Has anyone tried out the Actravia Event Booking Module?

http://www.snowcovered.com/snowcove...geID=20983

Here is the demo site. It looks pretty capable. I don't think there is any AS integration but it might be worth requesting if the module is solid.

I know InvenManager is supposed to be working on AS Integration for his registration / events module, but from the looks of his forums it seems like he is having significant issues with some DNN 5.6.* versions that broke his module.

I would like to see the backend and any template capability. Seems pretty spendy for what it does.

I emailed the developer. Since they are in Ireland it will most likely be tomorrow before I hear back. It is pretty pricey. But it seems to have a lot of capability that might be useful to the homeschool support groups and niche marketers. It has a 15 day trial license so I might check it out.

I like that it has Free Registration as an option, the Description Only option, and Deposits vs Full Payment option.

If it is highly functional and allows my groups to setup their own payment credentials then it might be worth it. From looking at their site they seem to be a pretty professional organization with support services.

For a free membership site I probably couldn't see expending the funds. But for my site, it seems like a natural fit.

Let us know what you think. Separate payment credentials is a big one for me too. Also, specific "slots" within an event...which I think it does. If it can handle commissions back to the host then it's a potential home run.

Posted By Steven Webster on 14 Apr 2011 06:28 PM
Let us know what you think. Separate payment credentials is a big one for me too. Also, specific "slots" within an event...which I think it does. If it can handle commissions back to the host then it's a potential home run.

The separate payment accounts was a biggy for me as well. By slots I assume you mean first 100 to signup. It does this. They call it Limited Places Countdown on their example.

Start Date    Where       Venue      Details                                               Price
 31/12/2016 A Location A Venue   There are 143 places left Book Now  €200.00
 
Actravia supports tokens when display comments about the event. Use this to give a countdown of places available. 


As for the host commissions, I am not quite sure. Here is a statement on the site.

• Unlike other online enrollment solution providers, Actravia does not charge per individual registration or transaction. Actravia provides a direct interface between your event site and your payment provider, passing the transaction details forward to the provider, and capturing the confirmation details returned.  This means you get cash in the bank quicker with no annoying payment reconciliation problems.

This is good since I wouldn't want to pay a fee to the module provider. I thought I saw another statement where it seemed that they promoted not having Host fees as a feature. That is something I would need to understand better. But I also see that they can customize the tool so they could probably allow some fees.

I think for me as the host it might work out well for events that I sponsor and list on the overall portal for all members.

The one thing that I don't quite grasp is how to include it at the group level. Not sure if I would want to allow Groups to create their own events. Or maybe I would have to create provide support to create the events for the groups.

Another issue is how to physically get it into the Group page. I know I could use a tab, but I am already almost out of space for new tabs and I still have more functionality to provide.

A first step might be to just do events at the overall member level and let Groups promote their events but not manage it at the group level. I would manage all event creation and provide reports to the Event Sponsor Group. So many questions.

But I really think these guys have thought about a lot of this and can probably offer some guidance on what works well.

Good info...where can I download the trial?

Also, I've been moving more and more toward using the events and profiles as an aggregation point and actually doing things in their own modules. I'm working on something pretty cool that should help connect things like properties or photos from other modules to groups and profiles.

If you think about it...FB does this as well. You see a thumbnail of a photo but you leave your profile to a photo app to see albums and maintain things. Add in the potential for some simple app access from the journal tools and now the groups/profiles/summary are simply connecting all of a user's relevant content in one place.

Way off topic...but your post got me thinking.

We have just purchased the professional edition.  It seems that you can set up a PayPal merchant per event via the override function.  I have not tested this as our client is not using online payments.  However if you are using a payment method other than PayPal it does not seem you can customise per event.

I installed the Actravia trial version in April 2011 but didn't get that far into testing. But my contact there, Colm Ryan, was very helpful and he could probably answer any questions you have. I think they do provide some customization services, which might include adding in Processors other than Paypal. They do have an extension for Authorize.Net and I think they can build more as needed.

For now I have opted to use InvenManager Event Calendar and Registration because he is working with the community to integrate with Active Social. ECR is already posting to the journals and also has a registration component. I will also check with InvenManager about possibly adding in payment options at the event level. He already offers about a dozen payment options, but they are at the Module level; not the event level. I am still awaiting feedback on how Invenmanager will handle Group calendars. It may be that I end up with separate modules per Group. So that would allow each group to set their own payment options. That might be a little labor intensive for me to manage, so I am not sure of the best path forward.

I am open to using Actravia because it has some really nice capabilities. But I have taken the point on working with several vendors to integrate their modules with AS and didn't have the time available to do so for Actravia. But if you take the point on this I am willing to help test and provide feedback.

I would also be very interested in seeing this module integrate with AS. I is very robust and flexible... will demo this week as soon as I get my trial license. If it looks good I will send them an email about AS integration.