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Event Espresso 4 (Beta) Now Available!

Posted: February 9, 2014 at 11:36 pm

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Garth

  • Support Staff

February 9, 2014 at 11:36 pm

Event Espresso 4 Beta is now available! Please see the Official Event Espresso 4 Announcement and, please, spread the word.

How is EE4 different than EE3?

2014-02-10_00-10-21EE4 is very different from EE3 in more ways than we can probably list/describe/remember—so you’re going to want to check it out. In general there are several important changes to the EE4: features, user interface, data structure,  coding method and price.

Features

2014-02-10_00-06-40EE3 and EE4 have different feature sets; some features are available in EE4 that have never been available in EE3:

…and 30+ more!

User Interface

2014-02-10_00-07-23The user interface has been rebuilt to follow the new WordPress 3.8+ standard. We’ve rebuilt all the pages, added new icons, added mobile browser compatibility, optimized notifications and much more. We believe that EE4 is more elegant, easier to use and more powerful all at the same time.

Data Structure

The data structure has changed so that some event data is now custom post types (CPTs). CPTs make event-related data more available to standard WordPress functions and themes. This will make Event Espresso more accessible for both back-end (core) developers and front-end (theme) designers.

Coding Method

The coding method has changed from procedural coding to more heavily object-oriented programming. That means there are more files, but less code to do more advanced things. Experienced developers should appreciate all the work that went into this change. We believe it makes our event registration more powerful and robust, helping make your event registration experience better.

We really think you’ll like what you see—especially as you get used to EE4 and realize all the new types of events it can power. We will continue making improvements in all of these areas and look forward for what is to come.

Screen Shots

2014-02-10_00-13-43 2014-02-10_00-23-26 2014-02-10_00-07-53
2014-02-10_00-18-37 2014-02-10_00-18-12 ticket_editor
2014-02-10_00-19-15 2014-02-10_00-16-37 2014-02-10_00-17-31

Price

While “in Beta”, Event Espresso 4 will be discounted significantly (approx. 50%). As the EE4 matures to a “stable” development status, the price will rise. Those who purchase at this discounted rate are still entitled to 12 months of support and upgrades.

Can I Use EE4 instead of EE3?

Depending on your situation you might (or might not) want to replace EE3 with EE4. In general, our recommendation hinges on: what features you require, and whether you want to use your EE3 data in EE4.

Some features are not available in EE4 that are available in EE3:

  • Coupon/Discount codes
  • Wait lists
  • Staff manager
  • Support for EE3 add-ons (see below)
None of the EE3 add-ons are compatible with EE4 at this time (but they are on our short-list). You will need to make the determination about which features your project requires and which Event Espresso version will meet your needs. We will be releasing an updated Features page which will allow you to sort and compare the features by version. Look for that early next week.

We have created a form, for our users, to tell us what features are most important to their business. We encourage everyone to please fill out this form, so we can get an idea of where we need to focus our resources in the coming weeks and months.

Using EE3 Data in EE4

Event Espresso 4 is ready to accept unaltered data that has been prepared by Event Espresso 3.1.36 (or greater). If you’ve not modified your EE3 database structure then you can migrate your data from EE3 to EE4. If you have modified your database structure, the migration scripts may not function properly (see below).

As a good practice, please backup your website database before migrating.

When to migrate EE3 data to EE4:

If you are using  Event Espresso version  3.1.36 (or greater) without customization that changes the data structure (e.g. additional database tables, columns, etc.) you can migrate your database from EE3 to EE4.

As a good practice, please backup your website database before migrating.

When NOT to migrate EE3 data to EE4:

We recommend NOT migrating your EE3 data to EE4 if you: have customized Event Espresso database tables or columns that weren’t included with EE3 OR are using EE3 on a multi-site installation of WordPress.

What is the development status of Event Espresso 4?

After years of development and months of testing, we have finished adding features (to this version) and all major bugs have been resolved. We do expect you to be able to use EE4 as if it were a stable product, with the exception that additional bugs may be identified through more extensive testing with your specific use-case. Please report any suspected bugs to the support forums. For a short period, we will be focused on fixing bugs that are found by users and that can be verified by our support staff, then release patches ASAP. After EE4 is released as a “non-Beta” product we will commence work on our development road map.

What’s the plan for Event Espresso 3?

EE4 beta begins the official process of phasing out EE3. Going forward, we will focus new feature development resources on EE4 and only maintenance resources to EE3. As the EE4 feature set (including add-ons) exceeds those that are currently available with EE3 we will not longer sell or support EE3.

Those who purchase a EE3 support license  also have access to the core EE4 files and we recommend that they upgrade as soon as possible. We have provided tools to use EE3 data in EE4 which can help you start using EE4 sooner.

The future of event registration and ticketing is with Event Espresso 4 and we hope you’ll join us today for that amazing journey.

You can even launch your own demo site for EE4 in just a few minutes. Click here to get started with your EE4 test drive site!

Reporting Bugs

We have spent, literally, thousands of hours developing, testing and debugging EE4, but undoubtedly some of you may encounter issues with EE4 while testing it in your given use-case, the plugins and themes you use, etc. Please report any unexpected behavior, error messages, or bugs to the pre-release forum so we can keep all the requests organized and fixed as soon as possible. Please create a new thread for each issue so that it can be addressed specifically. Otherwise it might confused with other issues or missed among a lengthy discussion.

As a good practice, please backup your website database before using EE4 on the same website where you are using EE3 and before migrating.
  • This topic was modified 10 years, 9 months ago by Garth. Reason: Removed phased release explanation, access given to all support license holders
  • This topic was modified 10 years, 9 months ago by Seth Shoultes.
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  • This topic was modified 10 years, 9 months ago by Seth Shoultes.
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  • This topic was modified 10 years, 9 months ago by Seth Shoultes.
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  • This topic was modified 10 years, 9 months ago by Seth Shoultes.
  • This topic was modified 10 years, 9 months ago by Seth Shoultes.
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  • This topic was modified 10 years, 8 months ago by Lorenzo Orlando Caum. Reason: ee4 testdrive link
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  • This topic was modified 10 years, 7 months ago by Garth.


Tristan Mills

February 10, 2014 at 7:01 am

Whats the deal with discount coupons not being supported?


Garth

  • Support Staff

February 10, 2014 at 8:36 am

Hi Tristan,

Promotional and Discount codes will be available for Event Espresso 4 as soon as that feature is complete. Same goes for support for add-ons.


Garth

  • Support Staff

February 10, 2014 at 8:59 am

@Tristan

What type of discounting do you need? Because with EE4 you can configure discounted tickets based on dates and times by creating tickets with lower prices that expire at a certain date and then higher-priced tickets that start selling when the lower priced tickets end.

You can also do tiered volume discounting by setting the Min/Max Quantity. The min/max quantity determines how many they HAVE to buy at that price or the MOST they can buy at that price. You can set up several tiers.

Does that make sense?


Tristan Mills

February 10, 2014 at 9:44 am

They sound like good features; occasionally we run a promotion and give away a discount code which can be entered at checkout. Also, one of our hacks for ee3 was to enable a $5 surcharge if the tickets purchased are less than a certain quantity – would this be supported out of the box in ee4?


Garth

  • Support Staff

February 10, 2014 at 10:11 am

@Tristan

Re the $5 surcharge, yes that’s doable.

I’d configure a ticket that has a maximum quantity at your surcharge quantity limit and apply a $5 surcharge to that ticket. Configure additional tickets with the minimum quantity above your surcharge quantity and do not add the $5 surcharge. Does that make sense? Take a look at the Ticket Options section: https://eventespresso.com/features/multiple-ticket-pricing-options/


Brent Christensen

  • Support Staff

February 10, 2014 at 10:15 am

Yes, you could use the graduated pricing that Garth mentioned. You would have to create 2 tickets. One would have the $5 surcharge plus a min quantity of 1 and a max quantity of whatever your limit is. Then your second ticket would NOT have the surcharge but it’s min quantity would START at the limit you used for the other ticket’s max quantity but NO max quantity (for unlimited)


Eric Rosenberg

February 10, 2014 at 11:37 am

Looks like a good step forward. I will upgrade once the MailChimp integration addon works with EE4.


Matt Keath

February 10, 2014 at 1:46 pm

You mention not to upgrade if you are using a it on a MS? Why is that?

Thanks


Darren Ethier

February 10, 2014 at 2:17 pm

Hi Matt,

We emphasized that in our announcement because although we have built EE4 to be multi-site compatible, we haven’t been able to complete all our internal testing for Multi-Site installations and migrations from EE3 multi-site installations. So we are recommending NOT upgrading from EE3 being used on WordPress Multisite.

With that said, for users with a development/staging environment you are free to test a migration on your multi-site install and let us know how it goes. We’d definitely appreciate the feedback but be aware we’re not supporting multi-site upgrades at this point.


mblair

February 10, 2014 at 3:53 pm

Looks exciting! I want to test it out on the new site I’m working on. Do I need to uninstall all the Version 3 plugins before I nstall the New Version 4? I’m ok not having all the extra add-ons for now. I made a back up of my new site so I don’t lose all my work in case something blows up.


Josh

  • Support Staff

February 10, 2014 at 3:57 pm

Hi mblair,

That’s a good question. You can deactivate the version 3 plugins before you install Event Espresso 4 and that will work too. If after a bit of testing you decide to go with Event Espresso 4 then you can uninstall the EE3 plugins/add-ons.


Wim Brouwer

February 10, 2014 at 5:54 pm

I saw the payment possibilities. No iDeal for Holland. Will this come soon, as it was a part of EE3? Otherwise EE4 is useless for all your customers from Holland. iDeal is the farmost payment method in our country. Will there be extra costs for something that was free till now? I am working on a new project with EE3 and are afraid that I will never be able to make the step to EE4 because of this issue.


Seth Shoultes

  • Support Staff

February 10, 2014 at 6:04 pm

@Wim very sorry to hear that. Refactoring gateways is on our list of short(er)-term projects.


Wim Brouwer

February 10, 2014 at 6:34 pm

@Seth I hope you won’t forget us, because we really are a great fan of EE!!


Seth Shoultes

  • Support Staff

February 10, 2014 at 6:38 pm

We won’t forget. We are aware that iDeal is a popular gateway, it’s just going to take us some time to refactor all of the gateways.


David Holland

February 12, 2014 at 2:41 am

EE4 looks good on paper. I have been learning EE3 for my own business and I have client I will introduce to EE. But 2 questions.

EE4 looks like it will handle UK tax properly and show it as a separate line item.
But I use the Infusionsoft add-on, which if I understand will not work with EE4. Have I got that right?

So I am stuck on EE3 that doesn’t work for me because EE4 will not work for me.

Once I understand I can work around either answer :). I just need to understand the timeframe for having EE4 work with Infusionsoft add-on please.


Robert August

February 12, 2014 at 3:11 am

moneris? WHen will that be added.


Dean

February 12, 2014 at 5:59 am

@David – Correct the Infusionsoft add on will not be functional with EE4. There are currently no functional plugins for EE4.


@David
and Robert – Timescales are something we just can’t give. We are hoping the new framework and processes we have in place will help speed up plugin and gateway creation, but giving out a timescale will just set us up to fall as these things generally run over no matter what. Obviously though we (well the developers, bless ’em) are working incredibly hard to get things created, and will try to get the most popular addons and gateways released as soon as we can.


Robert August

February 12, 2014 at 10:45 am

ok I understand you don’t want to give out an exact date but is this going to happen in the next 3 months or can I add something on myself. I am building a new website and would prefer to use the new system


Jennifer Schick

February 12, 2014 at 2:38 pm

I am wondering, for Mailchimp and other payment gateways, while I know you might not have a specific timeline, do you think this will be weeks, 3 months or closer to 6+ months?

I ask because, I bought EE3 just the day before you launched EE4 partly due to Mailchimp and Quickbooks/Inuit Payment integration (which we already use), but the features in EE4 are so much more fitting for our business. But those two components are key to us. I am wondering if we should just get by without those features if it won’t be too long until they are added to EE4, or if we shold install EE3 as planned. We can get by a few weeks to 3 months, but it’s not worth it if much longer.

Thanks, I appreciate it and love the new features of EE4!


Josh

  • Support Staff

February 12, 2014 at 6:41 pm

Hi Jennifer,

If you need MailChimp and Quickbooks/Intuit, then I recommend starting with EE3 and upgrading to EE4 when the features you need are EE4 ready.


Mark Slegers

February 15, 2014 at 7:26 am

The new version looks very nice. Tax-function en invoice looks promising, but the iDeal gateway is essential for upgrading to EE4, like @wim also mentioned.
Second I also need the groupon-code add-on for giftcards.
I hope the add-ons are coming quickly…. looking forward in using EE4!


Seth Shoultes

  • Support Staff

February 15, 2014 at 7:43 am

Hi everyone,

We have opened up a form, for our users, to tell us what features are most important to their business. We encourage everyone to please fill out this form, so we can get an idea of where we need to focus our resources in the coming weeks and months.

Thank you!


cori nevruz

February 24, 2014 at 8:56 pm

Are deposits a part of the pricing plans…


Josh

  • Support Staff

February 26, 2014 at 6:38 am

Hi Cori,

Our policy, like that of many companies, is not to comment on future plans or work in progress.


Marcin

March 2, 2014 at 1:37 pm

Why venue location is restricted to US&Canada? How to add more country and town?


Brent Christensen

  • Support Staff

March 2, 2014 at 2:41 pm

@Marcin

Log into the admin and go to Event Espresso > General Settings, click on the Countries Tab, then select whichever country you want from the first dropdown on the page. This will populate the rest of the page with that country’s settings and options.

Under Country Details on the left, Select Yes (1) for the “Country Appears in Dropdown Select Lists” option, then make sure to click “Save Country Details”.
This will allow you to populate any country dropdown select lists that are used on the site, with just the countries you wish to use. You can even remove the defaults that are there now, but if you do, make sure to update the country you set for your business on the Your Organization tab.


Kamon Walker

March 4, 2014 at 12:46 pm

Excited to see the infusionsoft add-on work.


D Rift

March 4, 2014 at 2:24 pm

Re: Discount Coupons… will you re-introduce them in EE4? The multiple tickets system is a great feature, but it doesn’t quite fit our needs:
We run walking tours and use discount coupons on flyers, which we place in hotel lobbies. Each hotel has its own discount code. That way we can identify which hotel brings us the most customers…
(People often don’t answer the “Where did you hear about us” question correctly)


Josh

  • Support Staff

March 4, 2014 at 3:00 pm

Hi D,

We’re planning on adding discount code features to Event Espresso 4.


D Rift

March 4, 2014 at 4:15 pm

Thanks! Will you also add Groupon codes again?
I understand you can’t give a definite time-scale for each and every add-on. But: are we looking more likely at 3-6 months, or maybe longer than that?


Dean

March 5, 2014 at 1:30 am

Hi,

Unfortunately we simply can’t give timescales. We’ve tried that in the past and for one reason or another we miss those estimates and it makes people sad. So now we don’t advise timescales.

Regarding the Groupon feature, no formal decision has been made. We will of course, announce features once they are ready for release.


D Rift

March 5, 2014 at 2:13 am

Thanks for your fast and responsive replies!
One more question: I very much like EE4. With EE3, different price plans have different number of add-ons included.
With EE4 (beta), the pricing plan seems a lot more simple: 2 options. Will this stay like this, or are you planning premium/paid add-ons for EE4?
In other words: If I buy EE4 with its beta/introductionary price (I can’t afford EE3 at the moment)… will I possibly “lose out” on future add-ons?


D Rift

March 5, 2014 at 3:50 am

Hi,
I’m trying out your online demo at the moment and have another question:
I run an event which reoccurs every week. Each event date is limited to 10 participants. I have 2 ticket types: a discounted “Early Bird”, and a “Normal Price”.

Is it possible to use those two ticket types for all reoccuring events, but have a total limit of 10 people per event date?

In the online demo, when purchasing a ticket, people can’t specify which event date/instance they want to buy it for.
I know I could create a new ticket type for each event instance, but that would mean creating 52 ticket types per year per event…. a lot of repetitive work 🙁


Dean

March 5, 2014 at 4:49 am

Hi,

No decisions have been made regarding add ons for EE4 at this moment in time. If we do add in a bulk offer like we have now I am sure we will take early adopters into consideration.

Regarding the recurring events, EE3 has the Recurring Event Manager that will make creating events easier. Rather than using a ticket for early bird, we do have that as a built in option (core plugin not an addon), so you can create one ticket and give it a % or flat fee discount up until x date.


MsBecca

March 10, 2014 at 11:11 am

Will there be a feature where an event can be assigned to a user (promoter) so that they can track sales (preferably in the front end).


Josh

  • Support Staff

March 10, 2014 at 12:26 pm

Hi there,

Possibly. I’ve registered your suggestion and we will keep it in mind for future features and updates!


MsBecca

March 10, 2014 at 12:59 pm

Thank you. Also, hopefully by assigning an event to a user they will be able to see only this event (and not all the events) when checking attendees in at the door.


Josh

  • Support Staff

March 14, 2014 at 3:44 pm

Not a bad idea.


talves

March 14, 2014 at 8:48 pm

The big question moving forward concerns the calendar view and images on it. We depend upon this function HEAVILY. The question then becomes how soon the calendar addon might be available and whether pics will be included on it.


RJG

March 16, 2014 at 7:23 am

If a recent update affected the registration for my event, is it possible to download a previous version of ee4?


Dean

March 17, 2014 at 5:26 am

@Talves – I can’t give a timescale, but I can advise it is high on our agenda. Unless something changes, it is likely that the EE4 calendar will be virtually identical to the EE3 one.

@Riffard – please continue the discussion here https://eventespresso.com/topic/my-registration-tickets-disappeared-from-my-events-page/


RJG

March 17, 2014 at 6:30 am

@Dean , Okay, i will.


Josh

  • Support Staff

March 17, 2014 at 9:04 am

@talves I can confirm that the ee4 calendar displays featured images.


Breakwater School

March 21, 2014 at 11:52 am

Our registration relies heavily on the use of coupon codes. Is the decision final that they won’t be supported in EE4? If so, we may have to look for an alternative or additional software that would allow us to keep our codes. Many thanks and thank you for all the improvements and work!


Seth Shoultes

  • Support Staff

March 21, 2014 at 12:01 pm

@Breakwater School

We never said that coupon codes won’t be supported. They just aren’t available at this point in time and probably won’t be available for several months. We are in fact scoping out the coupon system, but it is going to take several months of planning, development, and testing to get them into EE4.

Does that help at all?


Breakwater School

March 21, 2014 at 2:02 pm

Hi Seth. Thank you so much for your clarification. We’ll look forward to upgrading to EE4 when the coupon system is in place. Have a great weekend!


Stephen Lavallee

March 29, 2014 at 11:56 am

This looks great! I’d like to know if the Calendar add-on and the Multiple Event add-on are coming soon for EE4…I need these, or I’ll have to use EE3, which I’d prefer not to do.

Thanks!


Dean

March 31, 2014 at 12:57 am

Hi Stephen,

We can’t give exact time scales, but we are hard at work on the Calendar add on and are hoping for a release relatively quickly.

The cart system will likely be further down the line.


Stephen Lavallee

March 31, 2014 at 8:00 am

Thanks Dean- I guess we’ll have to go with EE3 for now then. I appreciate the info.


abigail fox

April 1, 2014 at 1:40 pm

Hi, I’m new to Event Espresso & want to start using EE4 but I see that the calendar isn’t supported – please can you tell me when this will be included in EE4? Thanks


Dean

April 2, 2014 at 4:21 am

Hi Abigail,

We can’t give definite timescales unfortunately. What I can say is that we are hoping to have the calendar out as the first EE4 add on, and we are working hard on the calendar as we speak.


David Grandmaison

April 2, 2014 at 5:01 pm

Hey EE Team! I’m excited about EE4 and was hoping to install it on a locally hosted version of WordPress in order to play around with it and see what it can do. Will activating EE4 cause any sort of conflict with my current EE3 installation on my live site? Thanks folks!


Garth

  • Support Staff

April 2, 2014 at 5:12 pm

@ David

EE3 and EE4 are NOT designed to run simultaneously; it should be one or the other and preferably not switching in between both versions.


Seth Shoultes

  • Support Staff

April 2, 2014 at 5:44 pm

You should install Event Espresso 4 on a testing/development server before running on a live site.


David Grandmaison

April 2, 2014 at 6:33 pm

Thanks fellas. My live production site would continue to run EE3 while I play around with EE4 in an offline, locally hosted development site. Will this cause any problems with the live production site. Thanks again!


Garth

  • Support Staff

April 2, 2014 at 7:28 pm

Running EE4 localhost on a different server than live should not affect one another.


Garth

  • Support Staff

August 22, 2014 at 1:03 pm

With the recent release of two event list view add-ons, the following add-ons are available now for Event Espresso 4:

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