November 2023 - Version 4.11

Once the updates listed below have been reviewed, please follow the upgrade instructions to upgrade your Events application.

New Feature: Express Registration (Part of Experience Cloud)

When enabled, Express Registration allows registered Attendees logged into a Experience Cloud to register any other Contact in their Account with just a couple of clicks. Previously, Attendees could only complete the registration process once per Event.

This scenario also applies to authenticated users accessing an Event via iframe. (Please note that additional Event Items are only available if the Event organizer has not set a Max Quantity for an Event Item.)

Users with vision impairments can use the Express Registration feature with only their keyboard, including opening the picklist, tabbing through the list, making a selection, and changing their selection.

Limitations and Dependencies

Limitations

• The pre-fill does not apply to pre-registration Forms.
• The person completing the registration can still make edits to the pre-filled data, but those edits will only be reflected on the Attendee. The updates will not be saved to the Contact record.
• Express Registration is not available for AttendeeLink at this time.
• Express Registration is enabled for all Experience Cloud sites within a Salesforce org or none of them. It is not possible to enable Express Registration for a single site.

Dependencies

• The feature is only available via the Blackthorn Events component in a Experience Cloud site.
• The person completing the registration can only see other Contacts within their Account in Salesforce.

Updates

New Field on the Contact Record

• Field Name: Express Reg. for Experience Site
• API Name: Express_Reg_For_Experience_Site__c
• Data Type: picklist
• Description: In your Experience Cloud site(s), allow authenticated users to select contacts within their own account to pre-fill registration data.
• There is no default selection.

Updated Custom Setting: Blackthorn | Event Settings

OLD

• Label: Express Registration from Express Reg.
• API Name: Express_Reg_For_Digital_Experience_c
• Description: In your Experience Cloud site(s), allow authenticated users to select contacts within their own account to pre-fill registration data.

NEW

• Label: Express Reg. for Experience Site
• API Name: Express_Reg_For_Experience_Site_c
• Description: In your Experience Cloud site(s), allow authenticated users to select contacts within their own account to pre-fill registration data.
• Default value = “False” (unchecked)
• If Express Reg. for Experience Site = “True”, then authenticated users can select from the Contacts within their Account to pre-fill registration data.

If a user reaches the registration page for an Event and any of the following are true, then Express Registration will not be available.

• Express Reg. for Experience Site = “False”
• Express Reg. for Experience Site = “True” AND the user is a guest user.
• The user visits the Event webpage via an AttendeeLink or a public website.

Definitions of Registration Types

• Regular Registration: The Attendee record is linked to a lead/contact/account based on matching data (name, email, etc.).
• Express Registration: The selected Contact will be linked to the Attendee record. The selected Contact will remain linked to the Attendee record even if the data is updated after it has been pre-filled in the Attendee Form.

ContactIds

Each Attendee with an assigned Contact will have the contactId attached to it.

• If a Contact is selected, the contactId will be attached to the Event Registration Submission record in Salesforce.
• If a “Someone else” is selected, the contactId will not be attached to the Event Registration Submission record in Salesforce.
• If a Contact is selected but the values are changed, the contactId will be attached to the Event Registration Submission record in Salesforce.

BT Salesforce Release

Bug Fixes

• If multiple registrations are submitted within a minute of each other, they will now process correctly, and each Transaction will be captured. Previously, the system mistakenly marked the Transactions as duplicates.
• The Event checkout process will now capture multiple, back-to-back payments that are submitted within one minute when the Event Registration Submissions (ERS) are processed in batches. Previously, an intermittent issue caused some registrations that were processed in batches to be incorrectly flagged as duplicates, which then prevented the Transaction from being captured. (Known Issue: 000002835)
• When a user registers Attendees via the BT Attendee Lightning Component, they can now search for Contacts and use Email values to differentiate between Contacts with the same Name. Previously, a regression issue caused the Email value to be hidden. (Known Issue: 000003075)
• NOTE: This bug fix only applies to users who have Data Persistence enabled. Events in an Event Group will now appear in the correct sort order (ex. 1..2..3..4..etc.) after a user updates information on some of the Events. Previously, the Events appeared in the wrong sort order after some of the Events’ information was changed.

Webapp Release

Bug Fixes

• Attendees can now read the introductory information about an Event before scrolling down to view the embedded Event Group. Previously, any page containing an embedded Event Group would automatically scroll past the header to the Event Group, causing a disorienting experience for Attendees. (Known Issue: 000002858)
• When an Attendee makes a payment using a TouchNet payment gateway, they will be automatically redirected to TouchNet without having to respond. Previously, a notification was shown, and a pop-up message required the Attendee to click Leave to navigate to the Touchnet site. (Known Issue: 000002925)
• Attendees, who do not speak an Event webpage’s default language, can now read custom Forms including questions, hints, picklist values, and default values in their selected language. Previously, Google Translate was applied to standard Attendee questions but not to custom Forms. Please note: Big List values are still not translated. (Known Issue: 000003058)
• Attendees can now register for an Event that includes a picklist question with many values in the list. Previously, a regression bug prevented the Form from loading because of a translation issue. (Known Issue: 000003201)
• Form Elements (questions) on Event Items will only appear once when an Attendee is registering for an Event. Previously, the Form Elements appeared twice.

Event Registration

• An Attendee registering for a paid Event will now see a space between the Currency ISO code (for example, USD) and the Total Amount due. Previously, the space was not present.
• Attendees are now prevented from registering for a sold-out Event Item (Ticket) even if a separate Event Item is available. Previously, if any Event Item was available, an Attendee could register for sold-out Event Items that belonged to the same Event. Specifically, if an Event Item’s Quantity Remaining = “0”, then the front end will show zero Tickets available regardless of the number of Tickets applied on the backend. If the Event Item’s Quantity Remaining = “0”, then the Remaining Capacity on the Event level will be considered. (Known Issue: 000002951)
• Attendees can now repeat the registration process multiple times in a single browser session and their billing contact data will not be stored from their prior purchase. The billing contact data will only be stored in the browser session if the payment fails so the Attendees can try to submit their payment again. Previously, in a single browser session, the billing contact data was saved for successful and failed payments, which caused inaccurate data to be pre-filled for the next registration.
  • Please note: The issue was with the billing contact data being saved within a browser session, not the payment method details being saved. Our tokenization process remains the same. (Known Issue: 000003050)

Dynamic UI

• When an Event’s UI Experience = "Dynamic", Attendees will see the RSVP welcome banner after accessing the Event website via their AttendeeLink.
• When an Event uses the Dynamic UI and has one free Event Item (Type = “Main event ticket”) and the Remaining Capacity = “0”, then the Event webpage will show that the Event is sold out and users will not be able to register for the Event. Previously, Attendees could fill out the registration form, but it wasn’t clear why the registration would fail. (Known Issue: 000003074)

Enhancements

• Attendees can now add virtual Events to a calendar from the registration success page. Previously, this was only possible for in-person Events or from the AttendeeLink.
• When an Attendee uses a duplicate email address to register for a waitlisted Event where One Unique Attendee Email Per Event = “True” (checked) on the Event Settings, then the error message will say, “Duplicate Registration email not allowed." Previously, the user saw a generic error message with no explanation of the problem. (Known Issue: 000002893)

Mobile Check-in App

Enhancements

• On the Attendee details screen, an Events organizer will see a list of Attendees if the Attendees belong to an Attendee Group.
• If an Attendee belongs to an Attendee Group and the user manually navigates to that Attendee’s details screen, a new tab called “Group” will be visible. All associated members of that group will be listed under the Group tab. Attendee Group members will be sorted alphabetically by last name.

Field/Layout Updates

New

• Object: Contact Record
  • Field Name: Express Reg. for Experience Site
• Updated Custom Setting: Blackthorn | Event Settings
  • Label: Express Reg. for Experience Site

Removed

• Object: Contact Record
  • Label: Express Registration from Express Reg.

Admin Upgrade Instructions

To upgrade Events to the newest version, go to the Blackthorn Candy Shop.

Blackthorn has adopted Salesforce’s managed package installer to simplify the installation process. Since Payments is already installed, the installer will install Base Package and make sure the correct version of Payments is installed before installing Events.

For step-by-step instructions, click here.

Testing

From now until 11/14/23, the directions below will teach you how to test the new front-end features, enhancements, and bug fixes until they are automatically pushed to the front end.

To Do

You will need to replace the Event Page and AttendeeLink URLs, events.blackthorn.io' domain, to a test domain.

TEST DOMAIN: https://preview.events.blackthorn.io/

For example, when you create your Attendee, an AttendeeLink URL is generated with the "events.blackthorn.io" domain like this one:

https://events.blackthorn.io/2E12oua7/attendee/ty2W6t9awokrDMaLWi8Mf4sLMedhdrWSBHw6HS7kqVnJ0kKmCK63yl0IxWpbAUBo

You'll then click on the AttendeeLink URL so it opens up in a new page. Remove "events.blackthorn.io" and replace it with "preview.events.blackthorn.io" so it looks like this:

https://preview.events.blackthorn.io/2E12oua7/attendee/ty2W6t9awokrDMaLWi8Mf4sLMedhdrWSBHw6HS7kqVnJ0kKmCK63yl0IxWpbAUBo

If you have any questions about this or need help with testing, please don't hesitate to reach out to Blackthorn Support.