WordPress Events Registration with PayPal IPN
Attention! The plugin has undergone a major reconstruction and name change. The new name of the plugin is Event Espresso.
This WordPress plugin provides a way to take online registrations for events such as conference and seminars that are held live. Events are managed quickly and easily from within the WordPress dashboard.
The plugin also uses the PayPal IPN to record payments to the built in WordPress database. It allows you to capture the registering persons contact information to the WordPress database as well as provides the ability to send the registrar to your PayPal payment site for online collection of event fees. PayPal payments are captured to the database using the PayPal Standard IPN.
Reporting features provide a list of events, list of attendees, and excel export.
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If you like this plugin, please consider making a small donation or clicking on a few of the ads displayed on the site.
Installation:
- After unzipping, upload everything in the ‘paypal-events-registration’ folder to your ‘/wp-content/plugins/’ directory (preserving directory structure).
- Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
- Go to the Event Registration Menu and Configure Organization and enter your company info – note you will need a PayPal id if you plan on accepting PayPal payments
- Go to the Event Setup and create a new event, make sure you select ‘make active’.
- Create a new page (not post) on your site. Put {EVENTREGIS} in it on a line by itself.
Note: if you are upgradings from a previous version please backup your data prior to upgrade.
If you have watched the video below and are having trouble installing the plugin or just need additional support. Please visit our “Premium Support” page or view the FAQ below.
Setting up the Plugin
Frequently Asked Questions:
To use, create a new page with only {EVENTREGIS}
To display list of attendees of an active event use {EVENTATTENDEES} on a page or post.
*For URL link back to the payment/thank you page use {EVENTREGPAY} on a new page.
*For PayPal to notify about payment confirmation use {EVENTPAYPALTXN} on a new page.
*This page should be hidden from from your navigation menu. Exclude pages by using the ‘Exclude Pages‘ plugin from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/exclude-pages/ or using the ‘exclude’ parameter in your ‘wp_list_pages’ template tag. Please refer to http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags/wp_list_pages for more information about excluding pages.
Email Confirmations:
For customized confirmation emails, the following tags can be placed in the email form and they will pull data from the database to include in the email.
[fname], [lname], [phone], [event],[description], [cost], [company], [co_add1], [co_add2], [co_city],[co_state], [co_zip],[contact], [payment_url], [start_date], [start_time], [end_date], [end_time]
Sample Mail Send:
***This is an automated response – Do Not Reply***
Thank you [fname] [lname] for registering for [event]. We hope that you will find this event both informative and enjoyable. Should have any questions, please contact [contact].
If you have not done so already, please submit your payment in the amount of [cost].
Click here to review your payment information [payment_url].
Thank You.
Event Listings and Registration Pages
Attendees and Payments
Screenshot of Events Registration with IPN Pro using the Calendar (Pro Version)
Screenshot of some Event Setup Options (Pro Version)
Events and Payments
Attention:
If you haven’t noticed, the WordPress plugin “Events Registration with PayPal IPN” is no longer available for download on WordPress.org. We found some serious security issues within the plugin (mostly deprecated WordPress database functions) so we decided it best to go ahead and remove the plugin until security was improved.After a major overhaul of the back-end code we have re-released the plugin under a new name (Advanced Events Registration) and have also released a pro version of the plugin with many additional features.
It is highly recommended that you upgrade to the latest version of the Advanced Events Registration plugin ASAP.
I get the following Fatal Error when I attempt to activate this plug-in:
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_ELSE in C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\HRGEnterprise\wp-content\plugins\events-registration-with-paypal-ipn\event_regis.php on line 2266
Will you please help me to get this working?
Thanks
Rich
Hello,
Is this an independent feature or are the registrants integrated into the WP user table?
Thanks..
Guests are stored in a separate table.
@ rhunter I am aware of the problem and will fix it shortly.
Seth,
When you add custom questions and mark them as required they don’t get checked when you submit the form. It just goes through to the payment page as if they weren’t required.
Also, when you register for an event without paying and click on the link in the confirmation email to review your payment information it takes you to the payment page but the page just shows, “Please check your email for payment information.”.
Thanks for looking at these bugs. I really hope to get this working as it’s exactly what I need for a workshop registration. These are the only things holding me from going live. Great work so far!
Hi, is there a way to change who the confirmation email name is? For example, right now it reads WordPress, could I change it to my name? Thank you
Which confirmation email? The one that is sent to YOU when someone registers or the one that is sent to the registrant?
The email that is sent to YOU should be changed in your WordPress installation settings.
I was looking at the one that is sent to the registrant.
tonyorantonio – try this plugin. It’ll change the from email address. http://code.andrewhamilton.net/wordpress/plugins/mail-from/
theJosh
Thank you, theJosh, that’s perfect.
Hi Everyone,
I was recently on vacation and just got back this week. I will try to make the needed updates, fixes, feature requests, etc. ASAP. I came back to a bunch of new work at my day job and an overgrown (weed ridden) lawn
So please be patient. I will post updates as soon as I make them.
Thanks!
Seth
No problem Seth. Thanks for helping us out.
Hello Seth,
great series of plugins, however, I am having the same problems as others with the
“Also, when you register for an event without paying and click on the link in the confirmation email to review your payment information it takes you to the payment page but the page just shows, “Please check your email for payment information.”.
Also, I have tried to export the list of registered guest and I get a page that says: “The page you tried to access does not exist on this server. This page may not exist due to the following reasons:
You are the owner of this web site and you have not uploaded (or incorrectly uploaded) your web site. For information on uploading your web site using FTP client software or web design software, click here for FTP Upload Information.
The URL that you have entered in your browser is incorrect. Please re-enter the URL and try again.
The Link that you clicked on incorrectly points to this page. Please contact the owner of this web site to inform them of this situation. ”
Can you please help with this.
First of all: GREAT PLUGIN Seth. Especially the integration with PayPal!
Today I noticed a serious issue though:
- when I edit an event .. there is a double screen refresh and then the event [and all registration data] is deleted.
The website in question is http://www.zonebreakout.com/registration
Another website where I use it on is http://www.parksmarineservices.com — and I just confirmed the exact same problem.
Basically the bottom line is: “the second time you edit an event, it gets deleted”
Hopefully this is a simple enough bug to repair.
Thank you again!
Tom
Additional issue: the date sorting is now all messed up.
Example: http://www.parksmarineservices.com/charter-reservations/
Seth,
I’m so happy to find this! I originally found the avdude site, tried the plugin, almost loved it, tried to contact him (several times) and got no response. I would LOVE to see this plugin grow and would love to request some changes, simple ones (I think). I would also love to see it become a tableless css design and would be willing to help with that if needed. I can style it to make it look much more professional, but I’m only willing if some of the changes would be seriously considered. Mostly changes like making it more consistent and things that everyone would want, not just stuff that I want.
Are you open to any of this? Please reply either way ’cause I’d love to hear from you regarding this.
Thanks,
Gary
Hi Gary,
I am glad you like the plugin. I am working on implementing some of the requested changes/additions people have made here and by email. It is taking me a while longer to make changes than I first thought. I work a full time job and have taken a vacation recently and hurt my back while I was on vacation. Hurting my back kind of put a damper on things. I am feeling better now.
I plan on releasing an update soon that will hopefully fix a few things and add more features. I look forward to hearing your input and will gladly consider your requested changes.
Thanks!
Seth
Wow! Seth and I have communicated back and forth via email today regarding a pile of changes that I’d like to see (I thought it was too much to put in the comments here). He loved the ideas and was already planning on a major revision to remove some of the quirkiness, so I think he’s going to use my ideas, and some ideas from the rest of you too. I just wanted to post here and say, keep watching. This plugin is about to take on a whole nuther level of professional coolness! Give him a few weeks, but you’re going to love it!
Thanks,
Gary
Hello, I love your plugin and am using it for my church’s VBS Registration. We are experiencing a problem, though. We are unable to export the completed registrees to Excel. When we click the button to export, it takes us to a broken page. The only way that we have found to access each family’s registration info is to go into each individual one to edit their info.
FYI, our WordPress is installed in a subdirectory (i.e. /blog)
Thanks so much,
Michelle
Hi Michelle,
Thank you. I am glad you like the plugin.
I am aware of the problem with exporting from Excel. I had it fixed in a previous release and then something happened in between updates. It will be fixed in the next major release, as well as a few other problems.
I am in the process of making updates to the plugin and should have an update in about 3-4 weeks.
Seth
Hi Seth,
I know you’re working on an update. But is there a way to add all the input fields to the attendees list?
Thank you!
Tony
Not right now. But I can try to add it.
Hi Seth,
First of all, great plugin.
I am trying to use it in my website but I am unable to set the plugin to work with more than one event. I want to create more than one event and each of them with a different registration form. Is that possible?
Thanks in advanced,
Jinka
Hi again,
Just saw the option. I readed through that page over 10 times and I didnt see it until now.
Thanks anyway
Hi Seth,
Fantastic plugin – just crazy simple to use.
Might have found a bug. When choosing the number of items in the front-end form (just before going to PayPal) the number is off inside the form. This is how the selection html is coming out in mine:
None
1
2
3
4
5
So, when you get to paypal, if the client chose “2″ it sends “3″.
Test page here (goes to sandbox):
http://thefabulists.com/tickets/
Please let me know if this is a mistake on my end.
thanks for your fantastic work,
Scott
rewriting the select:
>select style=”width: 70px; margin-top: 4px;” name=”quantity”>
>option selected=”" value=”1″>None>/option>
>option value=”2″>1>/option>
>option value=”3″>2>/option>
>option value=”4″>3>/option>
>option value=”5″>4>/option>
>option value=”6″>5>/option>
>/select>
It is asking for additional attendees. If none is selected then it just charges for one attendee, if one is selected then it charges for one plus an additional person.
Does that make sense?
Hey Seth,
Looks like this is just what I am after, thanks very much for sharing. Features wise it looks great, I’d focus on working out those bugs and keeping it simple.
Any news, or anticipated date for that update?
Cheers.
Ian.
Hi Seth,
I am working with a small school and looking at your plugin for class registration.
Is the update complete yet?
Will this work with wp2.8?
All registrations and payments will be done online. The size: We are offering about 8 classes and about 15 seminars per semester averaging 8 people in each. So that is about 180 registrations per semester.
I just posted a quesiton about your plugin at the wp forum here
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/298400?replies=1
THANKS!
Don Spark
Dear Seth
Great plugin.
Please I’m based in UK and intend you use this plugin on a site specific to UK audience. How do I change the state selection to UK states/counties?
Thanks
Onye
Tried both Events Registration plugins, and must say I really like some of the additional features here — particularly the Paypal sandbox functionality (that’s key for me). So good work. It’d be great if you and the other developer were able to collaborate on a single version of this.
I’m still a little unclear on some of the configuration settings and Paypal processing tags:
Return URL
Cancel Return URL
Notify URL
{EVENTPAYPALTXN}
Could you summarize what those do? I’m not sure if I should be expecting more two-way communication between the plugin and Paypal, or not (would any of these functions eliminate the need to process payment information manually for example?)
Thanks!
Onye,
Unfortunately, you will have to change the HTML that builds the form in order to have it work for the UK.
Seth
Return URL – This is the URL/Page on your website that PayPal returns the buyer to after payment is made.
Cancel Return URL – This is the URL/Page on your website that PayPal returns to if the buyer cancels.
Notify URL – This is the URL/Page for PayPal to notify about payment confirmation {EVENTREGPAY} on a new page.
{EVENTPAYPALTXN} – This is the PayPal API part, it notifies the the plugin of a successful payment and records it in the database. Put this into a new page.
*For PayPal to notify about payment confirmation use {EVENTPAYPALTXN} on a new page.
*These pages should be hidden from from your navigation menu. Exclude pages by using the ‘Exclude Pages’ plugin from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/exclude-pages/ or using the ‘exclude’ parameter in your ‘wp_list_pages’ template tag. Please refer to http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags/wp_list_pages for more inforamation about excluding pages.
Thanks for the URL info.
I too needed to change the State selection piece (for a Canadian audience). I added the following lines in ../wp-content/plugins/events-registration-with-paypal-ipn/event_regis.php:
At line ~2176:
Prov/State:
Select Prov/State
Alberta
British Columbia
Manitoba
New Brunswick
Newfoundland & Labrador
Northwest Territories
Nova Scotia
Nunavut
Ontario
Prince Edward Island
Quebec
Saskatchewan
Yukon
————————–
Alabama
… etc
And again at ~2246 just changed “Zip” label to “Postal / Zip Code”. You should be able to do something similar for UK.
Cheers,
Stuart
Oops, my comment didn’t pick up the pre formatting. Anyway, Onye, you just need to change or add option values for UK in the event_regis.php file. Just follow the pattern already there for US states.
Cheers,
Stuart
Hi Seth,
Great plug in, but have a few questions:
Is is possible to put in a ‘skip registration’ if a person has already registered but not paid and now wants to pay?
How do you change the dollar sign in the confirmation email?
Also, the database isn’t picking up when people have paid with paypal. I’m putting them in manually at the moment but would like not to have to do that. How do I fix that?
Thanks Fiona
Hi Fiona,
The registrant is sent an email with a link to pay using paypal if they have already registered.
The change to the dollar sign will need to be done in the back end code of the plugin.
I am aware of the problem with the database not picking up the payment. I think it may be due to the recent updates to the latest version WordPress. Soon as I get some time I will try to get it fixed.
Thanks!!
Seth
Hey Seth
I think this is a great plug-in… Simple, clean.
There’s just one thing I can’t figure out .. I’d like to have more than one “active event” going at once.
In the thread above it someone mentioned having the same problems and “reading over it 10 times” and I’m in that boat too..
Exactly where is the option to have more than one event?
Thanks in advance!
Matt
Seth,
I’m getting the following problem that’s preventing activation of the plug-in…and I don’t think its a permissions issue…
/wp-content/plugins/events-registration-with-paypal-ipn/event_regis.php on line 2266.
In development Im running wp 2.8.4 on PHP 5.3. I haven’t tried this out in production yet, which is running PHP 5.2.x.
Any reason why this may be occurring…????
Thanks.
Miles.
Hi Seth,
This is a great plugin!.. I understand how to implement a registration form within a page using {EVENTREGIS}. I have several registration forms created using your plugin… is there a way to reference them individually so that I can have more than one form active on my site at one time?
Many thanks,
Rit
Seth,
I love everything I see about this plugin….except the instructions. I’m sorry, I’m somewhat knowledgeable about computers/html etc but I can’t see to get this going correctly. I’ve got it set up as a plugin, the event is set up, I can register, but then the page that says thank you, does NOT have an ability to pay.
Obviously I do not have it set up correctly for the payment part, but I can’t figure it out. Please help!
email at briansmom99@yahoo.com
thanks
Elissa
1. Can I make this work with Captcha. I really want to avoid spam.
2. How does the email validation work? I must have a valid email address. What are your thoughts on how to confirm the email before I have them pay.
3. I have multiple fees (early bird, regular, last minute). How would you suggest I support this.
If I can get this up and running I can arrange for a donation from the conference.
Thanks,
Dennis Stevens
I Have the same deal as Rit… more than one event but only show the latest one.. it would be awesome if you could put them individually by page..
Hello Everyone,
I have finally released an update for the “Events Registration with PayPal IPN” on WordPress.org.
I have made several changes to this plugin in the last few months. Quite a bit has changed in the code and database tables. I have added a new (and hopefully more intuitive) interface for updateing your organization and events. I have added a new shortcode feature for adding events to individual pages, Widget functionality, and better optimized the CSS throughout.
All of your input has been much aprreciated and has helped guide me through this last major update. I still have a lot of features I wish to add and hope you all continue to offer your feedback.
Note: If you have modified the original code of your current installation you definitely want to make a backup of your existing plugin. If you are upgrading from a previous version of this plugin, be sure to back up your current installation of this plugin. It is also a good idea to backup your WordPress database as well. I would even suggest installing the plugin on a test version of WordPress.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email me or post your question on the WordPress Events Registration with PayPal IPN web page.
Thank you!!
Seth Shoultes
Website: Smart Website Solutions
Blog: Shoultes.net
What happened to the multiple attendee registration?
Hi Seth.
Great update.
Is it possible to come with and quick release with following functions:
- Add a list of peoples names sorted in groups. For an event, you can add a group and only the persons in the group can register for an event.
- .po file for editing language?
The first is that with nr 1 priority. Could this be done quickly? I need this function very much!
I have added this back in with the last update. I had to leave it out for a short time in order to get the new and improved PayPal IPN class fuctioning.
Hi Joakim,
I will look into these suggestions. I will probably email you for more information about the first suggestion.
I plan on implementing the language features in a future release.
Seth
Great.
Another thing you should edit is the required standard information when people are register for an event (like adress, state, zip).
So this would be nice if people could add this from the question function in the adminpanel instead 
I live in Norway and we dont have the same type of adress like you in the US
Joakim
Hi Seth,
Thanks for the amazing plugin. We’re a small community association using it for membership renewal. Its saving us a lot of money. Thanks again. The issue I’m having is that we purchase in Canadian dollars, and whenever the PayPal loads it loads in US currency. I’ve got the option on the Organization page set to Canadian dollars, and it doesn’t seem to be pulling it. I’ve checked in the code ot see if I can bypass the multiple currency feature (as it used to work when the multiple currency featuer didn’t exhist), and could use your help or suggestions.
Thansk,
Michael Smith