CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Hi folks --

Is there any way to seriously simplify event creation and registration so that a less-than-computer-savvy nonprofit administrator can create events and registration is less overwhelming?

I'm looking at alternatively building a custom module that would basically use the API to create an event using a simplified form for the admin and some defaults set by myself -- but obviously that's a heck of a lot of work (and I'm finding the API documentation doesn't have a lot of depth -- e.g. what all the available parameters in a given call are, and what they correlate to).

Any suggestions?

Also, A) is there any way to add in-depth descriptions to individual registration items (e.g. what's included in different sponsorship levels)?  And B) is there a way to prompt the user for a donation in addition to / instead of a registration?

Thanks!

Hi Lobo --

You might want to get a lot more specific as to how/what you want to simplify etc. Screen shots do help a lot to explain your thoughts / thinking

Good point.  I was just generally wondering whether there are any configuration options already included in CiviCRM that would allow one to remove fields from the create/edit event wizard.  I've looked a bit already -- I take it the answer is no?

The event creation api is probably quite limited. You might want to write to the DB directly

That's disappointing.  And somehow I suspect the database fields and the various queries that need to be made to add an event or to register users are even more sparsely documented if at all.  Is there somewhere one might look for such documentation?

A. yes. modify the tpl for the specific event and add your own custom in-depth description. Check: http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/Customize+Built-in,+Profile,+Contribution+and+Event+Registration+Screens

OK.... that's clearly not something I can ask a staff member to do who's only nominally computer literate, though.

B. No, in your customized tpl you can tweak the wording and call it a donation rather than Event Fee(s)

Sorry, I meant in addition to a registration fee -- i.e. the user is already buying N number of tickets at $50 apiece; I'd like to offer them the opportunity to also make a donation in the amount of their choice, as long as they're checking out.

Additionally, I'd like users who can't attend to be able to make a donation that is associated with and included in the revenue calculations for the event, if that makes any sense.

Thanks so much for your help!

Thank you!  I'll look into the links you provided. 

3. Editing a tpl file is not much harder than editing an html file. If they are conversant with html they should be able to edit the tpl file

Unfortunately, we're talking about people who think Internet Explorer is "the internet" and can barely attach a file to an email.  The two things they need to be able todo on their own on this site are add news items (easy to create a straightforward "how-to") and create new events with custom registration options.  Looks like I'll be doing some development. 

4. Adding a donation to an event registration is not supported (including a donation without registration) has come up a few times in the recent past. This would make an excellent community contribution also

If we have enough time at the end of the project to actually implement this feature, I'll certainly contribute the work back.

Thanks again for your help!

That might make sense.  What do you have in mind?

I think that makes sense.

I'm also going to need to create a simplified event creation interface and a way to attach extra data to ticket types (I've got wireframes I can share, too).

Unfortunately, I have a 6 week deadline for all of this (plus a whole bunch of other development including a custom payment integration), and am not yet very familiar with CivicSpace at all, let alone the codebase.  Are you interested in moving very quickly on this? 

Alternatively, I'm considering trying to adapt a different Drupal module to accomplish what I need.

if u need any help with the ERD or code please feel freee to ping us on IRC. If you build a generalized API to create/setup events, please release your code, along with the documentation

lobo

If the hidden field defaults are "hard-coded" (i.e. the same for everyone) - you should be able to set them using the VALUE="xyz" attribute of the hidden field.

Yup. You would be replacing the smarty-defined (quickform) field references with straight HTML hidden fields in your custom copy of the template. Caveat that I haven't tried this myself - but I'm pretty sure that once the form POSTs, if your replacement has the expected field name  - then the post process will use the value you've passed as if the user selected / entered it.