Band Lock - How to use Visibility Rules & Basket Validation for Timed-Entry Events

Scroll down for the Step-by-Step Guide on how to create Band Lock rules for timed-entry events

THE SCENARIO: BRIDGE COMMAND
Bridge Command offer live interactive experiences where players can participate in different stories (or 'missions') on a starship bridge simulator.

They have several different missions available for every time slot, however only one mission can run in a time slot. This means that the following needs to be ensured:

• When a player books a time slot, they can only book one mission per time slot
• When a ticket for a specific mission is booked, that mission ticket is then the only one available for further players to book

THE SOLUTION: VISIBILITY RULES & BASKET VALIDATION
To achieve these requirements automatically with zero manual involvement, Bridge Command use a combination of Visibility Rules and Basket Validation to ensure that:

• When someone adds a ticket for a mission to their basket, they can then only add tickets for that specific mission
• The remaining tickets for that time slot available will then only be for that mission type

Before any tickets are sold for a mission

Once a ticket is sold for a mission

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KEY TERMS & TIPS:

How can Visibility Rules and Basket Validation help for my timed-entry event?
If you have different performance options in the same time slot which need to "lock" to one, then once a ticket is booked, you can use a combination of these features to achieve this.

You can do this by creating a Visibility Rule on your Variants, whereby no other Bands will be available once a Band is selected; then you can create a Basket Validation Rule that restricts the user from adding tickets from more than one Band.

See our Step-by-Step guide below for more info.

What are Visibility Rules?
A way of restricting when/how your prices are visible for ticket buyers.
You can restrict a price's visibility by customer tag, performance and, in this case, amount of price band or venue plan sold.
Go here for more info about how to set up Visibility Rules on your Price Table.

What is Basket Validation?
It is a way of setting rules/limitations for your tickets.
This will limit the circumstances in which a ticket can be bought, e.g. only tickets from one Band can be purchased.
Go here for more info about how to set up Basket Validation rules on your Price Table.

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STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE:

1. Create a Band Lock Visibility Rule

a) Go to the Events page and select your Event

b) Click the Prices tab and select your Price Table. Haven't created one yet? Go here for GA and here for Reserved Seating instructions.  NOTE - the different options will need to be set-up as Bands in the price table

c) On the Price Table page, click Duplicate As Draft to create a new draft version of the Price Table

d) Right click on the Variant you want to create a Visibility Rule for and click Manage Visibility

e) Add Ruleset: 

• Name
• Description - for internal use
• Type - select At least one Rule must apply

f) Select Venue Plan Rules - from the dropdown options, select:

• Venue Plan
• Unit Capacity Sold
• is
• 0

This rule will ensure that if venue plan capacity = 0, then all Bands will appear for the ticket buyer to select.

g) Select Price Band Rules - from the dropdown options, select:

• Price Band
• Unit Capacity Sold
• is greater or equal to
• 1

This rule will ensure that once 1 or more tickets have been added from a Band, only that Band will be available to be purchased thereafter:

h) Click Save Ruleset

i) The eye icon will then appear on the Variant after the ruleset has been saved

2. Create a One Band Basket Validation Rule

a) Go to the Events page and select your Event

b) Click the Prices tab and select your Price Table - NOTE, you will need to have created and saved a Price Table previously in order to add Basket Validation Rules

c) On the Price Table page, click Duplicate As Draft to create a new draft version of the Price Table

d) Click Basket Validation and on the pop-up, click New Basket Validation

e) Add Details: 

• Name
• Description - for internal use
• Error Message - this is the message that will appear in the purchase flow when the rules are not met for your chosen tickets/prices, e.g. Only one type of mission can be booked in a time slot

f) Add Validation Rule - select the following rule from the dropdown. Repeat this rule for all Bands in your Price Table apart from the one you want to be selected:

Can't have more than 0 tickets from band = chosen Band, e.g. Mission 2

g) Add an Only If rule - this will mean that the rule you've added will only apply if the following condition applies:

Has at least 1 ticket from Band = chosen Band, e.g. Mission 1

This rule ensures that only one mission/Band can be added to a basket:

h) Click Save Validation Rule and it will be applied to your Price Table. NOTE - changes to Basket Validation are applied immediately and do not require saving the Price Table. However, you will still need to Review and Publish the table for your changes to go live. See here for more info

3. How it appears in the Customer-Facing Booking Flow

a) After clicking into the performance, the ticket buyer will see tickets from all Bands as per the Visibility Rules

b) Once the ticket buyer adds a ticket from a mission/Band to the basket, if they try and add a ticket from another mission/Band, they receive the Basket Validation error message:

c) This means that the ticket buyer won't be able to continue until they remove one of the missions/Bands from the basket. They can then add more tickets from their chosen Band/mission as they'd like

d) Once a ticket from a mission/Band is sold, then the only tickets available for other players to book for that time slot will be for that one mission, as per the Visibility Rules that were set up:

NEXT STEP: 
Use Visibility Rules to create Access Tickets
Use Basket Validation to set Single Seat Rules