Posted: June 11, 2014 at 4:34 pm
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Event Espresso – 3.1.36.5.P // WP3.9.1 I was testing EE3 and everything was in working order with the email confirmations. It would send one email confirmation to the primary attendee which contained links to each individual ticket purchased. Then, all of a sudden this changed. It started sending a single email confirmation to every person registered. Just as an example, this is what the email stated when working fine and sending only one email confirmation; ————————– Then, it changed how it displayed this info and started sending emails to everyone registered like this; ————————– The confirmation email sent to Admin also changed at the same time. The subject line of this email changed and it started to list details of every registrant as opposed to previously only containing links to all tickets purchased under the primary attendee information. I did not knowingly change any settings. I may be overlooking the obvious here but cannot find out what setting I have changed the caused this change to take effect. Can you please advise what I might have done here to cause this issue. I need to set it back urgently to send only one email to the primary attendee with links to each ticket in it as it did before. Thanks for your prompt reply. Regards, FRANK |
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Hi Frank, Are you using Multi Event Registration (MER for short)? Currently I’m thinking you used the standard registration when testing, but now use MER (adding events to a ‘cart’ like system to checkout multiple ticket types for muliple, or event single, events) Can you explain how your ‘registration flow’ works currently so I can re-create and run some tests please? |
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Hi Tony, I am and was using the MER from the start and when testing. I can send on the emails to show the change. Or, I can provide you with backend access if you want to take a look at the process flow first hand, rather then me try to explain it? If you need anything else just let me know. Thanks, FRANK |
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In that case, I am unaware of any settings that will change how the emails are sent in the way you are describing but will ask the other members of support to look in on this thread and post any ideas they may have. In the meantime if you could supply login details using this form: https://eventespresso.com/send-login-details/ It should help shed some light on what we are looking for. Just to confirm are we ok to run some test registrations? Is so please provide details on which event we should use within the form above. |
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I have just submitted the requested details via the link provided. |
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Hi Frank, I spent some time over the weekend testing this and found that with MER registrations I never receive the single email with multiple ticket links. I only receive the email with multiple ticket links when using the standard registration form and requiring Personal Info for additional attendees. Looking through the code I think I see why this happens, although it is not a simple fix. We have an open ticket for the developers to investigate. What I can’t figure out is how you originally received the multiple ticket email when using the MER registration process. Have you recently updated Event Espresso? or any of the EE Add-on’s? |
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Hi Tony, I appreciate your time and efforts on this. I have spent hours myself as well trying to backtrack and figure out what is anything change at the time the email confirmations changed but have not been able to find out the cause. I have tried disabling plugins, changing settings and so on to no avail. The only plugin I thought I might have activated near the time the change happened was the Volume Discount Plugin however, deactivating that plugin made no difference. It is a head wrecker to say the least. The reason one email is so important is that people booking anything up to 40/50 tickets at a time for this event. The other thing I need to work on here is the content of the confirmation email. I need it to list in detail what the person has actually booked. I cannot see a simple way to do this. It is imperative that they receive a full detailed confirmation stating the number of tickets booked, amount paid and registration details for each person registered. As it stands, at no point during the registration process does the customer get the chance to confirm the details they have entered are correct nor do they receive any confirmation of those details so they can double check. This leaves any errors open to debate and that they do un-noticed with no opportunity to fix them prior to the event. The email confirmation sent to Admin is actually closer to what I need so is there any way to modify either the confirmation page displayed after payment to detail registration information or detail it in the email confirmation link the Admin one. I will keep working away on it here. My support licence runs out shortly but I would like to know before renewing it if these issues can be worked on otherwise my client is probably unlikely to renew based on how it currently works. Thanks for your continued. Regards, FRANK |
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Hi Frank, I looked into this further and found a way to send the Confirmation email to only the primary attendee and include all the ticket links for that group registration. However it will require a couple of modifications to EE core as the functions used are currently not pluggable. (The modifications we will make is to make those pluggable, then override those functions with our own within a custom_functions.php file to keep the functions themselves update-safe) The core modifications will be lost with each Event Espresso update and will need to be re-done (I have put a request to include the code used to make the functions pluggable but this will not likely be included within the next version of EE as we are within the later stages of testing that version so likely 3.1.38) Whilst I have tested this as I was investigating, this has not gone through our internal testing and as such is not officially supported. Having said that the modifications are easily disabled to allow troubleshooting so should not cause much of an issue. If you are ok with the above I can provide more details on what needs to be modified?
When using MER you should see a full list of the registrations within the Payment Options page. (Once you have entered the information it is the next page) do you not see this currently? The email confirmation can be altered to include almost any of the information within the registration. If you can provide details of what/how you would like to display this we can advise the best way to do so. |
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Hi Tony, I really appreciate your time and effort on this. I definitely am ok with those mods, I have a reasonable working knowledge of PHP etc so am comfortable enough making any mods to files. If you can kindly provide the details and instruction on how and what files to mod that would be great. On the payment options page I do get a list of each person being registered but it does not display the information they enter to any questions. It only displays their name, ticket type and cost. See example; I think the custom template file for this page is confirmation_page.php and I can see by looking at the code it does appear to allow the questions to be displayed here also but for some reason I am unable to get that to work. I really need this confirmation page to display the above plus the data they enter for each question in the previous page. Then, just to repeat this information for them on the email confirmation as well. This event sells around 8000 tickets per year with hundreds of customers so I just need it to be as water tight as possible. Having worked a customer service manager in the online ticket industry a while back I am aware of a lot of the pitfalls that could lie ahead and just needs the above to ensure that the person booking has every opportunity to check and double check the information entered and what they have booked. Thanks again, FRANK |
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Ok, firstly we’ll need to make the functions we want to override ‘Pluggable‘ which basically just means we can declare the function in our custom_functions.php file before Event Espresso so that it uses our custom one. So open up event-espresso\includes\functions\main.php and go to line 1307. You should find this function: function espresso_ticket_links($registration_id, $attendee_id, $email = FALSE) {
What you need to do is wrap that entire function within a !function_exists call, for example if( ! function_exists ('function_name') ) { *function to override* }
So above that line we add: if (!function_exists('espresso_ticket_links')) {
and then after the function we close the parentheses ‘}’, so it will look something like this – http://take.ms/Iguxr Then you’ll need to create a ‘custom_functions.php’ file within wp-content\uploads\espresso\ Similar to – http://take.ms/yquB6 Within that include this function https://gist.github.com/Pebblo/254c39768b850b86f22b That will build all of the ticket links for multiple registrations when using MER. Now for the email. Its basically the same steps only this time go to event-espresso\includes\functions\email.php line 489 you’ll find: function email_by_session_id($session_id, $send_attendee_email = TRUE, $send_admin_email = TRUE, $multi_reg = FALSE) {
Wrap that function within a !function_exists check so – http://take.ms/9YTLg Then back within your custom_functions.php file add this function under the previous one. https://gist.github.com/Pebblo/0af7d73337c071ddb133 If all done correctly if you run a registration within multiple attendees (they can all use the same email address) when the registration confirmation email is sent out it should be a single email with multiple ticket links. Is that what you were expecting? Also, a question, are all of your attendee’s paying through online gateways (such as Paypal) or offline (such as invoice)? The confirmation_page.php template file is used for standard registrations, MER is different and builds the confirmation within its own function. I would advise against modifying this if possible, if you could include all of the relevant data within the email would that be enough? |
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Hi Tony, Thanks for all of that, I will get to work trying to implement that successfully now over the next few hours. In answer to your questions raised, reply as follows; “Is that what you were expecting?” – Yes, sounds perfect. Will confirm once I have those mods implemented. “Also, a question, are all of your attendee’s paying through online gateways (such as Paypal) or offline (such as invoice)?” – All payments will be online through PayPal only. “I would advise against modifying this if possible, if you could include all of the relevant data within the email would that be enough?” – I would settle for that for sure, having all the details in the email confirmation would be great. The confirmation page is perfect bar the questions missing, there would just be about enough on the confirmation page providing the email can cover it. I’ll let you know how I get on with the above and if you can let me know how to insert all the data in the confirmation emails then that would be great. Thanks for your continued support with this. Regards, FRANK |
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Hi Tony, Just to confirm I have made those mods as instructed and it all appears to be working great. Just need now to be able to include all the registrants details and questions in the email confirmation as intimated above. As soon as you can provide instruction on that I will give it a go as well. Thanks again, FRANK |
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Hi Frank, Because of the workaround’s to get EE working as you expected the email is sent differently than EE is expecting meaning it would also require a fair amount of core modification modifications, so adding all the info to the email actually becomes much more difficult, you would likely need to hire a developer to have some custom work done to Event Espresso for this to work. However, although I advised against it previous I found a rather simple way to the MER confirmation page to include the custom questions. There’s two options, as you currently have (minor) modifications to core already that will need to be repeated within at least the next update of Event Espresso you could add this modification to core, remembering that it would need to be re-done when you update EE or, the function is again pluggable so you can copy it to your custom_functions.php file and override it with the small change needed. However, the reason I advised against this previously is that the function we will edit is a core function, it adds attendee to the database, if we update other areas of EE (and that function) and your custom one overrides it with an older version this could potentially cause issues within your registrations. Its something to be aware of, as your events happen once a year there should be plenty of opportunity to fix this or hopefully EE4 will suit all your needs at that point. Anyway, now that’s out of that way you’ll want to open up event-espresso\includes\process-registrations\add_attendees_to_db.php The function is called event_espresso_add_attendees_to_db_multi() Notice it is already pluggable. If you go to line 815 you’ll find <?php echo __('Attendee:','event_espresso') . ' ' . stripslashes_deep($attendee->fname . ' ' . $attendee->lname) ?>
Move the closing php tag ( ‘?>’ ) down a line and add this: echo event_espresso_custom_questions_output(array('attendee_id' => $attendee->id, 'all_questions' => FALSE));
So the code looks like this – http://take.ms/sPv9Q Then when you run a MER registration any custom questions will be output under the attendee name, such as this – http://take.ms/7xRot Does that work better? |
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Hi Tony, Thanks for that. I have added that code and it now inserts the questions which is great. It is a real pity we cannot replicate this in the email confirmation. Is there any way to somehow insert this information in the Payment Confirmation then as opposed to the already modded booking confirmation? On the questions being display on the confirmation page, can you advise what file this output display is taken from? I need to change how it looks as although the questions show they are bit messy layout wise so I just need to make them look like the Attendee: Your name output above it. Great and on the surface of it a very simple solution for the questions on the confirmation page, many thanks. I have no problem modding core files to get what we need for this year as we have 6/7 months each year to fix or change them again or as you say hopefully EE4 will be up to scratch by that time. Thanks again, FRANK |
Unfortunately its the same issue with both confirmation email and the payment email. You could create a custom function & shortcode to use within the emails, then pass that function either the attendee session id or if that’s not readily available the attendee ID (or reg id) then use that to pull the Session ID. Then use the Session ID to pull the attendees, join the answers for the customer questions from the answers table and output them in another format. However that would be outside our scope for support, if you choose to do the above and need help in doing so I would recommend contacting one of our recommended developers available here: https://eventespresso.com/developers/event-espresso-pros/
It is declared within event-espresso/includes/admin-files/misc_functions.php You may be better copying that function into custom_functions.php and naming it something like ‘event_espresso_my_custom_questions_output’ or anything really, then calling that modified function in the add_attendees_to_db.php file. |
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Hi Tony, Sorry for the delay in replying, I could not get logged in to the support to follow this up. One of your colleagues has kindly fixed that issue. I have now modified the questions output to suit and that page works great now. I just have to find a solution for the email confirmations now. I appreciate your position with regards the work required. Can I just explore possible workaround with how the system currently works. The email that gets sent to Admin contains all the information I need, i.e. it details everyone registered including questions all in the one email. Where is the output of this email declared? On the thank you/confirmation page after payment is made, what tags/shortcodes can be used here to provide those full registration details again if possible? On the thank page, there is a link to ‘Edit Registrats Info’ or words to that effect. Could this link be included in the payment or confirmation email so that they can access that information? Thanks again for your kind and continued support. Regards, FRANK |
The admin email is constructed within \event-espresso\includes\functions\email.php using the function espresso_prepare_admin_email()
You’ll need to create your own function to do this, or build a function based on espresso_prepare_admin_email() to build your attendee email email and pass the value to the event_espresso_send_email() function.
This is not currently possible without heavy modification of Event Espresso.
Due to the work-around’s provided the emails are working in a way that is unexpected by Event Espresso. Event Espresso currently expects each attendee to have their own email with their own registration link, but within your site this is not the case, so adding this into into the email will also require core modifications. Unfortunately the amount of work involved in altering Event Espresso to suit this specific use case is not something we can support/provide. This would require much more custom development to work as you are currently describing which would need to be done either by yourself or a third part developer. |
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Hi Tony, Thanks for that. Firstly, can I ask the following; On the payment overview page before making payment, it perfectly lists all tickets, cost, attendees and questions now for the customer to check before making payment. This page is perfect and if the same information could be output the same in the email confirmation and thank pages then you have a complete, complaint process that all but eliminates any ambiguity, confusion or errors from the customer’s perspective and customer service needs. There is obviously a function that outputs this info very well on this page. What file displays this output? On the actual email confirmation, the tag/shortcode [attendee_event_list] outputs details on each ticket including ticket type. This is close to what I need. What file or function outputs this tags details? If you can point me in the right direction with the above I will try and do that myself. Your initial help was great but I can see from your recent emails any further help is above and beyond your support limits regrettably. Is there somewhere I can request that the way EE3 and EE4 includes the facility to provide customers with a clear and concise confirmation at every stage, prior to payment, confirmation/thank you page and email confirmations? It seems a glaring omission to an otherwise very good system. The absence of which will inevitably lead to customer issues and with 3 years experience working with online tickets sales for the RHS and London transport I am only too aware of the problems that are likely to arise hence my ongoing efforts to tighten this area up. I appreciate your efforts to date and hope that future updates and EE4 will improve in this sadly overlooked but important area. Regards, FRANK |
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Hello, I’m having some difficulty finding the following shortcode: [attendee_event_list] Where are you seeing the shortcode above? — |
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Hi Lorenzo, It is a custom email tag, referenced here; https://eventespresso.com/wiki/custom-email-tags/ Thanks, FRANK |
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The tag works in the emails and this is what it outputs but enclosed in a table if that helps. Event Name Date Time Location Map and Directions Map and Directions Map and Directions Map and Directions First Name: Adult Last Name: One Email: frank@pixelperfect.ie Address: Address 1 Town / City: Town County: County Postcode: Postcode Contact Number: 08349058403980 |
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Hi, That is referenced in the following files: wp-content/plugins/event-espresso/includes/functions/email.php The function for the event list attendee table is in the email.php file at about line 325: http://cl.ly/image/1Z3u063b1k01 — |
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