FAQ

General

Q: Do I have to install any add-on apps?
A: Yes, Blackthorn | Payments. It's included in the cost of Events and is needed for both free and paid Events as it handles the checkout flow.

Q: How is the Events app priced?
A: See our AppExchange listing.

Q: How do I access our data in the Events app once our annual maintenance expires?
A: If you don't renew before the contract ends, you will lose access to our apps and related objects when your contract expires. You will also lose access to all data if you don't export/migrate your data before your contract ends.

Q: Is all data native to Salesforce?
A: Yes.

Q: Is there an integration to build?
A: No.

Q: Do you support Internet Explorer (IE)?
A: No. As of June 2024, we no longer support using IE with the Events app. Microsoft officially stopped supporting IE in June 2022 and recommends using Edge (configured in IE Mode if necessary).

Time Zones

Q: Does Blackthorn Events automatically handle the Daylight Savings Time (DST) Adjustment?
A: Yes, Events automatically adjusts for DST. For example, in 2024 in the Eastern time zone (ET), the clock will automatically adjust as follows on March 10th and November 3rd.

• March 10, 2024 at 2AM local time: Event Start Time will automatically spring forward by one hour.
• November 3, 2024 at 2AM local time: Event Start Time will automatically fall back by one hour.
• These changes apply to all times listed on the Event webpage, including Sessions' start and end times.

Q: What are the global time zones?
A: The time zone labels are displayed according to DST in most cases. IANA time zones are checked against the current time, and DST is determined and displayed accordingly.

• Example
  • IANA Time Zone Value: Australia/Sydney
  • Today, on September 10, 2024, Australia is in AEST.
  • The time will be displayed as HH:mm AEST.
  • On Sunday, 6 October 2024, 2:00 am local time, the following change occurs:
    • Sunday, 6 October 2024, 2:00 am AEST → Sunday, 6 October 2024, 3:00 am AEDT
    • The clock springs forward by an hour, and AEST switches to the AEDT label.

Q: What are the North American time zones?
A: Common North American time zones in the list below will automatically be abbreviated to First Letter + Last Letter. (Example: EST → ET, EDT → ET)

• AST → always shows AT
• ADT → always shows AT
• EST → always shows ET
• EDT → always shows ET
• CST → always shows CT
• CDT → always shows CT
• MDT → always shows MT
• PST → always shows PT
• PDT → always shows PT

Q: Can I change or translate the time zone on the Event’s webpage?
A: Event Organizers can use the new Data Dictionary Entry Key = “LBL_DATE_TIMEZONE” to change or translate the time zone for the Event’s Event Start Date on the Event’s webpage.

For example, if the Key = “LBL_DATE_TIMEZONE” and Value = “Eastern Time Zone,” “Eastern Time Zone” will appear instead of “ET” on the Event webpage.

The “LBL_DATE_TIMEZONE” Key only applies to the Event's Event Start Date. It does not apply to other Event dates/times or Session dates/times.

Salesforce-related

Q: Waitlisting?
A: Yes, manual or automated, with multiple criteria.

Q: Is there matching logic?
A: Yes, we Salesforce's duplicate matching rule logic, so you can get pretty creative with your matching rules. Generally speaking, email matching is your best bet.

Q: Why won’t the Clone button on the Events record page work?
A: If you have the same API name for a managed package and a custom field in the Session, Line Item, or any other BT objects, the Clone button won’t work. This is a Salesforce limitation.

The error can be found by running debug logs and should appear something like this. “ERROR|duplicate field selected: conference360__Event__c.”

The same error will be displayed in the console when inspecting the page during testing.

For more information, please read the Salesforce article.

Q: How do I hide the Register button on an Event that belongs to an Event Group?
A: Complete the following steps to hide the Register button on the Event's webpage.

1. Go to a specific Event record.
2. Set Hide Register Button = "Yes".
3. Click Save.
4. Go to the related Event Group.
5. Click the Event Group URL.

The Register button will now be hidden on the Event.

Q: Why am I experiencing the “String maximum length exceeded” error?

A: You may run into a Salesforce limit for the ERS Payload when registering more than 20 Attendees at the same time for an Event with more than 10 Form Elements/Questions. This is likely to happen for Form Elements Type = “Text (30,000),” but having 20 Form Elements with Type = “Text” and 20 Attendees in one registration will also cause it.

To prevent this error, reduce the number of Attendees added in one registration or avoid using Form Elements with Type = “Text (30,000).”

Q: Can I make the Event URL shareable on the Event webpage?

A: The only way to make the Event URL shareable on the Event webpage is to add it to the Event’s Description field.

1. Open the Event record.
2. Click the Pencil icon next to the Description field.
3. Copy the Event URL.
4. Click the Link icon in the Description’s navigation bar.
5. Enter a Link Title.
6. Paste the Event URL in the Link URL field.
7. Enter and format any additional text.
8. Click Save.

The Event URL will now be included in the description section on the Event webpage.

Q: What jobs run during an upgrade to the Events app?
A: The following four jobs run when upgrading your Events app.

Update Admin Profile – Grants the System Admin Profile access to all managed content.

Assign Admin Permission Set - Assigns the Blackthorn | Payments (Admin) (payment360_Adminv2) and Blackthorn | Events (Admin) (Blackthorn_Events_Admin) permission sets.

Update Connected User - Authorizes the app if it’s a fresh install. Schedules all recommended batch jobs under the connected user. The batch jobs include the following.

• Blackthorn | Events Process No-Show Attendees
• Blackthorn | Events Attendee Parent Rollup
• Blackthorn | Events Recurring Event Generate
• Blackthorn | Events FormSubmission Processing
• Blackthorn | Events Revenue Rollups
• Blackthorn | Events GeocodeService
• Blackthorn | Event Webinar Account Refresh
• Blackthorn | Events Attendee Webinar Registration
• Blackthorn | Fetch Email Statistics
• Blackthorn | Events Event Status Update
• Blackthorn | Events Subscriber Dock

Deploy Translation Fields on Layouts

• Updates the Translation object page layout to include the following fields.
  • Language lookup field
  • Event fields
  • Event Item fields
  • Session fields
  • Form fields
  • Form Element fields
  • Form Big List Option fields
  • Speaker fields
  • Sponsor fields
  • Track fields
  • Custom Event fields
  • Event Content fields
  • FAQ fields
  • Keyword fields
• It also deploys the Translation Related List to the following objects.
  • Event
  • Session
  • Event Item
  • Sponsor
  • Speaker
  • Keyword
  • Form
  • Form Element
  • Track
  • Custom Content
  • Event FAQ
  • Event Content
  • FAQ Category
  • FAQ Question

Attendees

Q: How do I mass update Attendees' Registration Status to "Invited"?
A: Try one of the following options:

• Option 1: Create a List View
  • Create a List View on the Attendee object and add the Attendee's First Name, Last Name, and Registration Status. You can now update the Registration Status in mass.
  • Click here for information about how to update records inline from a List View.
• Option 2: Use a Data Loader
  • Download a CSV report with all the Attendee Record IDs, including a column for Registration Status. In the CSV document, update Registration Status to "Invited".
  • Click here for information about updating records with a Data Loader.

Q: Why can't I delete Attendee records?
A: If your Events users can’t delete Attendee records, it is likely caused by Role Hierarchies. If Role Hierarchies are enabled in your org, and the Events user is lower in the hierarchy than the owner of the Attendee record, who is usually the Blackthorn Events Authorized User, then the user won’t be able to delete the record.

To resolve the issue, please assign the Blackthorn Events Authorized User a role that is lower in the hierarchy than that of the Events app users or instruct your users to take ownership of the record before attempting to delete it.

Checkout Process

Q: Where does the checkout "go"?
A: All checkouts process through Salesforce. Payments process through Stripe in a PCI-compliant method.

Q: What happens during a checkout?
A: Event Checkout Flow

Q: Does it work with an Experience Cloud?
A: Yes.

Q: How do I hide the Contact Information page?
A: A Contact's Phone is a required field for the BT Events Attendee Matching Rule as noted in our documentation. The Contact Information page is required when using the tabbed UI experience. If you use the Simple UI experience, the Contact Information page will not show.

Q: How do I make the Phone field a required field so Attendees don't have to fill their phone number in twice - once on the Attendee Form and once on the Contact Information screen?
A: To make the Phone field a required field, go to the Event record, open the related Event Item, scroll down to the Attendee Form section, and set Phone to "Required".

If information is populated on the Attendee Form, then the information will be populated automatically on the Contact Information screen so the Attendee won't have to enter the information twice.

Emails

Q: Can the app send emails?
A: Yes. All data is native to Salesforce so you can utilize native Salesforce features to send emails, such as Workflow Rules or Process Builder processes with Email Alerts. You can also utilize Pardot, Marketing Cloud, IBM Watson, MailChimp, or any other email app that can work with Salesforce Custom Objects.

Q: What is the email balance?
A: The email balance is the total daily email limit per org that is enforced by Salesforce. Blackthorn has no control over the amount.

Webinars/Zoom

Q: Is the Zoom link in the confirmation email updated if the field is edited on the Event record?
A: If you modify the Webinar/Meeting Account or Webinar/Meeting URL fields on the Event Page, then the link will be automatically updated on the AttendeeLink.

Also, make sure that the Attendee record’s Webinar/Meeting Join URL field is blank if you use Webinar Accounts. Removing the value in the Attendee record’s Webinar/Meeting Join URL field and populating the Event record’s Webinar/Meeting URL field will make sure the AttendeeLink is correct.

Attendee Check-in app

Q: Do you have a mobile app?
A: Yes, for Event organizers to manage check-in.

Security

Q: Issues migrating data?
A: Try setting the batch size to 1 if you're running into errors.

Q: How do I resolve caching issues?
A: Caching issues are among developers' biggest problems. At Blackthorn, we do our best to address them. We have a database cache via Connect360, an application cache on the Events app’s backend split into multiple partitions, and Content Delivery Network (CDN) caching where applicable. We also try to take advantage of browser caching.

Even with all of these, you may still see a delay with certain updates. If you need to refresh the cache sooner, use one of the following buttons to force the cache to update.

• Event Record

  • Publish
  • Update

• Event Group Record**

  • Update Group Listing Cache
  • Clear the Group Listing Cache

**To use the buttons on the Event Group record, you need to update your Events app to use Cache 2.0.

SEO

Q: Is there a way to hide Event pages from appearing in Google search results?
A: Blackthorn cannot hide Events from search engines or prevent browsers or bots from crawling an Event’s website. We load the SEO metadata on the first page render, so the page gets basic Blackthorn information. At the same time, we can’t promote Events either.

When an Event appears in Google search results, the following is true.

• A Google search will pull the Event name, but it will not pull any other Event information.
• Each Event webpage will not have a unique description. The description in the Google search results will be the same as the Event’s generic text.
• Anyone viewing the search results will be able to click the Event link and register for the Event.
• To search for a specific Event, a user needs the exact Event name.

Q: Can Event information in an iframe be found by a search engine?
A: No, Event information in an iframe cannot be discovered by a search engine. Since an Event’s content is loaded asynchronously after the page is rendered, the content is not accessible by search engines.

Q: Can we manually use event-structured data markups?
A: The short answer is no. The front-end is loaded synchronously BUT the data is loaded asynchronously. This means that by the time the crawlers have gone through the page, the data is still not ready to be rendered. As a result, any SEO tags would need to be updated asynchronously, and those updates would have no impact on the crawlers’ results.

Scheduled Jobs

Q: What is the difference between the Schedule Batch Job for Event Registrations button AND the Schedule Recommended Event Jobs button?

A: The Schedule Recommended Event Jobs button schedules a list of recommended jobs, including the Blackthorn | Batch Event Registration Submission scheduled job. Use this button when multiple jobs need to be scheduled.

The Schedule Batch Job for Event Registrations button only schedules the Blackthorn | Batch Event Registration Submission scheduled job.

Q: How do I turn off real-time rollups?
A: Go to Salesforce Setup > Custom Settings > Click Manage next to "Blackthorn | Events Settings" > Enable "Disable Attendee_RollupToEvent__c" > Click Save.