Looking for a PHP Programmer To Help Build Ticketing System

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DiamondLondon
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Looking for a PHP Programmer To Help Build Ticketing System

Post by DiamondLondon »

I run a website in London, England and try and organise free events for people to attend twice a month, like picnics, after work drinks, salsa dancing, etc

However in the Summer I try and do a coach trip for members of my website

This is my 2nd year of doing a Coach Trip.

The problem is I have to risk my own money setting up the event and hiring a Coach or Bus and then need to start selling places for the trip.

The problem is there's no Software I can find on the Internet specifically designed for Selling Tickets to Events. There's lots of free PHP shopping Cart programs out there but nothing specific for selling a non Tangiable goods like a ticket.

My most important concern is not to over sell tickets, like for instantance a Bus may have 44 Seats so it's really important not to sell more tickets then there are seats on the bus. Last year I did this manually and would just watch my website seeing when people bought tickets and then stop the sale when it got to the maximum number of seats but this also meant for 1 month I hardly slept at night worrying that inthe middle of the night I might oversell and have to face angry people. This year I am using eBay, ut eBay is not ideal either, you can only advertise tickets for a maximum of 10 days and these events are usually needed to start allocating seats about 1 to 2 months in advance.

The other thing I want is to have a price that increases daily, so tickets bought today at say £10 and tomorrow £10.25p and day after £10.50p this is because a small price increase like this helps encourage people to buy early rather then wait until the day before the event which happened last year.

I'm willing to work hand in hand with a good PHP programmer and help test the system on my own website. I designed my own website so I can do some graphics and design work but the actual programming isn't my strong point.

I think such a system has commerical appeal too and if I know it works for myself then I'd like to work with that person to perhaps promote it to other organisations I know that might find it useful so this could turn from a volunteer project into a little earner. I know exactly how the system should work to be useful but I'm no PHP programmer so need help in this area.

PM me if you think you'd be able to help get this project off the ground and be interested in commercialising it later. The ideal system would have to work with PayPal and NoChex to begin with. I'd also be more interested in working with coders that like to get things done then just raw coding. I know some people would rather raw code every single line from scratch and take 2 weeks to do something rather then use something like Code Charge and have 80% of the work done for them.
Charles256
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Post by Charles256 »

Let me know if you decide to pay for this, I'd be glad to do it if paid. Drop me a line. :-D
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DiamondLondon
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Post by DiamondLondon »

Charles256 wrote:Let me know if you decide to pay for this, I'd be glad to do it if paid. Drop me a line. :-D
Thanks but for the time being it's going to be unpaid .. I make no real money running my website as it is.

Although I believe a system such as I've described would make the people that created it a good steady long term income and I know several people in the UK I could approach to sell the system to once it's been proven to work. Some of the elements I've described I gave to a friend of mine running events whilst he was in the UK and he found them very successful, increasing his sales by 300%.

Unfortunately he's no longer in the country or in the same line of work otherwise we may have done a joint project together and paid a developer.
ztml
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Post by ztml »

You might able to use ztml since its main feature is to let you build your site using your own designs with the tools provided. You could also turn the site you created into a full-blown CMS by incorporating all the ztml features. We are currently doing just that with the ezPortal project. If the functions you want are not available you can include them by using the add-on feature of ztml. If you are interested, I could work with you to build a system as you described.
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DiamondLondon
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Post by DiamondLondon »

Thanks for the suggestion but it sounds like it's just making life more complicated then what I actually need. My site is 2 years old now and has over 1,500 photos from past events, etc I don't think I'd want to start converting it to a whole new system.

If I was selling tickets to an event without any limits (or just huge limits I could never fill) like a nightclubbing event then I'd be less worried about the number of people buying a ticket but because this is for coach trips I need tight control over the numbers purchasing, I can't afford to over sell by even 1 place.

I used Cube Cart whch is a free PHP shopping cart script but it never worked fully with NoChex

It allowed people to buy tickets but never reduced the number of available places by the amount of tickets just purchased.

Every single shopping cart I've seen is really designed for good you buy and then need to be posted to you. I want something that can perhaps produce electronic tickets that people print and bring with them - each one being unique, maybe in PDF format for instance and perhaps showing the last 4 digits of their credit card information.

I'd have thought there would be programers out there who'd like to try coding something totally new rather then remaking their own version of something done hundreds of times before like CMS, or Forum software.

I try and use the internet to bring people together, I'd probabaly do more of these trips if it wasn't so much hassle selling the tickets to cover the costs.

I also hate having to use eBay and PayPal - NoChex is cheaper and better but isn't integrated into eBay and eBay themselves charge a small fortune when I do not need to actually advertise my tickets through their site only use them to sell them to my existing group.
ztml
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Post by ztml »

Sorry, I misunderstood your requirement. I think it is too much to ask someone to modify your system to something that you need. It might take a great deal of time to learn what you have. If after one has learned about your system and could not modify it to the way you wanted then it would be a total waste of time for both parties. As a volunteer, he/she would have nothing to gain other than one bad experience.

As I stated, you could use ztml to build a site as you described but indeed it have to build from the ground up. But if you already have a site that can be used as a model then the foundation would be already set, and that is the most difficult part of the project.
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DiamondLondon
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Post by DiamondLondon »

I don't think what I require is actually that hard it's a simple page that allows people to purchase online using PayPal or NoChex but has a counter on it so tickets aren't oversold.

if there at 44 seats on a coach all it needs to do is reduce the number of available seats by 1 each time a seat is sold

Both Nochex and PayPal provide simple buttons you click on to buy say 1 ticket this just has to allow people to buy however many tickets they want as long as there is enough seats to go around., seems like a fairly simply counter type script only working backwards until it gets to zero.
ztml
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Post by ztml »

As I have already told you that you could build a system like that with ztml but with some add-ons functions.
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jayshields
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Post by jayshields »

Why don't you try to build it yourself? If you make a start, and post your problems along the way I'm sure that we will help/guide you, as like you said, it doesn't sound hard at all.
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DiamondLondon
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Post by DiamondLondon »

jayshields wrote:Why don't you try to build it yourself? If you make a start, and post your problems along the way I'm sure that we will help/guide you, as like you said, it doesn't sound hard at all.
Well there's the page below:

http://www.EveryTwoWeeks.co.uk

I've done everything on that page all I need is a replacement for the link to eBay

I can easily add a button that says click here to buy 1 ticket via PayPal or NoChex but I don't know how to make a counter
cyrus67
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volunteer php mysql programmer calling

Post by cyrus67 »

I could definitely develop this for you if that path still interests you.

Cyrus
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onion2k
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Post by onion2k »

You're selling 44 tickets once a year? Just do it manually. Advertise it on your site, when people paypal their money to you add them to a list you edit by hand. Creating a bespoke shopping cart for something that'll get so little use would be a massive waste of effort.
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