7. Book selected seats

So you've shown your ticket buyer a floor plan, they selected the seats they wish. Now it's time to actually book them, so that they become unavailable for selection for the next ticket buyer that comes along.

You do this by calling the book objects endpoint of the Seats API. Here are some examples using the respective server-side SDKs you can use:

PHP

use Seatsio\Region;
use Seatsio\SeatsioClient;

$seatsioClient = new SeatsioClient(Region::EU(), <WORKSPACE SECRET KEY>); // You can find this key at https://app.seats.io/workspace-settings
$result = $seatsioClient->events->book("event1", ["A-3", "A-5", "A-7"]);

C#

using SeatsioDotNet;

var Client = new SeatsioClient(Region.EU, "<WORKSPACE SECRET KEY>"); // You can find this key at https://app.seats.io/workspace-settings
var result = await Client.Events.BookAsync("event1", new [] { "A-3", "A-5", "A-7" });

Java

import seatsio.SeatsioClient;
import seatsio.Region;

SeatsioClient client = new SeatsioClient(Region.EU, "<WORKSPACE SECRET KEY>");  // You can find this key at https://app.seats.io/workspace-settings
ChangeObjectStatusResult result = client.events.book("event1", List.of("A-3", "A-5", "A-7"));

Python

import seatsio

client = seatsio.Client(seatsio.Region.EU(), secret_key="my-workspace-secret-key") # You can find this key at https://app.seats.io/workspace-settings
result = client.events.book("event1", ["A-3", "A-5", "A-7"])

Ruby

require 'seatsio'

client = Seatsio::Client.new(Seatsio::Region.EU(), "my-workspace-secret-key") # You can find this key at https://app.seats.io/workspace-settings
result = client.events.book('event1', ['A-3', 'A-5', 'A-7'], '8AWOqZZTz5')

Javascript

import { SeatsioClient, Region } from 'seatsio'

let client = new SeatsioClient(Region.EU(), <WORKSPACE SECRET KEY>) // You can find this key at https://app.seats.io/workspace-settings
let result = client.events.book('eventKey', ['A-3', 'A-5', 'A-7']);

Seats held by the ticket buyer

If the seats are held (i.e. you passed in session when rendering the chart), you need to include the hold token when booking the seats. seats.io verifies whether the seats were held by that token, to prevent other ticket buyers from snatching them.

PHP

$result = $seatsioClient->events->book("event1", ["A-3", "A-5", "A-7"], "8AWOqZZTz5");

C#

var result = await Client.Events.BookAsync("event1", new [] { "A-3", "A-5", "A-7" }, "8AWOqZZTz5");

Java

ChangeObjectStatusResult result = client.events.book("event1", List.of("A-3", "A-5", "A-7"), "8AWOqZZTz5");

Python

result = client.events.book("event1", ["A-3", "A-5", "A-7"], "8AWOqZZTz5")

Ruby

res = client.events.book('event1', ['A-3', 'A-5', 'A-7'], '8AWOqZZTz5')

Javascript

client.events.book('eventKey', ['A-3', 'A-5', 'A-7'], '8AWOqZZTz5');

Watch the response

You'll want to issue tickets. You can get the necessary information from the response of the book call. Things like: the category of the seats, the section they're in, the row and seat number, the floor, entrance, etc.

When should I book?

The answer is simple and complex at the same time: "whenever is appropriate in your sales flow".

For example, you could call the seats.io API to book seats right before you collect their payment. Or you could pre-book some seats for VIPs before you even open up ticket sales.

For a more in-depth discussion on this topic, check this page.

Live updates

Whenever you change availability for a seat, we will push out this change to everyone who has the floor plan for your event open in their browser, in near real-time.

In other words: you can look at the seats on a floor plan as a collection of on/off switches, controllable via the REST API. You decide when you switch seats on and off, and by doing so, everyone who is looking at the floor plan will see the availability changes happening live.

Custom statuses

There's more than just 'booking' a seat. You can use your own statuses (i.e. other than BOOKED) as well, read more here.