DT Register
- This extension requires registration to download.
- Joomla 1.5 / 1.6 / 1.7 / 2.5 support
- Authorize.net, PayPal, PayPal Pro, Google Checkout, Quickbooks (QBMS), Sage, eWay, Saferpay, PSiGate, USA ePay, iDeal and offline payment options
- Paid and Free events
- Community Builder integration with plugin for showing registration history in the profile
- JomSocial 1.8/2.0 Integration with plugins for showing registration history and activity in the profile
- Auto Joomla user creation options
- Built-in Calendar with OPTIONAL Jevents sync
- Frontend Event Management with extensive permissions structure
- Multiple Event Registration with one payment and cart feature
- Repeating event support
- Event image option for listing and calendar
- Joom!Fish 2.1.x integration
- Frontend User Panel where users can view registration history, edit records, make payments, and cancel registrations
- UNLIMITED Fields giving more capability by far than anything else including fee changes
- Conditional custom fields - display dynamically based on other user field choices
- Auto-generated Confirmation Number with Barcode support
- Prerequisite Events - limit registration based on other events
- Attendance Check
- 4 Status options for each record: Active, Pending, Cancelled, Waiting
- Partial Payment / Deposit support with fixed amounts or minimums
- Archive Management
- Overlapping Date/Time Check to prevent users from double-booking themselves
- Timezone display options
- Private / Public events
- Discount / Promo Codes
- Auto Tax calculation options
- Associate Joomla articles to an event for more details
- Location Manager w/ Google Maps
- Attach files to user confirmation emails
- Two-level Category structure
- Event Copy Function
- Event capacity w/ Waiting List
- Early Bird Discounts and Late Fees
- ability to allow users to upload files
- 8 Color packages of buttons and icons
- Member Discounts ($ amount or %)
- Ability for setting up multiple pay options based on user selection of custom form elements
- Individual and/or Group Registration
- WYSIWYG editor for all customizable messages and emails
- Registration Cut-off and Start Dates
- Terms & Conditions
- Custom Emails to registrants using tags to pull in data (global or event-specific)
- Manual Registration support for offline registrations
- CAPTCHA security images
- Module for listing Upcoming Events
- Plugin for embedding registration links in articles
- Customizable CSV export of records by event(s)
- Translations provided for: Arabic, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
- Free updates for one year!
- Additional paid plugins available for integrating MailChimp & Acajoom newsletters... also for ICS imports from Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook or Mac's iCal.
Don't be fooled by imitators!
I placed support tickets for my issues and the pattern seemed to be that the "easy" ones were answered (selecting-deselecting feature buttons for example) and the others that apparently required a bit more on their part were not.
Based on what I have read here in the review section, any negative responses in this area are immediately answered and defended somehow, so maybe these comments will get someone's attention.
I've since abandoned DT Register in favor on another extension that so far has had great support and even though it isn't everything "out of the box" as is true with DT Register, I am able to implement it more smoothly that the DT Register product.
This user had 4 support issues. Three of them were responded to the same day and dealt with. ONE of them fell through the cracks and did not get answered. It was certainly not intentional. A 1-star for this does not seem fair at all. We have contacted the user and are trying to resolve the remaining issue for them.
I asked some questions regarding how to create certain tiered prices on an event. The developer responded right away and mentioned that we were in need of upgrading the version of DT Register. We did that and immediately after we could no longer access the events portion of the DT Register.
I contacted the developer on 01/24/2012 and have continued to leave desperate messages for help along with the error code that keeps coming up on my site. After 5 messages to him I still have not had a single response.
I would appreciate some response, such as, I'm trying to figure it out...something. But I have not heard anything.
We HAVE been working with this user. The problem they are having has come down to being caused mainly by a poor web host. We are working through some changes to help though. We had been helping this user prior to this review, then there was a long delay in response from their side, then they replied again on a ticket multiple times in the same day and we were not able to get back immediately.
I have found the developer extremely responsive to questions and there is an active support forum for those with questions and suggestions for future improvements.
For me, the product worked "straight out of the box" ... but I have chosen to make some minor cosmetic amendments in the back end to make it even more suitable for my needs.
Thank you for a great extension. I predict it will only get better in the future. :)
some great features that I love:
1. The ability to customize fields to be conditional, this works very well, you can have a drop down list, and based on the selections have other fields appear to give even more selection options.
2. Add price amounts to fields, this is a great feature that i think only DT Register has, so for an event to easily change the price of the event this can be done with one of the custom fields.
3. Great support, any time I have had a problem I have submitted either a help ticket or a forum entry, and if a bug was found a new release was available within days fixing the bug.
We are currently using DT Register on our joomlacamp registration.
I have also used it on synagogue sites, camp fair registration sites and more...
DTH advise the best way to ask for help is via their support ticket system but submitting the form returns "Forbidden Access". This seems to have been happening for a while now. It is very frustrating not being able to communicate with an extension author after they have taken your money.
After receiving no response in the forums for 12 days in regard to a post-purchase Joomla 1.7 plugin compatibility issue, I wrote a follow up post asking if a negative review in JED would help with getting some attention. The follow up post was promptly censored (not cool!) but it did elicit the required response. It turned out that the plugin was not compatible with Joomla 1.7 and the web page was updated fairly quickly to reflect this. DTH Development say they will update the plugin as soon as possible. Thank-you.
The form validation on some of the fields on the add event form was broken and it literally took hours pouring over the forums to figure out the mandatory fields and what was required just to successfully save an event. A new version has been released that apparently fixes these issues. Thank-you.
An event must have an end time and date. This may suit some clients but will not work for all events for my particular client.
To disable registration for a particular event, you must set the "Registration Open Date" to any date after the event. This works, but judging from the number of confused users in the forums, it's not just me that finds this unintuitive.
Installing the new version requires uninstalling the old version. Event data and configuration are preserved but most other extensions I am using these days are happy to be installed over the top of the existing extension.
I try to do my bit with supporting the extensions I use and have fixed broken code in some of the modules and shared the changes back on the forums. Unfortunately this has been ignored and the changes have not been included in the latest release. This means I have to reapply these fixes each time I upgrade the extension.
If you buy a DTH product in good faith expecting it to work out of the box and it doesn't, it would seem reasonable to ask for a refund. Unfortunately, the refund policy on the DTH website states that you have to give them up to 30 days to fix the issue before they will consider issuing a refund. This is not ideal if you want to try a competing product before your project deadline expires.
To be fair, DTH do offer a demo website so you can try out their products before you buy. I saw so many positive reviews here that I didn't try out the demo as thoroughly as I should have. Don't make the same mistake as me.
I suspect that some of these problems are teething issues associated with recent updates for Joomla 1.7 and 2.5. Hopefully the product will settle down again and reflect the majority positive reviews found here.
Hate to see this review, but I appreciate the attempt to be fair :) Couple of comments:
- the ticket system is highly active from both directions every day. Not sure why you are having problems, but we haven't had other reports of that recently.
- the plugin issue mentioned here was not updated for 1.7 as the user said... but to clarify, this is NOT talking about the component DT Register. This portion of the review really should not even be here as it's for a separate plugin. DT Register itself works just fine in 1.7/2.5.
- validation warnings were not showing in the version the user had when saving the event. There are no issues here. Saving an event is simple... issue for this user was not entering a valid start/end date for the event.
- DT Register DOES work out of the box. And whenever an issue comes up, it is quickly resolved. Is it a perfect fit for every site? Of course not. No extension is. However, no other events extension gives the depth that DT does and is as customizable, so it will fit just about any need. Thanks.
DTregister offers front end and backend event management-- which is great for my client, and they find it very intuitive, which makes my life easier.
This component is extremely robust. There is a learning curve if you want to make use of all the amazing features. However, the support network and documentation are right at your fingertips. In fact, the instructions are in your face and it's really only your own fault for not reading if you find a configuration issue.
The interface is well thought out, intuitive and nice looking. There are no weird css issues or ugly screens. You can literally plug it in and go.
The developer takes care with each support ticket, going beyond what most developers will consider. He actually looks into each request in depth. I've never gotten a generic response even when it has been clear that the issue was caused by me not following instructions. Over and above.
Taking advantage of the DTRegister product has given us a much more cost-effective way to do online registrations and increased efficiency since changes to our system are now made in-house.
Most importantly, the system is very intuitive and easy to use. I did experience a certain learning curve initially because I'm not a web developer and the product offers so many options. Although I'm a novice working on websites, it didn't take long for me to get the hang of operating the system and successfully launching our registration pieces.
The DTRegister team has been very attentive to our needs and has done extremely well in facilitating our requests...through the initial set up process and with continuing support.
Thanks to the DT team for your skill and patience!
DT Register is very flexible with multiple ways to pay (paypal, google, visa, check... etc)... and so many ways to customize or use their out of the can reply back to the customer after they register. It does everything I was looking for and a lot more actually.
I would recommend this product without reservation. We used this for our lacrosse tournament and now for our volleyball club.
1. No option to make an event by invite only (our product is customized to private groups). You can make an event public or private (for logged in users) but not specify private access to one event from the others. I had to acquire an additional extension to get around this.
2. Minimum deposit does not calculate per person when using group registration, but does it per group, rendering the group registration feature useless to us. I've request this be amended several times, as have other users, but so far nothing.
3. In records, it shows the "amount" and total "amount paid" but does not keep track of how much has been paid in multiple installments, or when the increments were paid. So, if you (or the client) want to track invoicing dates or increments, there is no way to do it in the Records section. You have to do it through your payment gateway (which won't show you your DT Register Fields) or by saving all the Admin Emails that you can configure to show payment amounts.
4. Waitlist feature is not working on our site. After submitting a ticket, they got it to work by publishing our events in a list view, but our events can’t be published like that. I’ve tried implementing it through other links/access options, but no go. I responded as such, and no response after a week.
5. Frontend CSV Export renders sloppily and also shows fields that aren’t activated for the event (when the default is set to none). This requires me to backtrack edit all events when I make a new field, so that the front end user isn’t confused by irrelevant fields for export. They resolved some of this in a recent update, but have not responded to my follow up request in a month.
6. Perhaps a matter of taste, but the discount code field automatically appears at the top of the registration and cannot be moved to a more discrete or proper locale in the middle or end, like you can with other fields.
In sum, if your needs are such that you want your events to be published to the general public to register, and fees will be paid in one lump sum, without incremental invoicing, DT Register should suit you just fine, and you’ll find many options that you’re likely not to need. Online tutorials are helpful. Expect support to respond quickly and friendly when they have a ready answer or a fix, but if you follow up with a curve ball or something more nuanced to your needs, they’re apt to sit on it for a while. My impression is they are negligent not by passivity, but by being overwhelmed and distracted with constant fixes and joomla upgrades. Expect to have to upload the latest version every month or two, which can be a little tedious if you’ve customized your language file.
If they feel the need to respond to this review, I likewise encourage them to respond to my open tickets.
Update: DT Register does now calculate minimum payments "per registrant" for Group registrations. However, I have found that the CSV export for group registrants (a party of three shows up on 4 lines with 4 names) and the confirmation email (Can't use [all field] populator for groups) are sloppy to the point it's not worth using Group Registrations. So I'm still forcing Individual registrations only.
It was a bit disappointing to see this review as we have helped this user many times, even when the issues were due to his setup and not an actual DT Register problem. To address his points:
1) Correct, there is no invitation only event feature. This is something that is coming, but not there yet as of today... nor is it found in other extensions. The options we do have already go beyond what you'll find elsewhere. Should we be reviewed negatively for a feature we don't have that we never said was there to begin with??
2) The discount code applying to each person in the group is on "the list" and will most likely be in the next major update. We add new features and improvements VERY often, but we haven't done the one this user wants for a good reason. We are making numerous improvements on the group registration side that will be an even better improvement, instead of just messing with this one item.
3) True, the backend doesn't keep track of installments. Other components don't even allow partial payments to begin with so what we DO have is much better and further along than the next option. Groundwork has been laid for a record history view so that will be coming too.
4) Waiting list feature works just fine. It wasn't working for this user as he wasn't using it quite right. We've clarified this for him.
5) The frontend CSV export issue being "sloppy" is due to his template. Not a DT Register problem. This feature works just fine for others.
6) The discount code can be moved to the bottom of the registration form by modifying one file. He never asked us about this so we didn't even know he wanted this.
Regarding frequent updates, we don't apologize for that. We say "You're welcome". We don't make people wait 6 months for the next update to get a fix for an issue. We make regular updates to make sure people have access to the best package available. About the language file... no worries. The upgrade instructions cover this and it's easy to upgrade and keep your language modifications.
This user has no unanswered tickets. He has MANY solved and closed tickets and had two that were pending (but not as long pending as stated here). We work hard to help everyone in a timely manner. As the title of this review says "not all things to all people"... of course it isn't. No extension is. DT Register is by far the most extensive of what is available and will cover 99% of what you can throw at it. Anything beyond that, we'll work with you and try to get it added ASAP... which shows in the fact that we have such regular updates. It's not just fixes but frequent addition of new features! :) Read the rest of the reviews below and you'll see DT Register is really the only way to go!
Pros:
* Very comprehensive
* Easily customizable
* Numerous payment options, including PayPal Pro!
* Handles complex fee considerations
* Nathan provides very good support
* While it's not exactly cheap ($75), it's a LOT of component for the money, especially for a component that you're trusting for ecommerce.
* YouTube training videos.
Cons:
* There's a significant learning curve for this component.
* While version 2.7.9 is stable, earlier versions of 2.7.x had enough bugs to be problematic. Make sure you check the vendor's site regularly for upgrades.
Overall, if you have events that require complex registration forms, DT Register is the only way to go.
Cons: DTRegister uses its own permissions structure and from what I've read will not be adopting the new permissions framework in J1.6+. Not a deal-breaker, but it would be nice.
Also, a small annoyance in that once you create your event, the event title and the start and end dates/times cannot be changed. If you have an event that gets rained-out or otherwise rescheduled, you have to create a new event, transfer the registrations over to it, and then delete the old event.
Support: The few times I've had to submit a ticket, response has been prompt and issues adequately solved.
Ease of use: There are so many options that if you are a newer user it may be daunting. However, everything is clearly explained, and though it may take a bit of time for you to set up your first event from scratch, nothing about it is difficult.
Purpose: I manage a Community Tennis Association and use DTRegister to offer online registrations for local tournaments and other events.
Experience with Joomla: I've built CMS based websites for 8 years and have used Joomla since its inception.
Final thoughts: Don't let software with lesser functionality cause you to make un-necessary trade-offs in how you run your events, just go with this one. It's worth it.
Thank you for detailed review! However, I do need to address a couple items that are NOT correct:
- DT Register DOES tie in with the new 1.6/1.7 user group structure. It does have its own permissions structure that gives you MORE control than you get with Joomla by itself. This is not a con but a pro! And any customizations you make to the user group structure can be synced up with DT Register's permissions.
- To say that you can not change the title/date of an event is also completely false. I'm really surprised you didn't just ask us about this one :) In DT Register, you have the OPTION to sync your events with the JEvents calendar. If you do not and run everything directly in DT Reg (preferred), then the event details are clearly able to be change at anytime. If you choose to sync with JEvents, the title and date are pulled from JEvents so you have to change them there. But we have a plugin that then pulls the changes from JEvents and applies them to that synced event in DT Register.
So the only two negative items mentioned in this review are actually misunderstandings of the user. Thanks.
