Purchasing tickets online for Auctions for SF

[CarolinaTigerRescue]

I created a FaaS form to collect ticket payments for our auction (using Auctions for Salesforce)

I'm using different Items in the FaaS form to indicate which ticket with menu selection they should purchase: beef, fish, vegetarian. The SKUs for all three items are the same, but the item names are different. This appears to create opportunities for each item. Auctions for Salesforce manages tickets by creating campaign members for each ticket, and a menu selection as a field on Campaign Member, but obviously I can't set that up to happen automatically.

So,
1. If I switch to using Products (an object I've never used before) in the C&P Opportunity settings, will this solve the "creating multiple opportunities" issue?
2. Is there a way to populate the "Number of Tickets" field on that opportunity with the total quantity of tickets ordered? (it's a number field, not a text field)

Also, I'm passing the Campaign Name through the FaaS, and it is getting added to the Opportunity, but does not show up when I look at the Auction Campaign.

Thanks, Amanda

[CnP.Support]

Hi Amanda,

What you are trying to do is an interesting approach but I am not sure it will work since a transaction takes place automatically and all opportunities, etc. process automatically.

I am curious as to the big picture. We are currently working on an elaborate integration with Auctions for release 3.x of Event and would like to know how our clients use the Auctions app.

[CarolinaTigerRescue]

How about I fight my way through it and document/inquire about issues here as they come up?

So far:
1. I have to create a separate Checkout Page, because I need to create the RecordType on the Opportunity as "GW Auction Ticket"- I'd rather do this with SKU or Campaign

2. My FaaS form has a separate item with quantity for each meal selection. If I don't use products, FaaS will create an opportunity for each meal type, and set the primary campaign on the opportunity based on the <input id="Campaign"> tag- so I have multiple opportunities. I'd rather just have one, so I am trying to use Products. When I do this- I can't seem to set the Campaign name as needed, even if I assign each product to that Opportunity.

3. When setting the Primary Campaign to Auction Name Tickets by SKU, it requires the 18 character Campaign ID. This is a bit of a pain, since the URL for a campaign only shows the 15 character version. I'm going to have to export a report to get the 18 character version.

Updates:

I have successfully managed to create javascript code on my FaaS so that item information still passes through in the order details, but I only create one Opportunity by only submitting one SKU and one Quantity (the javascript totals the Quantity and submits it as a hidden value). I can add this code if it would be helpful.

Unfortunately, I have been having problems ever since I created a different checkout page getting the record type to be created properly (or possibly since I added so many custom question mappings). Auctions for Salesforce only recognizes the Opportunity as a ticket if it has the record type GW Auction Ticket; however, the C&P settings for the Opportunity does not seem to be setting this properly.

Well, until I get back on this tomorrow...

[CnP.Support]

Good day!

Addressing your 3rd point first: I am not sure I understand what you mean by requiring 18 character Campaign ID - the field is a lookup and will find the ID as you type the campaign name.

is this not true?

[CarolinaTigerRescue]

I am trying to automate the creation of Auction Tickets using Auctions for Salesforce, so I need to specify that they go to the relevant Campaign- in this case 2014 Black Tie & Tails Ball Tickets.



If I go to this campaign by clicking on the Campaigns tab, and copying the ID from the URL, only 15 characters are used. This is pretty standard- I don't know why Salesforce uses 18 characters in the tables themselves, but only ever refers to them by the first 15- but they are both unique

[CarolinaTigerRescue]

OK, I've got a working model for a FaaS form to sell Auction Tickets online and have them show up in Salesforce. There's still improvements to be made, but it does a pretty good job.

Here's the link:https://savannastation.carolinatiger...-purchase2.php

What finally worked:
1. A FaaS form submits a single unit ticket "product". There are 3 meal options, each with a dropdown to select the quantity of that meal option ticket to purchase. This dropdown is a custom field. Javascript works in the background to display another custom field to collect Guest Names for each meal item, and another Javascript routine totals the 3 dropdowns and submits this as a hidden field for Quantity. Custom Fields include:
a. Qty of each Meal Option 1 (additional custom fields for 2 and 3)
b. Guests for Meal Option 1 (additional custom fields for 2 and 3)
c. Number of Tickets- Javascript sets this as the same value as Quantity
d. Lead Source- This is the map for "What prompted your ticket purchase today?", we hope to figure out which marketing strategies work best.


2. A Checkout page created in the C&P online account to supply the WID for this particular item.

3. Salesforce C&P Opportunity settings
a. Name the Opportunity based on the SKU
b. Set the RecordType to "GW Auction Ticket" based on the SKU
c. Primary Campaign Source based on SKU- this is the 18 character version. I had to export the Campaign table to figure this out because the URL only uses the 15 character version.

4. Salesforce Custom Question Mapping
I only mapped Number of Tickets and Lead source. Glad to see picklist fields are available (if a little tedious to create all the mappings)

Salesforce Autoresponders
1. Ticket Purchase Acknowledgement- sent to users when they purchase tickets, based on SKU
2. Ticket Purchase Notification - sent to staff to flag them to process auction tickets. This includes a link to the Auction Ticket Tab in Salesforce

By supplying the GW Auction Ticket record type, primary Campaign, and the number of tickets on the opportunity, Auctions for Salesforce automatically recognizes these opportunities as tickets. A4SF creates temporary related "campaign member" objects on the ticket opportunity for each guest, but these are not actually added to the Campaign Members until they are filled in. C&P can't map to these custom fields, so this has to be done manually- thus the staff notification. Once staff receive the ticket purchase notification, they use the link in the notification autoresponse to go to the Auctions Ticket Tab in Salesforce, and open the ticket for the recent purchase. They fill in the Guest Names and meal selections provided in the custom questions presented in the notification.

What doesn't work:
1. Trying to use multiple items without using Products- this ends up creating a multiple Opportunities for each meal type. Functional, but ugly.
2. Trying to use Products for each Meal ticket type- I spent a long time with this concept, but in the end, I was having problems getting the Opportunities to create the correct record type and campaign, and Auctions for Salesforce couldn't recognize the opportunities as tickets without this capability.

PS- JavaScript finally worked for what I needed it to do; however, it's ugly. In my minimal experience learning on the fly, Javascript is a pain, particularly compared to PHP. The phrase 'going around your elbow to get to your ..', well, you get the picture.

Suggested Improvements:
1. If Auto Responders could include the Opportunity ID, I could possibly set the link in the notification email to go straight to the ticket that needs editing as opposed to a list of all tickets.
2. It would be great if the guest names and meal choices could be mapped directly to these temporary campaign member items on the ticket, thus automatically adding them as Attendees- but this would involve some in depth analysis of how A4SF creates these Campaign Members from the Auction Ticket Opportunity.

Well- that's how to create a C&P FaaS form to sell tickets and have them show up in Auctions for Salersforce! Now on to Auction Sponsorships, bleh...