TABLE OF CONTENTS

The first steps to try for any for event syncing issues

  • Make sure your data in PatronManager is correct, in particular the Event Date/Time as well as Event Label.
  • Reset the Groundplan Pro PatronManager Data Cache.
  • Make sure your venues exist in Wordpress and are linked correctly. 
  • If ticketing URLS are incorrect, Delete your ticketing URLs in each event instance and resave the event. The data will repopulate. 
  • If you edited a previous event and then changed the event, create new events from scratch instead of copying a previous event. This avoids data errors including date/time issues.

 

FAQ  

Is PatronManager syncing one-way or two-way?

Syncing is one-way from Patronmanager to WP and non-destructive.  So you can:

  • Create or Update all your PatronManager Events and Venues in one click
  • Create Events one at a time and link them to PatronManager manually to update for greater control.
  • Make changes only to your WordPress event data (for marketing and design / layout reasons) and the system will maintain your changes in future syncs.

Only empty fields or new performances when you re-sync an event from PatronManager.


Which fields are synced?

All Event and Venue fields available through the API are available to WP, and the following are hooked up by default.


Venue

  • Detail [Description]
  • Address

Event

  • Description (Short Description in WP)
  • Detail (Long Description in WP)
  • General Event Direct Link
  • Sort Order

Event Instance

  • Event Instance Direct Link (Links to quantity or seat selection for that event instance)
  • Instance Date [Start Time in WP]
  • Sale Status (either for sale or Sold Out - Groundplan can handle auto-archiving events through our calculated Eventstatus postmeta)
  • Venue


Other PatronManager information like your ticket allocations and number of available tickets is also stored in a site transient and is available for customization. 


When available tickets are reduced to 0 while still onsale, an event instance is automatically updated to a “Sold Out” status which appears in Groundplan responsive calendars.


It’s also possible to add additional fields to the API using a PatronManager / Salesforce process of adding fields to a field group which Gameflow can help you with if necessary.


How do I update all my events all at once?

Check out this article: Bulk import and sync all events from PatronManager


Can I sync events that are not yet on sale in PatronManager?

Check out this article: Sync events before they go on sale



Common Issues


My PatronManager event isn't showing up in Wordpress.

Here are some steps you can take. 


1. If the event is on sale, make sure ticket allocations are on sale in PatronManager and the event is set to Public. 


2. If the event is not on sale yet, make sure ticket allocations are set, there is an onsale date for the future, and there is a "Not on Sale Yet" message set. More about events that are not on sale yet. 


3. Reset the PatronManager Cache. 


4. Go to Groundplan >> Settings and look for errors at the top of the screen. If you see a notification about a missing venue, you'll need to create that venue in WordPress before syncing. All Venues in PatronManager need to be created and linked in WordPress before syncing any events, even if the venue doesn't have any events yet. More about adding venues.


5. Advanced: Look at the PatronManager API to see if the event is showing up there.  

This procedure may be required on all your upcoming events if you move to the new Patron Ticketing Site (PTS v2).
PatronManager sync only populates empty fields, so to fix the issue, try the following:

  1. Delete the value for the general ticket URL.
  2. Delete all future event instances. 
  3. Make sure the event is still connected to a PatronManager event, and save the post.

The general ticket URL and event instances will repopulate with fresh data, and the links will point to the correct location.  


My events are displaying on the wrong dates.

Are you copying events in PatronManager? In the PatronManager Event Instance, make sure to update the Event Start Date and Time as well as the Event Label. If you only update the Event Label but not the start date/time, you may be experiencing surprising duplicate Event Instances or the case of “I can’t delete an event instance - it comes back every time I save the event!”


Duplicate Event Instances keep appearing when I save an event, and I keep having to manually delete them. 

You'll first want to confirm that all your PatronManager events actually have the correct date and time.  A common issue occurs when you clone a PatronManager event or event instance, update the date label, but do not update the date of the event instance - this results in the second event instance having the same date and time as a previous event instance which appears as a duplicate but is actually the result of data that needs to be updated in PatronManager.


Once you've ruled out an error with your PatronManager data, another possibility is that your event instances have become corrupted (typically as a result of migrating a WordPress database).  To clean out and refresh corrupted event instances, use the following procedure to delete the event instances in WordPress on the offending event, and resave the event to see if that clears out any corrupted data. 

  1. When the error occurs, record any event instances that are in the past. Past performances don't have to be deleted as they're no longer in PatronManager and won't be synced. If they're deleted you'll want to add them back manually for your archive. 
  2. Delete all upcoming event instances. 
  3. Save the post. 
  4. Event instances with correct dates, times, and Venues should be repopulated immediately. 


This can affect you if you use PTS v2, Patron Portals (customer logins) and cross-domain tracking.

Groundplan Theme will typically automatically configure your calendar and Buy Tickets buttons appropriately, but any hard coded or custom buttons from the site linking to PTS 2 should include either of the following adjustments to help prevent this error.  

If you want to prompt the user to log in when they land on a PatronManager page, add '?promptForLogin=true' to the end of your URL like so:

https://{your-domain}.secure.force.com/ticket/#/instances/{event-instance-id}?promptForLogin=true

If you don't want to prompt them to log in, just add a question mark to the end of your URL like so:

https://{your-domain}.secure.force.com/ticket/#/instances/{event-instance-id}?


The event query on an archive page (e.g. an Event List) is only displaying or calculating one performance per venue.

There is a known incompatibility with the SEO Framework (an otherwise fantastic SEO plugin) with the Posts 2 Posts / Performance system.  To fix the issue, we need to make sure The SEO Framework is not modifying the performance query.

  1. Disable SEO >> General >> Performance >> Query Alteration >> Enable search query alteration & Enable Archive query alteration.

PatronManager sync only populates empty fields, so to fix the issue, try the following:

  1. Delete the value for the general ticket URL.
  2. Delete all event instances so that the new event’s instances populate. 
  3. Make sure the event is still connected to a PatronManager event, and save the post.

The general ticket URL and event instances will repopulate with fresh data, and the links will point to the correct location.


To avoid this problem in general, create new events from scratch instead of cloning WordPress events.


I changed something in PatronManager (such as the Event description, an event date, or something else), and the changes aren't being reflected in WordPress.

Yes, this is how the sync is set up. Descriptions can be modified and saved on the WordPress side, and changes made in PatronManager will not update them. Many users will have one description on the website that is focused on marketing language for the event, and on PatronManager the descriptions tend to be about logistics, like ticket delivery and directions to the venue. Most clients want an initial sync when the event is first set up, and then the flexibility to modify content to fit the context. 

If a green field is blank and PatronManager info exists for that field, save the event again and the PM info will be populated. In other words, you can always re-sync descriptions by erasing the description in WordPress and then re-saving your event.  When the value is empty and you have a PatronManager event connected, fresh values will be pulled again from the sync data.  All sync fields work this way - values are added from PatronManager when a matching value in WordPress is empty or not found.




The Wordpress descriptions have fonts, colors, and styling after they're imported from PatronManager. 


Sounds like you have font styles applied in PatronManager that are being pulled into Wordpress. You have 2 options to fix this: 

1) In PatronManager, after you paste your text into the Details and Description fields, select everything and click the Eraser button to remove all formatting; then apply bold, italics, links, etc. It should get pulled into WordPress as plain text. Added bonus: any fonts or colors that are applied to your PM ticketing pages will work on your event descriptions in the ticketing site, too.  



and/or: 

2) In Wordpress, in the Full Description, copy the text from the Visual tab, then switch to the Text tab. Paste the text into the Text tab, then take a look at it in the Visual tab. All formatting should have been removed. You'll need to apply things like bold, italics, links, etc.



See also: Developer FAQ