You can now offer to add event tickets and membership cards to Apple Wallet on iPhone.
Cameo supports this with:
- a new wallet form type, and
- a new substitution
{insert: add to wallet}.
Google also has a similar wallet on Android. We do not support this yet, but expect to do so at some point, especially if take-up on Apple Wallet is positive.
Contents
Background
Usually, you send tickets to events by email, which include barcodes. Scan these with the check.in app to let them in and mark them as used.
You can send a membership card as an email attachment. This can also include a barcode which opens a page on your website which confirms the status of their membership. For example, this allows members to obtain discounts that you have negotiated with retailers.
Passes in Apple Wallet provides another mechanism to do both of these. This includes presenting the same barcodes. It has a number of advantages:
- Tickets and cards are stored on the phone, so if a location does not have internet access, the passes can still be retrieved.
- Passes are easy to find. They don’t require searching through email. Notifications automatically send you to the pass when the time of an event approaches, or (in future) when nearing the event’s location.
- Scanning should work more reliably than from email, as the screen is automatically brightened.
- Passes are harder to forge. They are digitally signed.
Apple passes are only usable on iPhone (and iPod Touch, and also Apple Watch when used in conjunction with an iPhone). However, it is also possible to click the button on a Mac, which will add the pass to the account’s linked iPhone. All other platforms receive an error message if someone tries it.
Add to Wallet button
The process starts with an Add to Apple Wallet button in an email:
For tickets, the button should appear in the ticket email near the existing barcodes. For membership cards, it would appear in enrolment and renewal confirmation emails (the same templates where you might include a membership card attachment).
Insert this button with the {insert: add to wallet} substitution. Newly generated ticket templates include this as standard. You would need to add it to existing templates.
On its own, this substitution inserts nothing. For it to work, you also need to supply the URL of a page on your website where the button takes them when tapped. Add this URL to organisation settings → organisation details. That page should embed a new wallet form. The form needs a personalised link to work; that is what the button provides.
If and when we support Google Wallet, another button would automatically appear alongside. The same can service both Apple and Google wallets in future.
Wallet form
The wallet form type (Fig 5) provides a simple form which responds to a personalised link to generate the appropriate kind of pass. The personalised link identifies which email it came from. That in turn knows whether it is a ticket email or not. If it is a ticket email, it knows which booking it refers to.
When the tickets or membership card are ready (it doesn’t take long), the form presents a button to add each pass to the wallet (Fig 5: 1). In principle, for multiple tickets, it should be possible to add them all at once. Unfortunately there is currently a bug in iPhone where this doesn’t work properly. However, Apple Wallet groups tickets for the same date and opens them together, so getting at the next barcode is a simple swipe (Fig 2).
additional resources
The pass automatically includes most of the details needed from the booking and event details, for a ticket, and from the membership record for a membership card. For tickets, this includes the thumbnail picture for the event if you have one (Fig 2).
However you need to provide a couple of additional images, as form settings, for the form to include in the pass. These will be URLs referencing images, typically in your media library. You can choose them (and upload them, where available) with the usual image selector.
- An icon, typically a simplified, square organisation logo (Fig 5: 2). Apple Wallet uses it very small in any notifications associated with the pass. The form samples it to be the size needed by the pass.
- A somewhat larger logo for your organisation (Fig 5: 3). This appears at the top of the pass (Fig 1, 2, and 3). It may be rectangular, so might include your organisation’s name in the image where appropriate. Alternatively, you can include the organisation name as text using the relevant setting (Fig 5: 4). In that case, the logo needs to be smaller, perhaps square, to allow space for the text. Again, we sample it to the required size, 50 pixels high.
For membership cards, you should also provide a further URL, the location on your website where the status form is located (Fig 5: 5). That URL is embedded in the QR Code and is where they would be directed when it is scanned.
The wallet form sets pass colours from the style set for forms, in forms → colour scheme and style.