An Entrance tells a ticket holder where to enter the Venue. Set up the entrances once for a Venue, then use Entrance flow rules to assign them to hospitality locations, sections, or stands. An event can override the venue's rules.

In this article you will learn how to set up entrances and understand which entrance appears on a ticket

Let's get you started

1. Check the prerequisites
   
2. Create the venue's entrances
   
3. Set the venue's default entrance rules
   
4. Override entrance rules for an event
   
5. Understand how an entrance is chosen for a ticket
   
6. Check tickets and changes
   

Check the prerequisites

You need a Venue Plan with the relevant sections or stands. If you assign entrances to hospitality locations, those locations must also exist. See Venues - Getting Started for the venue setup workflow.

If Entrance flow is missing, ask your administrator whether the module is enabled. A root administrator can find the Entrance flow switch under Admin >> Modules.

Create the venue's entrances

1. Open Calendar >> Venues and select the correct Venue Plan.
   
2. Open Entrance flow.
   
3. In Venue entrance catalogue, click Add.
   
4. Enter the Entrance Description. Add an External ID only if your integration requires one, then click Save.
   
5. Repeat for each entrance that people may use. To edit an existing entrance, select its description in the catalogue.
   

Create the catalogue entries before making assignment rules. The description is the entrance name that the rules can place on a ticket.

Set the venue's default entrance rules

1. On the same Entrance flow page, click Add in the Entrance flow panel.
   
2. Choose the rule Type: a section or stand assignment, or a hospitality location assignment.
   
3. Select the relevant targets and one or more entrances from the catalogue.
   
4. For a section or stand rule, set Zones if the assignment should apply only to particular zones. You can also set a Color.
   
5. Click Save. Select a target in the rule list later to edit or remove its rule.
   

These venue rules apply to events using this Venue Plan, unless a higher-priority rule overrides them. The seating and parking lists also provide a shortcut to edit or add an entrance assignment for a selected item.

Override entrance rules for an event

1. Open Calendar, select the Calendar Item, then open its Venue configuration.
   
2. Check that the correct Venue Plan is selected.
   
3. In the event's Entrance flow panel, click Add.
   
4. Choose the rule Type, its targets, and one or more entrances. For a section or stand rule, set Zones or Color if needed.
   
5. Click Save. Select a target in the list to change or remove an event rule.
   

An event rule applies to that Calendar Item only. It takes priority over the corresponding venue rule when both match the ticket.

Understand how an entrance is chosen for a ticket

iXpole looks at the ticket's selected hospitality location, event, venue, section, stand, and zone. It uses the first applicable source in this order:

1. The Hospitality Location entrance rule, if the ticket has a selected catering or hospitality location. For that location, an event rule takes priority over a venue rule.
   
2. The event's section entrance flow rule.
   
3. The venue's section entrance flow rule.
   
4. A section assignment in the venue plan, with an event-specific version taking priority when one exists.
   
5. A stand assignment in the venue plan, again with an event-specific version taking priority.
   

If no source applies, the entrance is UNKNOWN. A zone-specific rule applies only when its zone condition matches the ticket; without a matching rule, iXpole continues down the order above. A rule can contain several entrances, in which case the ticket value lists their descriptions together.

For example, a ticket in Section A with a venue rule for Entrance North normally uses North. An event rule for Section A changes that event's ticket to its chosen entrance. If the same ticket has a selected hospitality location with an entrance rule, the hospitality entrance takes priority over both section rules.

Note An empty entrance selection in a matching rule can produce a blank value instead of the next fallback. Check the rule itself when a ticket shows no entrance.

Check tickets and changes

The ticket layout can display the resulting entrance with {{Ticket.Entrance}}. See Populating your ticket with data for ticket layout placeholders. Check a ticket from the affected event after saving a rule, especially when zones or hospitality are involved. The expected result is the first applicable entrance in the priority order above.

If automatic replacement on entrance change is enabled under Admin >> Tickets >> Barcodes, changing an entrance can replace eligible tickets and invalidate their old barcodes. A scanned ticket or a ticket with a fixed or external barcode is not eligible for automatic replacement. See Ticket replacement before changing rules for distributed tickets.

If a ticket still shows an unexpected entrance, check in order: its selected hospitality location, the event's rules, the venue's rules, the ticket's section and stand, and the zone. For an externally described ticket, the rendered entrance can also be taken from a five-part external ticket description. Ask your integration owner about that format if it applies to your tickets.

Note Removing a catalogue entrance requires its assignments to be cleared first. Remove or change the rules that use it, then remove the catalogue entry.