SMS verification is used as an extra security layer for secure tickets. It makes sure that the SMS code that unlocks the e-tickets is sent to the mobile telephone number that was used during the ticket order process, making sharing of e-tickets more difficult for scalpers.
Currently we only support the SMS verification service of Bird. More partners may follow in the future.
SMS Setup in Bird
Create a Bird account
Log in or create a new Bird account at https://app.bird.com/auth/login
Run through the process using the following options:
In this screen, select “Development APIs”
Choose “Direct integration”
Choose “APIs”
Choose “OTP”
Choose “SMS”
You should be done with the account process
Add balance to your wallet
In order to send SMS, you need money in your wallet. Follow the link “Add balance to your wallet”
Add an amount and run through the payment process. For an initial test, make sure you move a couple of euro’s into your wallet.
SMS costs roughly 8 cents, so make sure you have enough balance for you presale. If you sold the event to 400 visitors, all having bought 2 tickets, expect at least 400 SMS to be sent, potentially more.
Creating a workspace
Go to “settings” in the lower left corner. On the main screen, select “Workspaces” to create a new workspace
Add a new workspace. Give it any name that makes sense to you.
Click the “edit” icon to open the workspace settings pop-up.
Copy the Workspace ID. We need that in the CultureSuite Dashboard later so paste it somewhere in a document for later.
Create an API key
Go to the “developer” section (the blue icon) and select “API Access Keys”
Create a new API key
Give the key a name, and check the box “Verify API access”
Copy the key from the pop-up screen. We need that in the CultureSuite Dashboard later so paste it somewhere in a document for later.
Set up an SMS Channel
Go to the “development” tab (blue icon), and in the SMS menu section, select “SMS setup”
Click the blue “Setup SMS channel” button.
Select the country of operation and click “continue”
Select “Authentication”
In the field “Alphanumeric”, fill in a sender name you like to use people to see when receiving your SMS (max 11 characters). Click “continue”
Check the box at the bottom of the screen and select “finish”
Your SMS channel should now be set up. Click “view number”.
You will be taken to your SMS channel. As you can see the channel is inactive because Bird needs some extra information. Click the little arrow in the box that says “inactive”
You need to provide your brand information and Compliance. These are two forms you need to fill out.
Open the Brand Identification form. Fill in your company data in the form and click “submit”
The second compliance form will open after finishing the previous step.
- Select usecase “2FA” (this means 2 factor authentication)
- Fill out the description. Use something like “We will send a code by SMS to unlock e-tickets
- Provide an example message. This does’nt need to be exact, as CultureSuite manages the message text when sending. Just fill in “This is your code [code]” as an example of what kind of SMS you will be sending.
- Click “create useCase”
You are now done with this process. The Channel will not immediately be live, as the compliance forms need to be processed. This will probably take a couple of hours or even a day in rare occasions.
This is normal. When you click the “1 error reported” you can see the status of the channel.
Tip
If you want to allow SMS sending to visitors with “foreign” phone numbers (Belgium, Germany, etc), you can add new destinations by selecting “manage number”, select the “SMS” tab and click “add destination”. For each destination a separate compliance process will start automatically.
You will see the compliance step is not yet finished, so you can’t send outbound SMS yet.
After a short while (hopefully), you will notice the channel has been approved.
You can find all your SMS channels under “developer” > “sms setup”
You should see the newly created SMS channel. Click on the channel to open it.
Click the “settings” icon
In the pop-up, find the Channel ID. Copy it. We need that in the CultureSuite Dashboard later so paste it somewhere in a document for later.
Send a test SMS
In the “developer” menu, go to step 3 “Send your first SMS
Select your Alphanumerical Sender label, fill in your mobile phone number for a test and click “Send test SMS”
happy days!
API settings in CultureSuite CMS
- Create a new API connection in the “API Connections” module in the “system” section of your CultureSuite CMS
- Type is “Messaging”
- Group is “messagebird”
- Keyname/subkeyname should stay “default”
- URL should always be https://api.bird.com
- Fill in your workspace_id
- Fill in your API key
- Fill in your channel_id
- Save
Activating SMS validation per event
You are all set here, ready to use SMS verification. Good to know:
- Make sure your event has the setting “SMS verification” checked. Visitors will be prompted to enter their mobile number during the order process.
- You also can change the “Max tickets per order” here for the event.
- Set the checkbox “Secure e-tickets” if you want to disable direct e-ticket access from the email link by asking the visitor to log into their account. This also enables the option to show the e-tickets only just before the start of the event.
- Find the availability time setting for this in Control Panel > E-tickets
Activating Dynamic barcodes
Ovatic set-up
- In Ovatic, the event needs to have the option “smart tickets” activated.
- In your CultureSuite dashboard, The “Smart Tickets Integrator Secret” needs to be configured. You can get a secret from Ovatic. This is unique for each website. Configure the secret in /dashboard?cat=control_panel&action=check&module_code=OVATIC_CONNECTOR
- In the same module, configure the “Smart Tickets Origin Identifier” you can also get from Ovatic.
Itix set-up
- In your CultureSuite dashboard, The “Smart Tickets Integrator Secret” needs to be configured. You can get the secret from Itix. Configure the secret in /dashboard?cat=control_panel&action=check&module_code=ITIX_CONNECTOR
- In Itix the option “Secure tickets” needs to be set.
Test
- Create a test event, make sure you update the prices in CultureSuite
- Make sure you activate the Dynamic barcode setting in your ticketing system (see above)
- Make sure you check “SMS verification” on the event in your CultureSuite CMS
- Don’t check “Secure e-tickets” just jet. You want to be able to access the barcode and SMS for the first test
- Purchase the event. You will be prompted to add your mobile number, or if you already have one, you can update it.
- Open the e-tickets in your account
- Test the SMS service
- Check if barcodes are dynamic
- Now check the box “Secure tickets” in the CultureSuite CMS (Don’t forget to set the “availability time” in Control Panel > E-tickets)
- Confirm the E-tickets are no longer accessible
- Set the “available time” higher so e-tickets should be available now (if the event is tomorrow, set “available time” to 2000 minutes to make sure tickets should be available by now)
- Confirm SMS verification is now accessible
In case of calamities
In case of a rare emergency when sending SMS fails during the start of the event (like the SMS service is offline), you can always uncheck the “SMS verification” on the event to disable the SMS verification process entirely. Only use in the rare occasion that the SMS service is not working. This should never happen, but it is reassuring to know the option exists.