Free Tickets

With free tickets you can give customers the opportunity to get access to your events for free and without any payment process. The tickets are generated in the dashboard and can be sent directly to the customer with one click. Free tickets set the ticket price of existing ticket types to 0 and can therefore be used as an invitation.

Unlike internal transactions, free tickets do not involve creating a transaction and thus do not deposit a cash flow. The ticket price is automatically set to 0 and advance booking fees are not charged. Free tickets are also shown in all reports and statistics via an additional position, so that you can transparently evaluate and manage free tickets.

Note: Creating free tickets does not generate a checkout or a transaction. This means that you will not be able to access specific functions such as extra fields for transactions or the generation of an order confirmation page. If you are expecting an incoming payment or you have already received money, it is recommended to create an internal transaction.

Examples of use:

Inviting friends and family to an event.
Provide sponsors with their tickets to an event.
Give a customer a free ticket as a courtesy.
and much more.

Free TicketsCreate Free Tickets

To generate a free ticket, click on the blue Create ticket button in the Tickets module. A new window will open where you can fill in some fields.

Proceed as follows to create a free ticket:

Click on the Create ticket button above the Tickets tab.
Select the customer for whom you want to create the tickets. Only one customer can be selected at a time.
Optionally, select the option to send the tickets directly to the customer via email.
Optionally create the tickets with the status Details, so that the customer has to fill in personalization and extra fields additionally.
Select the event for which the tickets should be generated. Only one event can be selected at a time.
Select the tickets you want to generate.
Check your ticket selection and then click Finish. You will be automatically redirected to the ticket overview and can view the ticket details.

In the following, the individual settings of the free ticket generation will be explained in more detail.

Free ticket settings

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Customer
Select an existing customer from the drop-down menu. To find a customer faster, you can also enter the name or email address directly into the field. If no customer data exists yet, you can create a new one by clicking the + Add customer button. A new mask will open where you can enter and save the customer data. Then you have to select the newly created customer in the drop-down menu.
Send tickets by e-mail
After activation, the customer will receive an e-mail with the created tickets directly after completion.
Query personalization and extra fields
If you are sending tickets that have personalization or extra fields set up, you can set the ticket status to Details during generation. This will require the customer to personalize the tickets before they can download them.
Event
Use the drop-down menu to find the event for which the customer should receive their tickets. After selecting the event, the ticket or seat selection will appear. Free tickets can also be created for secret shops. The name of the secret shop is displayed next to the event name in smaller writing.

Free TicketsImport Free Tickets

The ticket import is used to import free tickets directly into the system and thus to store larger amounts of data in one go. You can create as many tickets as you like at once and import them, including customer data, seats, and e-mails.

Note: Only free tickets are imported via the ticket import. An additional payment request or the documentation of ticket prices is therefore not possible via a ticket import.

Two different import jobs for tickets are available:

Ticket import for existing customers

If your customers are already stored in the system and you want to generate tickets for them, you can import them directly via the customer ID that is stored in the system. This saves you the trouble of entering the complete customer data.

Ticket import for new customers

If you want to import tickets for customers that are not yet stored in the system, you can create a new customer record at the same time as importing tickets. For this purpose, all necessary fields for customers have to be filled in. After importing, a new customer record will be created automatically based on the e-mail addresses. If you use an email address that already exists in the system as a customer, the ticket will automatically be saved to this existing customer. So you don't have to worry about a customer being created twice.

Pro Tip: If your import contains tickets for both existing and new customers, you either have to split the file or you can import all data via new customers. Because of the already existing email addresses, the tickets will automatically be saved with the existing customers.

You can find a sample import file here.

Import File

The ticket import only works via a CSV file which must contain certain mandatory variables. Basically, there are two variants that can be uploaded.

This file must meet the following requirements:

File format: CSV
File size: Any
Column names: At best, the columns of the CSV should directly have the name of the internal fields they will be linked to when imported. This is because they will be linked directly when the file is selected, so that they no longer have to be selected individually.
Structure: One line must correspond to a single ticket. If several tickets are to be sent to the same customer, the tickets must still be stored in individual lines, including all mandatory data.
Mandatory fields:
1. Customer data (first name, last name, street, city, zip code, country, email) or alternatively the vivenu customer ID.
2. Event ID
3. Ticket type ID

Note: Each field that is stored in the file must be filled in. For example, if the address is missing for some tickets, the field must be filled in with a placeholder.

Ticket import file

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customerId
The customerId is used for imports with existing customers. It corresponds to a unique number-letter combination, which is assigned to a specific customer. It is used for internal recognition. You can view the customerId in the dashboard via the Customers tab for specific customers. Alternatively, you can export it via a transaction export, for example.
company
The company can optionally be filled in to be stored on the customer record.
firstname
Store the first name of the customer.
lastname
Store the last name of the customer.
street
Store the street including house number of the customer's address.
city
Store the city of the customer's address.
postal
Store the postal code of the customer's address.
country
Store the country of the customer's address. This must be the official country code (e.g. "DE" or "US").
state
Optionally store the state of the customer's address.
email
Enter the email address of the customer. If no email address is available, you can fill this field with an invented email like firstname.lastname@email.com. The email address can be changed in the customer data at any time.
eventId
Enter the event ID of the event for which the tickets are to be created. The event ID is a combination of numbers and letters which is used for internal recognition. You can find the event ID via the URL of your event settings.
ticketTypeId
Store the ticket type ID of the ticket type the imported ticket should have. The ticket type ID corresponds to a number-letter combination which is used for internal recognition. You can find the ticket type ID in the event settings via the ticket categories tab at the respective ticket types.
barcode
Optionally store a barcode which should be used for the ticket. The barcode must have at least 6 characters. If no barcode is set, the barcode will be generated automatically by the system.
gaName
Optionally enter the name of the GA section of your seating plan. The name must be the same as specified in the seat settings.
sectionName
Optionally store the name of the section of your seating plan. The name must be the same as specified in the seat settings.
groupName
Optionally store the name of the block of your seating plan. The name must be the same as specified in the seat settings.
rowName
Optionally store the name of the row of your seating plan. The name must be the same as specified in the seat settings.
seatName
Optionally store the name of the seat of your seating plan. The name must be the same as specified in the seat settings.

Import Process

To perform a ticket import, select the Import button via the Tickets module. Alternatively, the ticket import can also be triggered via the same process in the Jobs module.

Perform the following steps for the import:

Click the Import button via the Tickets module. A new window will open.
Select the Select button to upload the import file. Afterwards, further settings will pop up.
Select whether the import should be done for existing customers or for new customers. Accordingly, your import file must have been customized beforehand.
Select whether you want to send the tickets directly by e-mail.
Select whether personalization and extra fields should be queried.
Connect the fields of your CSV file with the internal fields. If the fields of your CSV have already been named with the same wording, the mapping will be done automatically.
Click Import to initiate the import. You will be automatically redirected to the Jobs module.

Import options

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Existing Customers
If you select an import for existing customers, you will not have a choice to enter new customer data in the field mapping. Address or e-mails can therefore not be entered. Instead, you have to use the customer ID to assign the tickets to a customer. Use this option if you want your tickets to be sent to customers who are already in the system.
Customer data
If you select an import for new customer data, you can enter the full address, name and e-mail address of the customer in the field assignment. The record will then be imported into the system as a new customer. Use this option if you do not have access to customer IDs.
Send tickets by e-mail
If you activate this checkbox, e-mails with the imported tickets will be sent directly to the specified buyers after the import has been executed. Additionally, you have the option to add a message in the email. Note that one e-mail is always sent per ticket. So if a ticket is sent multiple times to the same person, multiple emails will still be triggered as well.
Request personalization and extra fields
If you activate this checkbox, the status of the ticket will be set to Details at the beginning. The ticket still needs to be personalized in this status before it becomes valid. Prerequisite for the use is an activation of the personalization or extra fields in the event settings.
Field names
The assignment is about telling our system which data has which meaning. You map the columns of your CSV file to the fields in vivenu, so that the system understands which data belongs where. Fields that are mandatory are marked with an asterisk.

Via the module Jobs you have the possibility to download a file of the successful imports. If there are records that could not be imported successfully, you will also receive a file with all failed records.

Pro Tip: Use the file of failed records to prepare and re-import them. This will ensure that all tickets are imported completely.

Import Errors

After performing an import you will be automatically redirected to the jobs module. There you have the possibility to download all successful and all failed records. You can access the Jobs module later by clicking on your vivenu account name in the lower left corner of the dashboard.

Failed records are those tickets that could not be imported for certain reasons. These were not imported into the system either as a ticket, or as a customer. In the right column of each failed record file, you will find the so-called Error reason.

Ticket import errors

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Could not reserve seat object
The ticket could not be imported because the seat is blocked. For example, the seat may be blocked because it has already been selected by someone else or a quota occupies it.
X is not allowed to be empty
In an import file, every field that is used must be filled in. For example, if data is imported with a seat, the seat must also be filled in for each ticket. For this reason it is not possible to upload GA tickets and seat tickets in one file. If data such as the e-mail address for individual tickets is missing, a placeholder can also be used.

Note: If the ticket import for seats fails, the seats will still be blocked for the duration of the reservation time. If nothing else has been stored, the reservation time corresponds to 15 minutes.

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