Introduction To WordPress And WooCommerce

If you are an event manager and have just discovered FooEvents, you are probably very excited to have found the perfect solution to selling tickets online. You might, however, be new to WordPress and WooCommerce and find the whole mix of software a bit intimidating. Fear not, we have written a short guide that will ensure you know everything you need to know in order to get up and running within minutes.

As you may know, FooEvents is a suite of tools that make it easy to create events, sell tickets, manage attendee check-ins and ensure a well run, professional event. To use FooEvents, you will need to install it on a website that can safely handle ecommerce transactions. To create such a website, we use WordPress and WooCommerce

Introduction to WordPress

WordPress is open source website management software. WordPress is extremely trust worthy and powers an astonishing 29% of all websites ranging from company websites to the biggest online news websites and online stores. WordPress is a self hosted solution meaning you can download a free copy and install WordPress on any compatible website host. If you do not already have a website host, you can find one here. These options come with WordPress pre-installed making setup quick and easy.

WordPress is incredibly well supported with loads of information available on their website and through thousands of tutorials written by the WordPress community. To get started, we have compiled a list of essential how-to guides that will teach you everything you need to know about WordPress:

WordPress Features →
Outline of some of the most popular WordPress features

Installing WordPress →
WordPress is famous for it’s 5-minute installation. This guide will teach you everything you need to know and will have you up and running in no time

First Steps With WordPress →
One you have installed WordPress, take this step-by-step tour through your WordPress site and see how the different functions work and how to make your new site your own

Creating and Using Pages →
Useful overview that will help you setup pages such as your site’s About Us, Contact, Terms of Service, History, Team pages

Change the look of your website →
Using themes you can change the appearance of your website to match your brand’s personality and corporate identity

Add new functionality →
Add custom functions and features to your website using plugins

Additional Resources

Introduction to WooCommerce

Now that you are familiar with WordPress, you will need to install ecommerce functionality that will make it possible to process online transactions. To achieve this FooEvents uses WooCommerce, which is a free ecommerce plugin that powers over 28% of all online stores. WooCommerce will make it possible for your customers to add products to a shopping cart and make payment using various payment gateway options. You will also be able to draw sales reports, view orders, refund orders, create coupons and much, much more.

As is the case with WordPress, WooCommerce is very well documented and even easier to install thanks to their intuitive setup wizard. Here are a few key help guides that will assist when installing and configuring WooCommerce:

Installing WooCommerce →
This guide includes everything you need to know to install and configure WooCommerce. Keep in mind, we are not shipping physical products so be sure to select the options related to a digital/virtual product.

Core Payment Gateways →
WooCommerce comes pre packaged with a number of popular payment gateways. There are also loads of additional payment gateway integration plugins available on their site.

Advanced configuration options (optional) →
In terms of what is possible using WooCommerce we have only scratched the surface. Use this guide to dig deeper and learn more of what is possible using WooCommerce.

Additional Resources

Get started with FooEvents

Following the guides above, you should be able to setup a WordPress website and install WooCommerce. The next step is to add event and ticketing functionality by installing FooEvents on your website. FooEvents essentially adds functionally to a WooCommerce product making it possible to sell tickets rather than standard physical or digital goods. Once installed you can create a product and enable the event specific functionality for that product. The product will essentially be the event information page and every time a customer purchases the product they will receive a ticket to the event.

Install FooEvents

You will need an active FooEvents for WooCommerce license which can be purchased on the FooEvents.com website. The license will give you access to 12 months updates and support. If you plan to use any of the FooEvents extensions, be sure to checkout the bundle options for best value. Once you have purchased a license you will be sent download links via email, however you can also download the plugin Zip files directly from the FooEvents website over here.

Once you have downloaded the core FooEvents plugin files from the FooEvents website, follow these instructions to install the core plugin:

Login to your WordPress Admin Area
Upload the FooEvents plugin. There are two ways you could upload the plugin files:
1. Go to Plugins > Add New in the main menu. Upload the FooEvents plugin zip file
2. Using an FTP client, upload the plugin zip file to the following location on your web server: /wp-content/plugins/
Click on ‘Plugins’ in the main menu
Find the FooEvents for WooCommerce plugin and activate it
Congratulations! The plugin is now installed and ready to be configured for your event

We may also need to install additional FooEvents extensions depending on your businesses specific requirements. You can find out more about the extensions here:

To help make updating your FooEvents plugins quick and easy, we offer an update service that will automatically update your plugin files when a new version is released. To make use of the service, you will need to enter an License Key that can be found on the FooEvents website under the My Account > License Key tab.

Create an event

You are now ready to create your first event! If you need help doing so please follow this guide – Setup an event product

Additional Resources

We hope that you found this post useful and we would love to hear your thoughts so please leave a comment below!