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Your CMS and Spektrix

Rachael Norris
Rachael Norris
  • Updated

It’s likely you, or someone at your organisation, will use a Content Management System (CMS) to manage your website.

Depending on how your website is integrated with Spektrix, you can configure certain elements of your Spektrix system which interact with your CMS.

 

What is a CMS?

CMS is short for content management system. 

A CMS is a software application that enables you to manage and upload content to a website without needing to write code. 

Your CMS usually has an easy editor function which lets you edit content on your website and add new pages like blog posts, a Donation page or pages for Events.  

While you can manage the content yourself, the technical aspects of your CMS are maintained by your web developer.

Depending on how you choose to integrate with Spektrix, you can either add information about Events directly from your system using the API or you can manually upload it onto your CMS .

 

Can my CMS integrate with Spektrix?

Any CMS platform can integrate with Spektrix, as long as the platform allows for some flexibility to add custom code and server side API calls. Generally, CMS platforms which don’t require a web developer, like WIX or Squarespace websites, don’t meet this criteria. If you’d like to discuss this further feel free to get in touch with Support.

If you are looking for an option which will let you integrate any CMS without needing as much support from a web developer, take a look at Spektrix Link.

Some examples of popular Content Management Systems that we have seen integrate with Spektrix include WordPress, Umbraco and Drupal. 

TIP: Looking for a website partner? You can find all of our partners listed on the Partner Directory UK and Ireland / Partner Directory US and Canada.

 

Ways to integrate your CMS

Unless you are using Spektrix Link, you’ll likely need the support of a web developer to integrate your CMS with Spektrix. 

There are many different ways to integrate Spektrix with a CMS. Your integration will be unique to how your Web Developer creates it and the requirements of your organisation.

For example, you might have a page on your website which displays information about an Event. The information included on this page, such as the image and description, can be populated directly from your Spektrix system and displayed on this page. 

Equally, you may choose to have a page about an Event on your website which is entirely managed through your CMS, giving you full control of the information on this page.

Or, you may have a combination of both, where some information on the page comes directly from Spektrix, and some is added manually on your CMS. 

Because there are so many different ways your Web Developer might integrate your CMS with Spektrix, we can’t tell you exactly how it will work. However, for the purposes of this article, we’ll cover two common ways you  can integrate Spektrix and a CMS

  1. Using iframes
  2. Using the API

 

Working with a Web Developer on an integration

We provide full documentation for Web Developers on our Integrate Portal.

We’re also happy to chat to your Web Developer directly and you can find information to support you to have informed conversations in our article Working with Website Developers.

 

iframes and your CMS

Using iframes is one of the ways Spektrix and your CMS can work together. 

To use this method you’ll need to use iframes for all, or most, of the purchase path on your website.

Your Web Developer can then manually link Spektrix with your CMS using webeventid or webinstanceid.

 

How does it work?

First, you’ll need to add a unique webeventid or webinstanceid to each of the Events you want to add to your website.  

Then, your web developer will create an Event page which contains an embedded iframe with the URL: 

https://tickets.venue.com/clientname/website/EventDetails.aspx?WebEventId={{webeventid}}

This page will become the template for future Event pages so that when you need to add a new Event to your website, all you need to do is copy this template and update the webeventid.

TIP: If you want to create a page which links out to Instances rather than Events then you can use the webinstanceid instead. This can be useful for Events which only have one Instance and means the customer can skip the Events page

 

 

How to add a webeventid or webinstanceid

You can follow instructions on how to add a webeventid or webinstanceid during the set up of new Events in the How to set up an Event or How to set up Instances articles.

REMINDER: You’ll need the Sales Administrator Role to be able to add or edit Events and Instances. If you don’t have this, speak to the Administrator in your organisation.

  • To add a webeventid to an existing Event, follow these steps:

    • Go to the Admin Interface > Events and choose the Event you want to add the ID to.
    • Choose the Website tab and click Edit.
    • Add a unique Web Event ID into the box marked Web Event ID.
    • Click Save.

  • To add a webeventid to an existing Instance, follow these steps:

    • Go to the Admin Interface > Events.
    • Choose the Instances tab and click the Instance you want to add the ID to.
    • On the Basic Details tab, click Edit.
    • Add a unique Web Instance ID into the box marked Web Instance ID.

    • Click Save.

 

Domain Specific Config

If your website URLs follow a standard pattern using webeventid or webinstanceid, then you can set a template for this pattern under the Event Details URL Template section of the Website Admin Interface > Domain Specific Config. 

This means that if a customer clicks on an event page from an iframe, then the customer will be directed to the website Event page rather than the Event iframe.

Instructions for how to set this template can be found in the Website Admin Interface article: Event Details URL Template.

If you're not sure whether you need to set a Web Event ID, contact your web developer.

Guidance for Web Developers for integrating a CMS in this way can be found in our Integrations Portal.

 

API and your CMS

Another way you can integrate Spektrix with your CMS, is to set up an API integration which will automatically populate the CMS.

API integrations can be more complex and time consuming to set up but they can offer more customised user journeys and reduce the need to enter data on both Spektrix and your CMS.

REMINDER: Every API integration looks and works differently.  The possibilities for API Integrations are not limited to this example approach.

 

How does it work?

One example of how an API integration with a CMS can work is through regular API calls.

The website server makes an API call to search for new Events. This will happen at regular intervals such as overnight or every few hours.

Then, the Event page on the CMS is created and connected with Spektrix. 

This can happen in various ways, including:

  • Option 1: New events are automatically pushed to the CMS. For every new Event, a new draft page is created on the CMS.

TIP: If you want to exclude certain Events from being automatically included, your Web Developer can filter out what is included by using Attributes. For example, you could set up a checkbox Event or Instance Attribute type with the name ‘show on website’.

  • Option 2: You manually create a new page from the CMS and choose which event to link it to from an auto-populated list of Events made available on the CMS via the API.

Additional API calls can be made to display other information on your website, such as Attributes, availability, Price Lists and more. 

Information about the Spektrix API for Web Developers can be found on our Integration Portal.

 

Further Reading

To continue learning about Web Integrations, we recommend the following articles as a great next step: