09. Box Office - Entry Points

Launch box office mode from the admin panel, deep link to specific events or customers, and manage the box office session lifecycle.

Box office mode is launched from the admin panel and opens in the ticket shop. The transition between admin and shop is handled through a secure signed URL that authenticates the staff member and optionally deep links them to a specific event, customer, or order.

There are several ways to start a box office session from the admin panel:

1. Navigate to the event you want to sell

2. Click Sell event in the event actions

This launches box office and navigates directly to that event's ticket selection page.

The Sell event button is only visible when the staff member has the Sell items permission on the event. It is disabled if the event is in the past or is not on sale.

1. Click Enter box office in the admin panel

This launches box office at the shop homepage, where the staff member can browse all available events.

1. Open a customer's profile in the admin panel

2. Click Open in box office

This launches box office with that customer pre-assigned to the session. A confirmation prompt appears: "Begin box office for \[name]? Beginning a new Box Office Order for \[name] will start a new Box Office Session with an empty basket. Any current baskets you have in Box Office will be lost."

Starting a new box office session clears any existing box office basket. If you need to keep your current basket, use the same session rather than launching a new one.

When launching box office, optional parameters control where the staff member lands and what context is pre-loaded:

These parameters can be combined - for example, launching box office for a specific event with a pre-assigned customer.

New in Release 45

When launching box office, an Advanced connection settings section lets you choose which domain to open box office on. By default, the primary shop URL is used, but if your company has custom URLs configured, you can select an alternative domain from the dropdown.

This is useful when the primary domain is behind an external waiting room, firewall, or other DNS-level restrictions that would interfere with box office access. Selecting an alternative domain lets staff bypass these restrictions without affecting the public shop configuration.

When box office is launched:

1. The admin panel generates a signed URL that is valid for 1 minute

2. The staff member is redirected to the shop domain using this URL

3. The shop validates the signature and creates a box office session

4. The staff member's admin account is authenticated in the shop

The session is stored server-side and persists until the staff member exits or the session is invalidated.

On every page load within box office, the system checks that:

• The staff member is still logged in

• The staff member still has access to the company

If either check fails, the box office session is automatically terminated and the staff member is redirected back to the admin panel.

A staff member can only have one active box office session at a time. Starting a new session ends the previous one.

If a staff member tries to view the public shop while a box office session is active, a warning appears: "Viewing the site will end any active Box Office sessions in other tabs or windows. If you wish to keep any current Box Office sessions, you can Copy the Shop URL and use that on a different web browser or device."

Box office can reactivate expired or reserved orders, allowing staff to complete a sale that timed out:

1. Launch box office with an order parameter (typically from the admin order view via Open in box office)

2. The system checks that the order is either reserved or expired

3. The order's expiry time is refreshed and items are restocked if they were previously released

4. The staff member is taken directly to the payment step to complete the order

Order reactivation only works for orders that are in a reserved or expired state. Completed or cancelled orders cannot be reactivated.

To leave box office mode:

1. Click Exit box office in the shop navigation

This ends the box office session and redirects back to the admin panel - specifically, to the page the staff member was on before launching box office.

If the basket has an active reservation, exiting box office will expire it. The exit link warns: "Exiting the box office will expire your active reservation."

Overview of box office mode and key differences from the public shop

The modified checkout process including customer assignment