Support

January 5, 2020 at 4:18 pm

Hi Neil,

We do NOT use the Ticket Notice email.

This is the important part here as the Ticket Notice basically IS the ticket email.

The ticket message type you are referring to is a PDF message type as the messaging system is used to generate the tickets themselves, so there is no ‘Ticket Email’ that should be sending.

Event Espresso currently does not support including the QR codes directly within the emails themselves, but you can include a link (the same link as the ticket notice) in the ‘Registration Approved’ email using the [TXN_TICKETS_APPROVED_URL] shortcode.

January 6, 2020 at 6:28 am

So there is NO way to email registrants the QR code ‘document’?

No, you can include a link to the tickets in various place but the tickets need to be opened in a browser.

EE generates QR codes using a JavaScript library, meaning the QR is generated within your browser so now there is no way to email the QR itself to the user through Event Espresso.

You can use something like Google Charts API to create custom QR’s within the email, it’s still not directly included within the email but an img tag created on the fly, see here for an example:

https://eventespresso.com/wiki/custom-qr-codes-for-tickets/

If so, that seems very shortsighted, and may be a deal breaker for u

May I ask why you feel it’s shortsighted?

We compared a few different libraries to generate QR codes using both PHP and JavaScript. Weighed up the pros and cons for both types of library and then took into consideration the sheer number of issues people have with poorly configured mail servers we see with ‘standard’ emails and chose to use a JavaScript solution.

The decision to use a JavaScript library to generate QR’s made the most logical sense at the time of planning/creating the add-on.

because we know for sure that many people will never click on that link and then print or save the ticket. They will just turn up at the event and slow all the processing down while we manually mark them present.

If the user(s) is the type to not print out their tickets then including the QRs within the email itself is unlikely to change that.

If they don’t print the tickets then the user has the option to open the email and show you the QRs at the door for you to scan and they have that same option with the link we use currently. If the tickets were attached to the email in say a PDF they would need to download that to their device and if they are the type not print the tickets it’s unlikely they’ll print it but may often use the email directly which again they still have the option to do.

They will just turn up at the event and slow all the processing down while we manually mark them present.

The best way to avoid that is to inform the user they need their ticket for entry. You will still get some that simply don’t have their ticket(s) but displaying the ticket in the email or a link isn’t going to change that by much.

January 6, 2020 at 3:00 pm

I hear your comments and explanations, but my comment on the short-sightedness is based on simple human nature.

But it seems as though your comment is aimed towards EE so I’m not sure I follow this?

We know from experience that just telling people they need to print something out doesn’t actually change the behaviour of many.

As mentioned, the user can display the tickets on their phone exactly as they would with the QR’s within the email itself. Let’s say no users at all print out the tickets and they all just ignore the email.

They get to the door and you ask them to show you the email so you can scan the QR’s, they check their phone and open up the registration approved email for you, right?

With what you’re suggesting, they open the email and the QR’s directly shows within the email and you scan them.

With the current set up, they open the email and click a link within that email which opens a page on your site that displays the tickets on the phone…. you scan them.

What’s the difference to the end result here? Both get the QR’s and both can be scanned from their phone so I’m not sure why embedding them into the email itself is a requirement.

We know from experience that just telling people they need to print something out doesn’t actually change the behaviour of many.

I/We agree with you, my comment regarding them needing a ticket was not requiring them to print the ticket, but simply that you (the admin) will need access to some form of ticket from them. If they don’t already know that they didn’t read the email but when checked it should clearly show it.

We need a solution where people are emailed the QR code, enabling us to scan it from their phone or a printed version if they have done that.

You already have exactly that with the current set up, embedding the QR’s into the email itself only changes one situation and that is when the user does not have internet access on their device when they arrive yet exactly the same could happen with QR’s directly within the email.

If adding the QR’s directly to the email is a deal-breaker for you then EE is not going to work for you as this isn’t something we can change in a relatively short amount of time.

January 6, 2020 at 4:12 pm

Yes the same shortcode that’s in the ticket notice can be added to the registration approved email.

FYI, QR codes do not generally work well within the context of an email. There was a feature in EE3 that used the Google Chart API (now deprecated) and many times the qr code images were blocked where sometimes the recipient could click a link to display images anyway. Worse yet the email itself would be blocked because the QR code code was suspect. It’s much more reliable to provide a link to a ticket where the ticket itself has the QR code.