be if you restrict it at the category level.