registration limits

[ale]

Hi,

If the conference, or a particular talk within one, happens in a room or place with a limit on attendees, how do you specify that number within OCS? My guess is "you can't". Any suggestions, or how would I go about adding this myself if that's so?

Ale

[asmecher]

Hi Ale,

That's right, registration limits are currently not implemented in OCS. If you do implement registration limits, please consider contributing it back to us for distribution in a future release. Here's how I'd approach it:

• Add a new column to the registration_types table in the dbscripts/xml/ocs_schema.xml database descriptor
• Add code to classes/registration/RegistrationType.inc.php and classes/registration/RegistrationTypeDAO.inc.php to support the new column
• Change the form validator in classes/registration/form/RegistrationForm.inc.php that is in charge of verifying that registration types are valid so that it also checks to ensure that some space is available if a limit was set
• Change the display of the registration type list so that it has some visual indication of which registration types are full.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

[ale]

Thanks Alex!

That sounds really straightforward - I've already gotten to the 3rd step, so I'll let you know how it goes.

But really what I'm going to need is some kind of cap for individual sessions.

So that once you have a list of presentations and people are choosing what session to go to, they and the organisers can see if a session is full up and if they have to go and shift things or book more rooms, and so people are given a message or an email address to write to.

Do you think this is possible or planned, and do you know how I'd do it?

Ale

[asmecher]

Hi Ale,

Currently, registration is a one-shot deal -- you are registered for the conference or you are not. However, we're talking with a few large users of OCS who are interested in contributing greater flexibility to the registration process, i.e. allowing users to choose whether they want to register and pay for additional items like banquets. If you like, I can put you in touch so that you can discuss specifics and potentially coordinate your efforts.

If you do start developing with OCS, I'd suggest becoming familiar with the current CVS version because a large number of features have been folded into it from OJS 2.2. The CVS version of OCS is currently not stable, but we'll be working on it very shortly. It might be worthwhile looking at least at the changed database structure, as all metadata storage has been overhauled since OCS 2.0.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

[ale]

Alex,

Yes, that would be good, but it's not about paying - payment is done offline in the conferences I'm setting up, but the rooms for individual sessions and workshops tend to be small here at Bristol University, so I can see that requirement coming up a lot in future.

Ale

[asmecher]

Hi Ale,

Agreed. One of the major features we'll be working on adding to OCS 2.x is a Scheduler function which will allow Managers to build timetables to present to registrants. Registration for individual sessions is a big candidate for inclusion with the Scheduler, but we haven't gotten that far in building requirements yet. I'll bring this up when we start discussing the Scheduler's features.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

[mandalo]

Hi,

I noticed the last activity on this thread is from 2007. Is there now functionality in the Scheduler that allows for users to register for specific sessions within the conference?

thanks,
manda

[jmacgreg]

Hi Manda,

The Scheduler allows you to schedule one-off events; and there is an option to add a la carte items to the registration process, to be released in the next version of OCS (see http://pkp.sfu.ca/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=3806 for a description and patches).

Cheers,
James

[mandalo]

Hi James,

Thanks for the reply. Is there a demo of the a la carte items anywhere? I would love to see how it works.

Also, I have ocs 2.1.1-2 which patch would I need?

Thanks,

manda

[jmacgreg]

Hi Manda,

You could take a look at the registration process at our upcoming conference (http://pkp.sfu.ca/ocs/pkp/index.php/pkp ... gistration), although I would kindly ask you not to submit a full registration unless you're actually planning on attending. There is no other demo of this registration functionality anywhere.

I would apply the following patches:

http://pkp.sfu.ca/bugzilla/attachment.cgi?id=1047 (patch against OCS pre-2.1.2 CVS)
http://pkp.sfu.ca/bugzilla/attachment.cgi?id=1075 (registrant report patch against PKP 2009 Install OCS 2.1.1)

I would recommend you run the patch tool with the --dry-run option first.

Cheers,
James

[mandalo]

Hi James,

Thanks so much for the prompt and informative reply.

I have one more question about the a la carte functionality. Is it possible to have radio buttons to select sessions that participants want to attend? ie. 3 sessions that have going on concurrently would be grouped, so that the user can only choose one of them?

manda

[jmacgreg]

Hi Manda,

Nope, not yet -- a la carte registration items can only be defined by name and description, as well as by cost (which is set for each registration type -- so you can have a different price for different registration types). That's about it, for the moment -- if you can more fully describe what you're looking for though, I'm happy to either suggest a workaround or refactor the query into a feature request.

Cheers,
James

[Kavius]

Bumping this question up...

This thread got moved in the the direction of "Registration Options", but I was wondering if anyone has made any progress on registration limits? I see there is a ticket for caps on the whole event (http://pkp.sfu.ca/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=2909), but I was wondering about the optional events.

The fire-marshal says we are only allowed to stuff a certain number of people in the auditorium and classrooms...