Limit number of times a custom fee field can be used

I need a custom field that can only be used four times so that when the fourth person selects and pays for that option, the field is no longer available for future registrants to select.
Is this supported in Events Booking?

Thank you,
Ernie

Hi Ernie

Custom Field Quantity might work for your need, see eventbookingdoc.joomservices.com/basic-s...ustom-field-quantity

However, please note that if you use that feature, when a quantity field is fully booked, the system will stop accepting registration for that event.

Maybe you can try to use Ticket Types, it is more reliable, see eventbookingdoc.joomservices.com/plugins/ticket-types

Regards,

Tuan

The Ticket Types feature is nice - I tried it out for the event and disabled the Custom Field.

But it seems that the custom field is more flexible in that it can be assigned to the billing page for group registrations.

The expected behavior of a field that has a limited quantity would be for the option to be dimmed or hidden once the number had been reached. Since you already have the ability to show the remaining number of an option with a limited quantity to display, it seems the option should simply be dimmed - still visible, but not selectable - when it reaches zero.

If this is something that can be addressed in the future, I think it would be a much better enhancement.

Thank you,
Ernie

Right now, the behavior is that when a quantity field is fully booked, registration for the associated event will be disabled (stop accepting registration).

Honestly, custom field quantity is not reliable, it could cause overbooking for the options in the field, so I don't have plan to improve it yet. Better use Ticket Types if it is possible, it is more reliable (in terms of overbooking)

Regards,

Tuan

As explained in my previous comment, it seems that the Custom Field Quantity should behave as I described. It's fortunate that you have the Ticket Types option as another option, but it does make the registration process a little more cumbersome - registrants have to read more and select from multiple options, whereas with a Custom Field, they would only see the field on the appropriate page (billing only in a group registration, or for each member and not billing) and the field could be a simple checkbox or radio option.

I hope you are able to get that working - I think it's much better than the Ticket Types in most cases. I have some clients that will have complex Custom Field requirements for an annual convention-type event they hold with several exhibitor options, and the Custom Field is much better than the Ticket Types for these purposes.

For example, there may be limited opportunities to sponsor the luncheon, beverage stations, golf holes, and other things with limits where the option becomes unavailable (dimmed or the counter shows zero) so that others can still register.

Thank you,
Erie

Thanks Erie. I understand how you want it to work now and will see if that could be improved. However, as I said, it will change how it works at the moment, some kind of backward incompatible change

Also, as I said, using Quantity field will still have another limitation about over booking for certain option. For example, if one option has one item left, and two users choose that option almost at the same time, the system could not prevent that from happening.

That's a limitation which is not easy to address, that's why I haven't improved that feature further

Tuan

Creating an option - a checkbox to enable the "legacy" functionality, for example, would remedy the first issue - users who use the Quantity field as currently implemented could check the box (it could be set to Checked in the update process when the feature is implemented) so that users can choose whether they want the Quantity option to close registration when the number is reached or not.

In the second issue, it seems rare that this would happen unless there was a significantly high number of people registering all at once. That's certainly not the case with most of my clients.

It seems that the point of payment is when the trigger happens - particularly with paid options - if there was one remaining for a Quantity-limited option that has a fee associated with it, the one who checks out and pays first would get it, and the second would get a message that the option was no longer available when they reached checkout, and the cost of the option deducted from the total.

It may require a little more clever coding, but it seems that would be the best way to implement it.

Thank you,
Ernie

Hi Ernie

It seems that the point of payment is when the trigger happens - particularly with paid options - if there was one remaining for a Quantity-limited option that has a fee associated with it, the one who checks out and pays first would get it, and the second would get a message that the option was no longer available when they reached checkout, and the cost of the option deducted from the total.

It is not simple like that. For some payment gateways such as PayPal, it could take few minutes for users to complete payment. And when users are on payment gateway website already, there is no way for the system to check and prevent it. That's why over-booking happens

Regards,

Tuan