Posted by Seth Shoultes on Tuesday, February 16th, 2016
We are pleased to announce that development has started on the Event Espresso 4 mobile ticketing apps for Android and Apple mobile devices.
Mobile App Mockups
About the Event Espresso 4 Mobile Apps
Here’s what you can expect from the new mobile apps:
Feature parity with Event Espresso 3 mobile apps For the initial release, we are only working on feature parity with the Event Espresso 3 version of the mobile apps. Such as viewing events, registrations, and checking-in/out attendees from the mobile apps.
The apps will be free We care about your ticketing needs and want to make your lives better. You’ll be able to do check-in/out attendees, and those who use the Ticketing add-on will be able to scan tickets too.
Timeline? The plan right now is to get the apps built, tested and release ASAP. If everything goes as planned, we can expect the development to take around 10 to 12 weeks.
What functions will the apps perform?
Event Espresso users will be able to check-in/out attendees and scan tickets using mobile devices, such as iPhones, iPads, and Android phones and tablets.
What about ____ feature?
We have a few ideas for features such as point-of-sale capabilities, etc, but these will have to come at a later date.
The team we’ve brought on to build the mobile apps has a lot of experience with building event related apps and we’re looking forward to working with them to add more great features in the future.
Tell us what you need/want?
Have some ideas you want to see the in Event Espresso mobiles apps? Let us know in the comments below.
Mondree, is a new event management theme from our friends over at Showthemes! Mondree boasts a modern design in an easy to use, drag and drop set up.
Mondree allows to quickly create the page you want and decide the settings for fonts and colors. This is not based on other plugins at all, it is all part of the theme.
It works with EventEspresso, Woocommerce, Gravity Forms, TicketTailor, Eventbrite, Etouches
Mobile First
With events becoming more and more mobile, Mondree has been designed with smartphones and tablets in mind. 100% Responsive, Mondree is dynamic and offers the best experience regardless of the device.
List of Features
Perfect for conferences, annual meetings, seminars, workshops, festivals, club nights but also award nights or professional speaker pages
One click demo install. Just one click to install an exact copy of the demo
Deep Social Integration: show Latest Tweets, Instagram pics
No plugins needed all built in the theme.
Show a Video or a Slider in the homepage.
Choose the colors you want and a selection of the most popular Google Fonts
Create custom pages with the elements you prefer
Top notch, 24hrs SLA support desk when purchasing a support license
Built by event professionals
100% GPL, but it once, use it on as many sites as you wish
Comprehensive, step by step tutorials
Showthemes powers more than 5,000 event websites around the world
With Mondree you can create the page that better suits your event, no limits to where to put elements, you are in control. Start creating your event now!
More Third-party Themes
Don’t forget to check out our complete listing of available third-party themes for Event Espresso.
Posted by Seth Shoultes on Tuesday, January 19th, 2016
Events REST API
It’s official, now that the WordPress REST API (WP-API) has been rolled into WordPress core, we’ve added our own REST API into the Event Espresso 4 (EE4) core plugin.
Since we already have the READ endpoints available in a plugin version of the EE4 REST API, on January 4th, 2016 we released an update (version 4.8.29) with the READ REST API endpoints in EE4 core.
However, we still have more work to do to get the WRITE endpoints done. Once the WRITE endpoints are completed, developer’s will have the ability to directly interface with your event website using the REST API to make updates directly to the database, such as checking-in attendees, creating/updating events, tickets, and attendees.
In layman’s terms, an API or Application Programming Interface is an agreed set of standardized ways that a particular piece of software can be used; the rules defined for its interaction with the wider world, which govern how other pieces of software can talk to a program and how it will respond.
A few good examples of APIs in action would be:
Anytime an app uses Google Maps to display its location information.
A mobile or desktop twitter client.
A game/service that integrates Facebook features such as login, messaging, etc.
In these instances, and all others like them, the APIs “expose” certain internal functions of the primary applications (Google Maps, Twitter, etc) so that outside developers can use them in their own applications or websites. In these examples, app developers have been given the ability to tap into the powerful features (and/or content) of major web services so that they can build on top of them and/or integrate key content and features into their own products, in clearly defined ways. This allows open collaboration to walk hand in hand with security.
What Is A REST API?
REST or REpresentational State Transfer is an architectural style of building APIs; not a code language or description of its function. A REST API is designed to provide a lightweight form of communication (less bandwidth) between a producer (ex: Twitter) and a consumer (ex: Twitter client), making it a reliable solution for high volume web services like Facebook, Google Apps, Twitter, WordPress, and now Event Espresso.
In this case, you are the producer of content (event information and event data), and the applications you build can consume or use that data through the Event Espresso 4 REST API.
This Will Affect Everyone Who Works With Event Espresso
The EE4 REST API is a simple but powerful way to interact with Event Espresso. Even though the EE4 REST API is not readily visible to users, over time user’s will experience the benefits of more interactive Event Espresso websites. Once we roll out the WRITE endpoints Mobile, desktop and web applications can get data from Event Espresso and do anything you can do via the admin panel. It’s like the admin panel, minus the user interface (UI).
The availability of the EE4 REST API as a core feature also means less time spent by developers creating something similar, and more time spent creating features and custom applications.
How Will The EE4 REST API Be Used?
The Event Espresso 4 (EE4) REST API in Core is intended to allow client-side applications, and apps on different servers, to be able to interact with the WordPress Plugin Event Espresso. It is included in Event Espresso since version 4.8.29, and is built on the WP REST API included in WordPress since version 4.4.
The EE4 REST API can, and will be used in a multitude of different ways, such as:
Custom mobile apps
Custom admin interfaces
Integrating your events with other application platforms
Provide interoperability with many different programming languages
and much more!
By providing an agreed, standardized programmatic interface between Event Espresso and the outside world, Event Espresso opens itself up to every other application and development environment on earth.
Information for Developers
Now that the REST API is in Event Espresso 4 Core, you can start developing great integration’s for your customers. All you need to get started is review the documentation and start building something GREAT!
Also you should stay tuned to our developer-specific blog at developer.eventespresso.com so you’ll know about any important changes regarding backwards compatibility or other developments.
And if you do build something great with the EE4 REST API, consider listing it on our 3rd party addons page.
Building a WordPress Plugin? Use the EE4 Database Models Instead
If you are building a WordPress plugin that will use Event Espresso 4 data server-side (in the PHP code), generally you do not need to use the API, and can instead use Event Espresso 4’s database models, config, and other modules directly. Check out developer.eventespresso.com for tutorials on how to use many of these systems.
We hope you enjoy using the Event Espresso 4 modern REST API, let us know what you think.
An SSL certificate is recommended with Braintree. Your website host will be able to provide you one for a fee and this will help ensure that sensitive payment information is kept secure.
An SSL certificate is recommended with PayPal Payflow Pro. Your website host will be able to provide you one for a fee and this will help ensure that sensitive payment information is kept secure.
Both Braintree and PayPal Payflow Pro require an up to date version of Event Espresso 4. If you have not updated in some time, then now is a good time to backup your WordPress site and update. Additionally, Event Espresso is compatible with the newest version of WordPress at 4.4. Please check out our update guide for Event Espresso 4.
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More power, control and up to 50% off the best WordPress events plugin during the ONLY sale of the year! Tweet This.
If you want to get Event Espresso for the first time, or haven’t renewed in a while now is your chance. If you are a current customer you can save a lot of money by getting 50% off new add-ons.
Offers end December 1, 2015. You must use the links below to receive the discount(s). Active members must be logged-in with an active subscription to receive the ‘Active Members’ price. Discounts cannot be applied retroactively.
Did you know we released some exciting improvements for Event Espresso this summer? It’s now possible for your audience to purchase multiple tickets from multiple events in one checkout, you can offer promotions and discount codes, you can list your approved attendees on a page, and much more! We think you will like what we’ve done.
Let’s take a closer look, shall we?
This is not an exhaustive list of enhancements, bug fixes, and security updates. For that information, please see our changelog.
Yes! It’s here, the long-awaited Multiple Event Registration add-on for EE4! Now you can create a shopping cart experience and allow your attendees to add multiple events to a cart for checkout.
Now your audience can register for multiple events with multiple tickets in one checkout using @EventEspresso http://evts.io/1KLClfT Tweet this
Here is a two-minute overview of the EE4 Multiple Event Registration add-on features:
With MER we introduced the ability to add events to a cart. In Event Espresso 4.7.7.p we added an enhancement to allow removal of multiple events from the cart simultaneously. This can be accomplished by setting the quantity to 0.
For more information, see the MER documentation here.
Promotions and Discounts
The Promotions & Discount Codes add-on for Event Espresso 4 adds powerful and flexible promotional pricing features to your events. You can create discount codes and promotions that can provide discounts for your attendees when they are registering for an event or buying tickets.
You can now give your event attendees promotions and discounts with @EventEspresso http://evts.io/1KLClfT Tweet this
More on the new Promotions and Discounts add-on for EE4 here.
Event Espresso 4 REST API Add-on
The Event Espresso 4 REST API Add-on is available now! The current version gives you read access to all EE4 data. That means you can build client-side Javascript code, mobile apps, and programs in any language (and on any server) that can read data used in Event Espresso 4.
More on the Event Espresso 4 REST API Add-on here.
The Attendee List Shortcode
The Event Espresso 4.6.31.p update brought Attendee List shortcodes. Attendee lists can be helpful in a variety of ways, whether you want to create a password protected page to allow certain users to view the attendee list, or if you want to build social credibility by showing your potential attendees who has already registered for the event.
With the new [ESPRESSO_EVENT_ATTENDEES] shortcode, you can display lists of approved attendees for your events. There are several parameters that can be used to display different kinds of lists, like lists for a specific event, datetimes, tickets, and even certain registration statuses. With no parameters set, the default shortcode shows the attendees for the earliest active event or if there is no active event, then the earliest upcoming event is shown. If it is used in the event description area (via your event editor), then it will show the attendees for that specific event.
The Events CPT Slug
In version 4.7.3.p, we added the ability to change the event slug for the Events custom post type. Previously, the slug defaulted to /events/. You can now change the slug in Event Espresso > Events on the Templates tab.
WP User Integration Enhancements
In version 2.0.1 of the WP User Integration add-on, we added the [ESPRESSO_MY_EVENTS] shortcode to display list of registrations for user on a front end WordPress page.
Click the image below to see it in action.
“Your Registrations” page now available in the Event Espresso 4 WP User Integration Add-on! http://t.co/Guve91T3Ta #WordPress #eventtechTweet this
Read more about the “Your Registrations” page here.
Event Check-In Now More Mobile Responsive (WP 4.3+)
We added mobile styles to the event check-ins and other EE admin list tables (WordPress 4.3+ only). We also moved attendee the list table search field closer to the top of the mobile view for easier access.
New Messages Shortcode Picker UI
We made creating or modifying message templates easier by adding a message shortcode picker which displays the shortcodes that are available for each field.
Click the image below to see it in action.
So, what do you think about these improvements? Have you used any of these new features? If so, what do you think?
The “Your Registrations” page is a front facing page for logged-in members of your website to view their registration history. Just by logging into your website, and viewing a specific WordPress page on the front-end of your website, users can view events they’ve registered for in the past.
If you are using the EE4 WP User Integration add-on in your WordPress website, just add the [ESPRESSO_MY_EVENTS] shortcode to any page and your users will see a nice looking table of past registrations.
That’s not all!
We’ve also packed it full of other nice features, such as:
Responsive table design
Expandable rows that allow your user’s to:
view purchase history
view/edit personal details
download ticket(s)
print receipts
make a payment
Customizable using shortcode parameters:
template : defaults to simple_list_table. Can be either simple_list_table or event_section as the template slug (see screenshots above for difference. This has been designed so developers can hook in their own templates down the road if they want (or we can add additional layouts at whim as well).
per_page : defaults to 10. This allows the user to set the limit of rows that are shown before pagination kicks in on the main table (the event_section template does no pagination of tickets listed for each event).
your_events_title : defaults to localized “Your Events”. This allows for users to customize the label for the listing.
your_tickets_title : defaults to localized “Your Tickets”. This allows for users to customize the label for the listing of your tickets. Note, the “Your Tickets” label is currently only used with the event_section template.
Customizable templates. Developers can override the templates by copying the files from the template directory into your theme.
The Promotions & Discount Codes add-on for Event Espresso 4 adds powerful and flexible promotional pricing features to your events. You can create discount codes and promotions that can provide discounts for your attendees when they are registering for an event or buying tickets.
Optional start and expiration dates for each discount
Percentage or fixed amount discounts
A shortcode and widget that displays a list of non-coded promotions on your website
Configure whether a promotion can or cannot be combined with any other promotions
Custom confirmation and declined coupon code messages
List a message on your website about automatically applied promotions that do not need a discount code
Easily setup similar promotion codes by duplicating an existing promotion code
and more!
These features allow you to incentivize your audience to purchase more ticket(s) sooner or register for more events, allowing you to run your business more efficiently and make more money.
Screencast Demo
Here is a brief screencast demonstration for the Promotions & Discount Codes in Event Espresso 4:
As an event organizer, promotions and and discount codes allow you to:
Target and re-target attendees with banners or email campaigns offering automatic discounts or giving them special discounts with a code
Distribute and promote your event through partners (speakers, sponsors, venues, affiliates, etc.) by offering them a special coupon code they can share with their audience
Track and measure the performance of marketing campaigns and advertising
Reward loyal customers by offering them a special discount and incentivize them to attend again
Encourage customers to take action now by offering limited quantity or limited time discounts
Test and discover what pricing, distribution, marketing or advertising strategy works best for your audience(s)
Offer discounts to different target audiences so that your event is priced perfectly
We’ve reached the first milestone which provides read access to all EE4 data. That means you can build client-side Javascript code, mobile apps, and programs in any language (and on any server) that can read data used in Event Espresso 4.
So what’s great about the EE4 REST API and what can you do with it? Here’s a start:
Unlike its predecessor, the EE3 JSON API, this addon is compatible with Event Espresso 4 (not Event Espresso 3)
It’s built using the WordPress REST API (aka WP API). That means many plugins that work with the WP API work with it too. WP API gives the EE4 REST API a solid foundation by handling authentication, providing endpoint discovery, and supplying lots of the “behind-the-scenes” code.
It provides read access to all Event Espresso 4 data: events, tickets, datetimes, registrations, custom questions and answers, payment methods, and configuration data. Even Event Espresso 4 addons’ data, like from the Mailchimp Addon or the People Addon, is available by default. If we’ve missed something tell us in the github issue tracker!
It uses Event Espresso’s models system for querying the database. This gives API clients nearly as much querying abilities as server-side plugins. Here are some of the crazier queries we thought of: Read More
If you want to learn more about WordPress, meet new people, and have a great time while doing so, then WordCamp Columbus is the place to be. You might even get to meet some of the biggest names in the WordPress community, such as Andrea Rennick, Ryan Duff, and Topher DeRosia.
Not only are we sponsoring, but our good friend, and long time customer, Angie Meeker who is organizing the event this year, has asked to interview me about rearchitecting Event Espresso and the transitions we’ve made over the past 6 years.
This looks like an amazing event, and we hope to see you there! If you plan on attending, please let us know in the comments section below. I (Seth Shoultes) will also be there, handing out shirts, so if you’re around, come say hello 🙂
When is WordCamp Columbus?
WordCamp Columbus 2015 is scheduled for Friday, July 17, through Sunday, July 19th, 2015!
Schedule
This year’s schedule looks jam-packed with great speakers, and lot’s of great sessions!
What is WordCamp?
WordCamp is a conference that focuses on everything WordPress. WordCamps are informal, community-organized events that are put together by WordPress users like you. Everyone from casual users to core developers participate, share ideas, and get to know each other.
Braintree is available to 
PayPal Payflow Pro is available to 
I’m super excited about this opportunity to