Update: 08 September 2025 for Release v218
Event Status change during online purchase (only for integrated purchase path)
From Available to Sold-Out
An event will automatically be set to Sold-out when:
- the event has a box-office ID in Peppered
- during the order process the final tickets are booked by a visitor or
- during the order process the number of available tickets is less than the Sold-out buffer. You can find more information further down in this article.
The Sold-out status can be set in the Control Panel > Status updater setting. Here you can choose which status an event will get when Sold out. Usually this will be Sold-out but you could also use the status Waiting list here for all events that sell out:
Usually, only the website order process will set events to a Sold-out status.
From Sold-Out to Available
By default, events that are set to status Sold-out (or any other non-bookable status) in Peppered will not appear as available (online) again unless you change the status manually in the Peppered Dashboard. Keep reading for more information on changing Event status using the Availability updater.
Updating Event Statuses with the Availability Updater
The Event availability updater can be found in System > Control Panel. It is a mechanism to check predefined event statuses and change them when possible. This can be triggered manually, or periodically scheduled to run automatically.
In the Event availability updater you can define what event statuses should be checked when the updater is activated. The check can work both ways:
- Events with an On Sale status can be checked and set to Sold-out or Not on sale when tickets are no longer available.
- Events with a Sold-out or Not on sale status can be checked and set to On Sale when new tickets become available.
Availability Updater settings
Go to: Dashboard > System > Control Panel > Availability updater
The following options are available:
- Statuses to check: This is a list of statuses that will be checked. All other statuses will be ignored when the Availability updater runs.
- Testing: event IDs: If you want to perform a small-scale test first, enter one or more Box-office ID’s of events here, to run the updater only for those events. Remember to Delete these ID’s after you’re done testing!
- Availability updater button: When set to Yes. This will enable the Update availability button in the Event module:
From Available to Sold-Out with the Availability Updater
If you want the Availability updater to check events with certain available statuses and change them to Sold-out, first check the default Sold-out status is defined in Dashboard > System > Control Panel > Status updater.
The default Sold-out status can also be set to something like Waiting list if you want.
After that is correctly configured, go to: Dashboard > System > Control Panel > Availability updater
Enter all statuses you want to check. In this example all events with status On sale will be checked, and changed to Sold-out if no seats appear to be available during the check:
From Sold-Out to Available with the Event Availability Updater
If you want the availability updater to check events with certain Unavailable statuses and change them to available, first check if the default Available status is defined in Dashboard > System > Control Panel > Status updater
The default available status is usually On sale:
After that is correctly configured, go to: Dashboard > System > Control Panel > Availability updater
Enter all statuses you want to check. In this example all events with status Sold-out will be checked, and changed to On sale (or to Last tickets depending of the number of seats available during the check):
Handling Not on sale status as an extra option next to sold out with the Event Availability Updater
Usually events are published on the website with a default On sale status, and end up switching to sold out.
Sometimes events are visible but not yet on sale. In this case, you often use a status like unavailable or not on sale. You can configure the availability updater to automatically set this status when the event is not available, but also not sold out. Set what the default status should be for this example in Dashboard > System > Control Panel > Status updater:
Take note!
This process only works when the ticketing system makes the distinction between unavailable and sold out events. Currently the feature is already available for Spektrix users. For other ticketing systems, please contact us about the possibilities.
From Sold-Out to Available & Available to Sold-Out with the Availability Updater
If you want to check both scenarios, make sure you implement the settings as stated above, and just add all Status ID’s to check. Go to: Dashboard > System > Control Panel > Availability updater and enter all statuses you want to check:
In this example
- all events with status Sold-out will be checked, and changed to On sale if there appear to be some seats available during the check
- all events with status On sale will be checked, and changed to Sold-out if no seats appear to be available during the check
Take note: All invisible statuses will automatically be excluded from this process. Events with a status that is set to be “not visible” will never be updated.
Activating the Automated Event Availability Updater
During your website implementation process, our team usually activates the automatic process for you. To check if it is activated, go to Dashboard > System > Scheduled tasks > StatusUpdater. The toggle Enabled will be set to Yes.
From now on your Status Updater will be up and running! The updater will run every 10 minutes.
Event Availability Buffers
You can set Buffers on events to trigger changes in the Status for Events, for example, changing the Button when a event is almost Sold Out to Last Tickets.
Using a Sold-Out Buffer
You can set up a Sold out buffer yourself. This is useful in case you don’t want to sell all tickets online, or in case there is just one ticket left, and usually your visitors order at least two tickets, so you decide it is better to not offer the possibility at all.
Example: you set the Sold Out buffer of the website to 2 tickets. If an event has only 2 tickets or less available in the ticketing system, the event will automatically change to Sold-out on the website.
The Event Availability updater will also use this status, and change events to Sold-out when the number of tickets is equal to or lower than the Sold-out buffer (see From available to sold-out with the Event Availability updater).
Go to: Dashboard > System > Control Panel > Status updater > Sold out buffer
This is a general buffer that is applicable to all events.
Using a Last Tickets Buffer
An event status can automatically change from On sale to Last tickets to create some urgency among your visitors. In order to activate this feature, a Last ticket buffer needs to be set. If the number of available tickets drops below this buffer, the status will automatically change to Last tickets.
Go to: Dashboard > System > Control Panel > Status updater > Last ticket buffer
In this example the buffer is set to 20. If there are 20 or less tickets available for an event, the status is changed to the Last tickets status.
If you also activate Last tickets buffer per hall, in the Hall module, you can set a different buffer for each Hall. For a small hall, last tickets maybe means only 10 tickets left, while a big hall can still have 100 tickets left and still use the Last tickets status.
The Availability updater can also use this status, and change events to Last tickets when the number of tickets is equal to or lower than the Last tickets buffer (see From sold-out to available with the Event Availability updater).
If you want to use the Last tickets feature, don’t forget to also add the Last tickets status to the Statusses to check in the Availability updater configuration. If you don’t do that, events with status Last tickets will not be checked, and the status will never change to Sold-out.
Updating Cross-Sell event Statuses with the Availability Updater
Usually Cross sell event statuses are updated in the order process. However, this can also be updated manually and scheduled daily. This is especially useful when using a Hybrid ticketing connector.
Cross-sell Availability Updater settings
Go to: Dashboard > System > Control Panel > Status updater cross-sells to set default statuses for Sold out and On sale.
Go to: Dashboard > System > Control Panel > Availability updater cross-sells to select which statuses need to be checked and updated.
Updating prices
Prices of events and cross-sells can be manually updated in their respective modules. Prices will also be automatically updated every night.