The Event Trip Tool supports Smart Trip Planning for events. Companies and event managers may customize the TripProximity Trip Tool for use with any event page, any blog or any enterprise system that lists/aggregates events being conducted on specific dates.
For the dynamic version of the event trip tool, you will pass the variables to us at run, customizing literally hundreds of thousands of events with one dynamic event tool.
Here is a sample script from one of our clients:
<script type=”text/javascript”>if ($(‘#tp-widget’).html() == ”) { tripWidget({eventStart: ‘YYYY/MM/DD’,eventEnd: ‘YYYY/MM/DD’,headerText: ‘Plan your trip to ‘,appendPOI: ‘Y’,poiName: ‘Ed Sheeran Concert at San Diego Civic Center‘,address: ‘3rd Ave & B St, San Diego, CA, United States‘,trackingCode: ‘45048_Event8‘,imageUrl: ‘http://tripproximity.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/sandiegociviccenter.jpg‘,imageLink: ‘https://sandiegotheatres.org/‘}) }</script>
In the above script, their data has already been passed using a variable name from their system that translates into the data that you see.
Please note, if your system uses a different date format from our default date format, you will need to tell us the date format you are using so we can convert it accordingly.
The Parameters
There are several parameters that must be passed to the dynamic event trip tool to operate correctly. These must be rendered in the web page as JSON data dictionary within an HTML script tag. The JavaScript variable name must be set to widgetVars.
If the trip tool is being used for a system that has multiple events, you will substitute the VARIABLE NAMES in the dynamic event widget with the correct data from your event page for the event at transaction time.
For details on each of the supported variables for the tool, see the Venue Setup instructions. For the unique event date variables, please reference “The Event Trip Tool Variables” below.
Single Events – Static Version
The Smart Trip Tool for events can be hard coded with a single event’s information, which is done using our TripProximity Portal. Anyone can register for TripProximity using the GET STARTED tab on http://www.tripproximity.com.
Once built and customized, the tool can be embedded in your website or hosted on our site if you don’t have a website.
Multiple Events – Dynamic Version
For an organization that has multiple events or that lists/aggregates events, you can use our dynamic event widget by checking the “Need a dynamic implementation?” box. This is displayed once you enter the location where you will be installing the tool on your site. We need this URL in order to properly support you and assist with testing.
The following event date parameters govern how the check-in and check-out dates work for hotel, the pickup and drop-off dates work for car, and the arrival and departure dates work for air.
The variable name must be followed by a colon : and the variable will be ensconced in straight, plain quotation marks.
Other Dynamic Venue Variables
Since events take place at venues, you can also customize the venue variables. Following are the variables that can be entered into your script and can be populated at run time.
| Function | Variable Name | Purpose and example | Enterpr. Variable | Mandatory | Description |
| Widget Header Text | headerText | Widget title that appears in a transparent container above the widget. headerText: “Plan your trip to “, | Y | Y | This can also be a more complete description of an event or venue, in which case you would ensure that the append poi flag is set to N. This flag is controlled in the Portal as a default in the setup of your widgets, but can also be included as a variable. |
| Short Name (venue or event) | poiName | Name of the venue to appear as “I need a hotel near” and also on the booking results page (as the POI and the “0.1 miles away from POI NAME” field for each hotel listed. poiName: ‘Billy Joel Concert’, | Y | Y | This should be the short version of the name of the venue. |
| Combine Header Text and Venue or Event Name | appendPOI | Append the POI to the widget title. appendPOI: ‘Y’, | N | N | This is set as a default in the base widget in the TripProximity Portal. If set to Yes, the header text and poi_name will be appended. |
| Image | imageUrl | The URL for the image on the graphical widget. imageUrl: ‘https://onpointexecutivecenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/offices.jpg’, | Y | N | Optional. If you do not have your own image, the default image is the Where Should I Stay button from TripProximity. Your image can be up to 350 pixels tall and up to 670 pixels wide. |
| Image Link | imageLink | The URL for the link from the image. imageLink: ‘https://www.solutionz.com’, | Y | N | This is the link for where the user will go when they click on the image. The link can take you to any other website, blog, page represented by a URL. |
| Branding | refId | This field determines the branding on the booking back end header and footer. In this example, this is the code for theHotelsNearby. refId: 6832, | Y | Y | The default is 6832 for the TripProximity brand. There are a number of optional niche brands available. See the portal. |
| Branding | refClickid2 | This allows you to choose one of our niche brands, coupled with the use of refid 6832. refClickId2: ‘hotelsbycompanies’, | Y | Y | If the refid is set to 6832 to take advantage of one of our brands, you would use the refClickID2 from the full brand list, see the portal. |
| Tracking | trackingCode | Your internal tracking code for your customers or business segments. trackingCode: ‘HDQ’, | Y | Y | Can be up to 50 characters, alpha-numeric |
| Latitude | latitude | The numeric latitude of the location | Y | Y | If you provide the lat/long, you will not need an address. Example: 28.4203991 |
| Longitude | longitude | The numeric longitude of the location | Y | Y | If you provide the lat/long, you will not need an address. Example: -81.502967799999968 |
| Address | address | If no geographic coordinates are provided these parameters will be used to calculate the proximity for the hotel search. address: ‘118 Rue du 4 Septembre, Paris’, | Y | N | Optional if geographic coordinates were provided. For enterprise clients, this field can contain the entire address (see example), or can be just the street address if you are using city, state/province, postcode. |
| Address | city | The address must be searchable on Google Maps API in order to result in a valid search. city: ‘Atlanta’ | Y | Y | Only mandatory if you do NOT use the entire address as the override in the %address% variable field. |
| Address | state | The state or province for US or Canadian addresses. | Y | N | Optional (initial lookup is in the address and city, so in most cases, state/province is not needed) |
| Address | postcode | The zip or postal code for the address. | Y | N | Optional (initial lookup is in the address and city, so in most cases, postcode is not needed) |
| Airport | airport | Three-character airport code airport: ‘ORD’ | Y | N | IATA 3-character code representing the closest airport. |
| Token | dataToken | The token number from the widget that you wish to use for tracking | Y | N | If you have multiple widgets that you have created so that you can track placement source, you can write one script and substitute the correct dataToken at display time. |
The following event date parameters govern how the check-in and check-out dates work for hotel, the pickup and drop-off dates work for car, and the arrival and departure dates work for air.
The variable name must be followed by a colon : and the variable will be ensconced in straight, plain quotation marks.
| Parameter Name | Description |
Mandatory |
Format/Defaults |
| eventStart | The starting date of the event |
N |
YYYY/MM/DD can be a variable, present in toolkit for static widgets |
| eventEnd | The ending date of the event |
N |
YYYY/MM/DD can be a variable, present in toolkit for static widgets |
| daysBefore | The number of days that you want people to arrive before an event |
N |
Single digit |
| daysAfter | The number of days that you want people to stay after an event |
N |
Single digit |
| dateFormat | The format used by your system if different from our default format |
N |
The date format must be numeric and can include slash, dash and space as delimiters. The year can be two or four numbers. As an example, you may enter ‘DD/MM/YYYY’ or ‘MM/DD/YY’ or “MM-DD-YY. |