A Case Study
Veezi Cinema Plugin
A Custom Plugin
Veezi Cinema Plugin
Contracted By:
An Integration that syncs the Cinema Ticketing Platform, Veezi to WordPress.
Achieved with
The Brief
Rome Capitol Arts Center had recently rebuilt their website with WordPress, which we commend them for. WordPress was chosen for it’s ease of use and content management capabilities. Unfortunately in business there’s rarely a single tool that allows you to jump every hurdle. The Theater uses the Veezi Ticketing platform for Show time management and online ticket sales. The problem was, Veezi and WordPress didn’t speak to each other. This lack of communication was causing duplication of work, which in turn was causing an increase in operational cost. Keep reading to find out how we helped Rome Capitol Arts Center solve this problem and increase their bottom line.
The Requirements
Create a WordPress Plugin that:
- Pulls movie titles, show times, trailers, poster art, synopsis, ticket purchase links and actors into WordPress
- Create new entries if the movies doesnt’ already exist.
- Update entries that have changed or been updated on Veezi.
- Scheduled Polling
- Movie Poster Rotator/Slider
- Update Theme to display custom data
- Testing/Debugging and Support
The Strategy
We knew this project would be a custom plugin. Avoiding placing code within the theme to ensure it was as future proof as possible.
Aside from that the Strategy was to review the capabilities of the Veezi API. Code a Plugin complete with Options page to provide a little customization. Implement a custom CRON schedule, Create a Custom Post Type with custom fields to match the data returned by the API. Using some javascript, implement a slider that can be inserted via a custom short code. And finally, integrate all the custom information into the Theme currently installed on RomeCapitol.com
The Solution
We began reviewing the Veezi API documentation to ascertain the viable calls and information that we could retrieve from the system. From here we decided to develop a wrapper class based on each method the API exposed with getter and setter functions for each variable value returned by said method. This was done to make the overall integration easier to maintain and provide structure to the code.
A Custom Post Type was also created, along with custom fields to store the movie data in WordPress. The Wrapper class really sped up this process immensely. We added a few custom query variables via the WordPress hooks system, as well as the WP_Query to assist with the sorting of showtimes. Advanced Custom Fields was a HUGE time saver here. WE LOVE the Advanced Custom Fields plugin!
Importing one movie at time manually, we built up a custom CRON event. And then hooked that to a schedule as requested by Rome Capitol.
Finally we would move on the add all information to the templates for front end display and with a little help from javascript create a custom movie slider.
The Results
After some testing, debugging and code rattling we achieved the goal. It. Was. Alive! Running on a set schedule and working as expected. While we did have a few hiccups along the way the overall project was a complete success and has saved the guys over at Rome Capitol Theater a lot of time!
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