Scan Tickets Fast on Multiple Platforms!

Irish-based company, a leading independent provider of ticketing services, created a cloud-based access control system which lets event organizers download a file containing the ticket barcodes for their particular event. They needed a quick and effective solution to scan those barcodes on different platforms and provide solid statistics on the number of patrons entering events; both with tickets, and without tickets; such as children who may be accompanying their parents.

First published: February 27, 2017

The Need

Irish-based company, a leading independent provider of ticketing services, created a cloud-based access control system which lets event organizers download a file containing the ticket barcodes for their particular event. They needed a quick and effective solution to scan those barcodes on different platforms and provide solid statistics on the number of patrons entering events; both with tickets, and without tickets; such as children who may be accompanying their parents.

Beside simple camera scanning mode, the bluetooth scanner, Saveo, was chosen as the scanning device, so the app should have supported the attached device for ticket validation.

They turned to Softjourn and were open to a cross-platform option, so the app would work great on both iOS and Android.

The Solution

Domain and technology expertise

Softjourn's team has been assisting ticketing and event management vendors for over 10 years, delivering many projects at both the functional and system levels. We've also developed a wide range of mobile apps for ticket validation and patron data management. Based on our previous expertise in developing ticketing apps as well as cross-platform recent interest we were able to assist the customer with their cool new project!

Solution suggestions

Our team suggested to go with React Native technology, as we had been using it more and more recently and found that it facilitated fast and efficient cross-platform development. Enabling our developers to create new native apps with full compatibility without increasing the budget for building two separate apps.

The value of the app

The app was fully integrated with the customer`s access control system enabling not only ticket validation, but also the gathering of door/gate/event statistics, the usage of both in & out scan mode and handling the lookup of barcodes.

When the camera mode was off and the Saveo scanner connected, it was automatically activated and ready to scan, transfer the value into the app input field. and validate the ticket.

In addition the app supports different access levels and permissions for different events (e.g. a user may be working the door for three events, but for one he is only able to scan in, for other to scan in/out, and for the last only to see reports and statistics).

Technologies&Tools

• Language: React Native
• Development tool: Nuclide, Xcode
• Project Management tools: Assembla
• Mobile Devices: iOS 8,9; Android 5,6
• Scanner device: Saveo

The Benefits

As a result, the access control app scans approximately 30 tickets per minute using continuous mode. The event manager doesn`t have to switch on the camera for each ticket validation. Our team has also created the attendee counter mode which enables the validation and counting of a group of people, for example, when there is one adult and child.

App features include:

• Upload barcodes to scan tickets for events
• Multi-event ready
• Multiple user levels
• Control access by zone or area
• Scans 1D and 2D barcodes, including QR codes
• Scan in and scan out
• Add additional attendees with the click of a button

It was interesting to work on this project! We used the latest solutions from iOS and Android sdk for camera scanning and barcode recognition, which improved performance significantly. It was challenging to make it work fast on both platforms and still enable the scanning of different types of QR and barcodes! – Dariy D., Software Engineer at Softjourn