Creating A Gate Control Batch

 

Creating a Gate Control Batch is the first step to setting up scanning in Agile. Gate Control Batches record crucial data concerning how many people actually show up at your gates. This metric can help sponsors, board members, or other decision makers understand the impact of your event. There are a couple types of Gate Control Batches you can use, depending on what kind of internet connection you expect to have at your event and what you hope scanning will achieve. Some organizations sell or validate tickets in real time, and others save their scans to their devices and review their results after the event ends. Follow the steps below to learn how to set up a Gate Control Batch that is right for your organization.

 

1. Log in to Administration.

2. Click the House icon . Open the Gate Control folder and select the Gate Control Batch icon.

3. Right-click in the Gate Control Batch area and select the type of batch you want to create. For this example, we will be creating an event batch, so we will select New Event Batches.

4. In the Batch Type drop-down, you will see three different validation types.

• Live Validation allows scans to be recorded immediately in the software. You must be connected to the Internet to use this validation type. Note: If you want to sell tickets off your scanner, your Batch must be set to Live Validation, and you must have tickets set up for an active Gate Control Scanned Entry Sales Channel.
• On-Device Validation allows you to scan and validate tickets once you have downloaded your barcodes to the devices that will be scanning. For this procedure, you will need to be connected to the Internet. On your scanning device, once the event has been selected, you will be prompted to download your data. If you are not prompted, select Settings and then choose Download. The device will then let you know how many barcodes have been downloaded. Once the data is downloaded, the device will validate those specific barcodes as you scan. Any ticket sold after the download will work the same way as the On-Device Record validation type below. Once finished scanning, you will need to upload the barcodes back into Agile. You will need to connect to the Internet, go to your Settings, and select Upload. The barcode data will then be uploaded into Agile and you will be able to pull reports.
• On-Device Record allows you to scan and track validation without having to connect to the Internet. The scans are stored on the individual device until you can have the scanner connected to the Internet. Once connected to the Internet, you will then be able to download all the scan data into Agile.

You may also add some optional scan behaviors:

• Enable Rescan Prompt: This checkbox allows you to choose whether or not to readmit tickets that have already been scanned. If you want tickets that have already been scanned to be automatically denied, you can uncheck this box.
  
  • What does this look like? When the Rescan Prompt is enabled, and a ticket is scanned a second time, the mobile scanner will flash yellow and prompt the user to admit or deny the ticket. When this box is not checked and a ticket is scanned a second time, the scanner will flash red and deny the ticket.
• Enable Multi-Validation: This checkbox allows you to validate all the tickets in an order after scanning just one ticket.
  • What does this look like? When Multi-Validation is enabled, and a ticket is scanned, the AgileTIX Scanning app will ask if you want to validate one, some, or all of the tickets on the order. Confirm how many members of the customer's party are present with them at the gate, and then select the appropriate option. Agile will automatically validate that number of tickets on the order.
  • Is this the right setting for you? There are pros and cons to enabling Multi-Validation. The primary benefit of Multi-Validation is that validating all the tickets on an order can help you quickly bust large ticket lines. The drawback of Multi-Validation is that if you accidentally validate tickets before their holders appear at your gates, then when they do appear their tickets will scan as invalid. Before you enable Multi-Validation, please be mindful of whether you have any sponsors or purchasers that might distribute mass quantities of tickets to second parties, as accidental validation of all their tickets at once could cause headaches for you and these patrons.

 

For this exercise, we will create a Live Validation batch.

5. Open the Organization Tree in the top half of the screen and select the Sales Folder where your event is located. In the lower half of the screen, you will see a list of events in that folder. Select the event for which you'd like to create a batch. Then click on OK to save the event batch. Note: If you shift- or control-click and select more than one event here, then a batch will be created for each event.

6. To open the batch for scanning, first select Show All in the drop-down menu. This will let you view all batches in your domain regardless of their date or open/close status. (If Show All is not selected, it's likely you won't be able to view the batch(es) you've just created.)

7. Right-click the event batch and select Open. 

This batch will now be available on mobile scanners and POS's for ticket validation.