The Artifax Event Importer feature in Spektrix allows you to set up events in Artifax and then import key pieces of information directly into Spektrix, speeding up the event setup process and ensuring consistency between the two systems. In this article, we’re going to look at what’s involved in getting this feature set up, and how to set up Events and Instances in Spektrix using the Importer.
What and why?
ArtifaxEvent is a tool which allows organisations to manage their room hire, event planning and scheduling. Here at Spektrix we’ve partnered with ArtifaxEvent (we’ll call it Artifax, for simplicity) to produce an Importer which allows for one-way importing of data into Spektrix
Lots of arts organisations use Artifax as a room booking tool and often need to get things built in Artifax earlier than they would set up events in Spektrix. If you’re doing everything manually, information has to be entered into Artifax and then entered once again into Spektrix, which means doing double the work and risking human error as a result of duplication.
The Importer is designed to help make it quicker and easier to get Events and Instances set up in Spektrix if you’ve already built them in Artifax, and to improve confidence that what you enter in Artifax will be accurately represented in Spektrix.
Translations
Artifax and Spektrix share many similarities, but there are some terminology differences worth pointing out to make sure you’re comfortable with how each item is referred to in both systems. Here’s a quick and easy illustration of the main differences:
Getting set up
Before you can start using the Artifax Event Importer, you need to set up a few quick things in both Artifax and Spektrix.
Setup in Artifax
Before you can set things up in Spektrix, you’ll need to get hold of an API Key from your Artifax system - this is needed for the next step, in Spektrix.
You can either use an existing API Key (if you already have a spare one), or create a new one by going to Admin > Configuration > API within Artifax. Either way, make sure of the following:
- User Required?: this should be un-ticked.
- User Group: whichever group you use will need access to Configuration, Arrangements and Events.
The Artifax Support team will be able to help if you have any further questions about how to get hold of your API Key.
Setup in Spektrix
First of all, you’ll need to switch on the Artifax Event Importer - you can do this in the Settings Interface (using the new Interface only) under Configuration > System Setup > Third Party Integrations.
Scroll down until you see a tick box labelled Enable ArtifaxEvent Integration.
There are three fields to fill in on this page:
- ArtifaxEvent Integration Domain: the URL you use to log into Artifax.
- For example https://yourvenue.artifaxevent.com, where 'yourvenue' is your organisation's unique name.
- ArtifaxEvent API Key: the API key generated from Artifax as mentioned earlier.
- ArtifaxEvent Arrangement Query Parameters: it’s possible to speed up the process of querying the API and filter out unnecessary results by adding in some additional parameters here. Generally speaking this won’t be necessary, but get in touch with the Spektrix Support team if you think it might be needed.
Attributes
Next, you’ll want to map which Custom Fields in Artifax you’d like to match with which Attributes in Spektrix - this allows you to import additional information as well as the basic name/date/time details. It isn’t essential, but it will probably be useful to be able to pull more fields into Spektrix (see the section below on What can be imported?)
You can map as many Artifax Custom Fields as you want, as long as you have one Spektrix Attribute assigned to each one. You can do this in Spektrix by either picking an existing Attribute or creating a new one, and then selecting an Artifax Custom Field to map against it.
Go to Attribute Templates in the Settings Interface and select an Event Attribute, and you’ll see a field at the bottom of the page called Artifax Event Mapping Field.
Click on this drop-down menu to see a list of all available Artifax Custom Fields to choose from:
The name of the Custom Field in Artifax doesn’t need to match the Attribute name in Spektrix, so you can choose whichever one is appropriate.
How to import Events and Instances
Once everything is set up, it’s easy to import both Events and Instances from Artifax into Spektrix. It’s a very similar process to how you would normally do your event setup, albeit quicker than usual.
What can be imported?
Before we get into the detail of how the import process works, it’s worth looking at what information can be imported from Artifax into Spektrix. Here’s a list of which Spektrix fields you can populate from Artifax, and how the Spektrix and Artifax fields match up:
Importing Events
With the Artifax Event Importer set up on your system, when you go the Admin Interface > Events you will see an Import button with the Artifax Event logo at the bottom of the screen. Once you’ve created one or more Events by importing from Artifax, you’ll also see the same logo on the left-hand side of the screen next to each imported Event.
Clicking this will bring up the New Artifax Event Arrangement Import screen, which allows you to choose an Arrangement to import from the drop-down menu.
By default this displays all Arrangements, but if you prefer you can tick the Spektrix Arrangements Only option to only display Arrangements which you’ve set up in Artifax with the Spektrix Integration > Integrate checkbox ticked.
In order for this to work you need to create a Custom Form in Artifax called Spektrix Integration with a checkbox labelled as Integrate.
NOTE: the drop-down menu will only show Arrangements which have not yet been imported into Spektrix and have at least one Event occurring in the future. The number in brackets shows the Arrangement ID of the Arrangement in Artifax.
Once you’ve selected your Arrangement, click the Import button and you’ll see the New Event screen with the Event name pulled through, alongside any relevant Attributes filled in.
At this point you can fill in any of the other fields that you need, then click the Add button to create the Event.
Importing Instances
Once the Event has been created, you’ll want to set up your Instances, which you can do by once again importing from Artifax (importing Events, which is the Artifax name for Instances).
From the Instances tab on the left-hand side of the Event Details screen you’ll see the same Import button as you saw on the Events screen.
NOTE: this button will only be visible if the Event was imported from Artifax.
Clicking this will bring up the New Artifax Event Events Import screen, which allows you to choose which Artifax Events you want to import and set up as Instances in Spektrix.
As with importing Arrangements, this screen defaults to showing Events which have been marked in Artifax as suitable to import via the Public checkbox. If you tick the Show all events checkbox, you can instead display all Events.
To import one or more Events and create new Instances, select your choice(s) from the left-hand side list and click the > button to add them to the selection on the right, then click the Import button.
You’ll now see the Add Event Instances screen, with the Event name pulled through - you can’t see it from this screen but the Instance dates and times will have been imported as well.
You’ll need to fill in the remaining information on the Details screen, as well as choosing any appropriate Ticket Donation structures and the seating plan you want to use.
Once you’ve done all of that, you can add the Instances and they will show up as usual in the Instances tab of your Event. You don’t need to worry about manually adding the dates and times of the Instances, as this will have been pulled through from the Artifax Events.
After importing
Once Events and Instances have been imported from Artifax into Spektrix, they act no differently to those you’ve manually created. Any changes you make to Events or Instances in Spektrix will only affect the Spektrix side of things, and won’t have any impact on the Arrangements or Events in Artifax.
If you’re wondering what to do if you need to extend a run of shows, you can just add new Events to an Arrangement in Artifax, then import those into Spektrix as new Instances. When you click the Import button on the Instances page, you’ll see all of the new Artifax Events, allowing you to import them in exactly the same way as you did before. Alternatively, you can add new Instances manually, as you would do normally.
NOTE: any changes you make to Arrangements and Events in Artifax will only affect Artifax and won’t be automatically pulled through to Spektrix. Once you’ve imported them into Spektrix, any further changes you want to make will need to be applied directly in Spektrix - you could use the Bulk Instance Update Tool to apply these changes if there are lots of them.
Troubleshooting
If you come across any problems or have any questions about the Artifax Event Importer or anything that you’ve imported using this tool, the Spektrix Support team are on hand to help where possible. If you’re not sure whether your question relates to the Spektrix or Artifax side, don’t worry - get in touch and we’ll help identify whether it’s something we can work on or whether we need to ask the team at Artifax to get involved.
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Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the Spektrix Support team if you have any further questions about the Artifax Event Importer, or would like to discuss anything further.