Seat Number How To

Hello

We have a Hikashop Business Edition, and need to add a "seat number" feature to the existing product/catalog. We are non-profit.

I read through the documentation for HikaSerail, but was unable to locate exactly how to implement my requirement.

So here is the requirement first.

Ordinarily for events such as "New Year Celebration", "Summer Picnic", etc, we create just basic 'Adult', 'Child' and 'Senior' tickets at different costs, say $15, $5 and $10 each. Users login, add to cart what they want, and checkout through PayPal. Works just fine.

We have an upcoming Stage Performace, and we need to sell tickets. Whats different here is, this event is obviously going to take place in a Theatre with pre defined seats.

Seats 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 are VIP seats
Seats 11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20 are EXECUTIVE seats
Seats 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 are GENERAL admission seats.

We want users to PICK which seat they are buying, say I want to buy 3 x EXECUTIVE seats, I should have the option of picking 11, 12, 13. When I complete my order (or through some status), then those 11, 12, 13 should not be offered for other users.

** In reality there are about 200 seats available, and we will be creating three categories as above, extrapolating my scenario from 30 seats to 200 seats **

How can I achieve this through Hika Serial - or is it too much to ask?

Regards

NKELKAR

Hi,

In the new version of HikaSerial, a new generator plugin would be added : a "series" generator (a seat generator).
The plugin would be able to generate series of numbers in order to populate your database (with your seats).

With this plugin, you could have this type of organisation/configuration:

* When you create a new event, you would have to create a pack per seat type.
"New Year VIP seats" / "New Year Executive seats" / "New Year General seats".
Each pack would use the "seat generator". And you would generate your seats.

* For each pack, the "Generate" button would be available, the generation panel would be customize by the plugin. It would add new "generator parameters" like : "start from number".
At this moment, you can set "start from number" to "1" and "Number of serials" to "10" in order to generate VIP seats.
Start from number "11" and generate "10" serials for executive seat, etc.

* So, each pack would contain pre-generate seats for their category. You would have to assign these packs to the corresponding HikaShop products.
When a customer would by a product which is link with a pack, HikaSerial would assign a serial from this pack to the customer. When a serial is assign, nobody else could have it.
If the customer finally cancel his order, the serial (the seat) could be unassigned and available for everyone.

The "series" generator is a generic plugin. It is possible to implement a more specific plugin if you want.
I have some ideas but I am not sure that it would be used by people !

Regards,

Hi,

We are currently updating the documentation.
I have attached a new screenshot for the pack generation using the "seriesgen" plugin.
HikaSerial Documentation: Pack Edition

Hope it would help you.

Regards,

>> In the new version of HikaSerial, a new generator plugin would be added : a "series" generator (a seat generator).

So this is not out yet as of now?

>> So, each pack would contain pre-generate seats for their category. You would have to assign these packs to the corresponding HikaShop products

So, the system would hand out the ticket numbers? This is not what we want, We want people to ** pick and choose which seats they want **
Is that possible with the "new" plugin.

Thanks

Hi,

So this is not out yet as of now?

It is include in the 1.3.0 version which has been published today.

So, the system would hand out the ticket numbers? This is not what we want, We want people to ** pick and choose which seats they want **
Is that possible with the "new" plugin.

It is not possible to choose the seat with this new plugin and with this kind of organization.
For the moment, the best way is to create variants. But I understand that creating 200 variants could be big (you could use the export/import system to make it simpler).
An other idea would be a specific custom field which would make a link between the product and a database table (from HikaSerial or not).
But it has to be compatible with the product quantity (when you add more than one product in your cart, you can't take the same seat twice) and the "seat validation" (if you choose a seat but before your order validation someone else has buy this place).

So, I'm sorry, it would be a little bit more complicated that I thought you wanted.
Using variants is the best way because it does not require specific development.

Regards,

Thanks Jerome.

Its not the matter of creating 200 variants, we can certainly sit and spend some time.

What I wanted to achieve is a good end user experience - similar to selecting your seat when you check-into a flight - or preselecting your seats at a theatrical show.

Anyways, I have decided to simply create three classes of tickets, and seat people into their classes as per first come first serve. Thats the best solution for now instead of complicating the plugin.

I do realize this is not a simple fixit issue, but a detailed technical one as well.

Worth exploring with you folks before making a decision.