Event Ticket Scanner
A free companion plugin to improve your WordPress website capability with the Event Ticket Scanner mobile app.
by Timothy Wood (@codearachnid) · github.com/alwayscuriousco/event-ticket-checkin-plugin · website
Install
No release zip yet. The repository archive installs, but the folder name will carry the branch suffix and updates will not flow:
wp plugin install https://github.com/alwayscuriousco/event-ticket-checkin-plugin/archive/refs/heads/main.zipReadme
Event Ticket Scanner
Turn any phone into an offline-first ticket scanner for Event Tickets.
Free, GPL, and no third-party service in the middle.
Get the app · REST API · Security · Development
Your door should not depend on the venue's wifi.
This plugin connects the Event Ticket Scanner mobile app to your WordPress site. The app pulls the attendee list before doors open, then validates every scan on the device itself — green for valid, amber for already scanned, red for refunded or unknown — in milliseconds, with the phone in airplane mode if it comes to that. Check-ins queue locally and reconcile the moment there's signal.
Everything happens between your phone and your site. The plugin makes zero outbound HTTP requests; there is no middleman service, no per-scan fee, and no account to create anywhere else.
Highlights
| Offline by design | Full attendee list on the device, instant local validation, ordered queue that syncs on reconnect. |
| No double check-ins | Every operation carries a UUID; retries after a dropped connection return the original result instead of re-applying. |
| Scoped scanner accounts | An Event Scanner role restricted to the events you assign. Enforced server-side on every endpoint — not hidden in the app. |
| Five-second pairing | Show a QR in wp-admin, point the phone at it. The device gets its own revocable Application Password. |
| Delta sync | updated_since returns only what changed, backed by a dedicated touch index (Event Tickets check-ins never bump post_modified). |
| Organizer links | Point an Organizer at a user and they scan that organizer's whole calendar, automatically. |
Works with the free Event Tickets plugin: Tickets Commerce and RSVP attendees out of the box, WooCommerce attendees when Event Tickets Plus is active. Check-ins made in the app and in wp-admin are the same check-ins, in both directions.
Install
- Event Tickets 5.7+ active, site on HTTPS.
- Activate this plugin.
- Events → Scanners → create an account per person, tick their events.
- Pair a device → point their phone at the QR code.
Assigning door staff
Three ways in, one source of truth:
- Events → Scanners — every scanner account, the events it covers, pairing per person.
- The event edit screen — a Ticket Scanners box listing everyone eligible for that event: scanner accounts, administrators, the organizer's linked user, and anyone who can edit the event.
- Organizers — link an Organizer to a user account for standing access across their calendar.
A restricted account with no assignments sees nothing: an empty event list, 403 on any event it asks for by ID, and not_authorized on any check-in it attempts.
Security model
| Concern | How it's handled |
|---|---|
| Attendee data leaving the site | It doesn't. No outbound requests exist in the codebase. |
| A lost phone | Revoke that one Application Password from the user's profile; other devices are unaffected. |
| Pairing codes | 20 random bytes, stored SHA-256 hashed, single use, 5-minute TTL, consumed before any credential is minted, rate limited per IP. |
| Transport | HTTPS enforced; plain HTTP refused outside local/development environments. |
| Privilege | The event_ticket_scanner role holds read and event_ticket_scanner_checkin. Nothing else. |
| Uninstall | Tables, capabilities, and role removed. |
REST API
Namespace event-ticket-scanner/v1. Authentication is a WordPress Application Password over HTTPS.
| Endpoint | Purpose |
|---|---|
GET /me |
Validate credentials; reports capabilities and the caller's event scope. |
GET /events |
Events the caller may scan, with attendee and check-in counts. |
GET /events/{id}/attendees |
Full or delta (updated_since) attendee sync. |
GET /events/{id}/stats |
Totals and per-ticket-type check-in counts. |
POST /checkins |
Batched, idempotent check-in / un-check-in. |
POST /pair |
Exchange a single-use pairing token for an Application Password. |
The contract is specified as OpenAPI and both this plugin and the mobile app are tested against the same fixtures.
WP-CLI
wp event-ticket-scanner create doorstaff --events=501,502
wp event-ticket-scanner assign doorstaff 503
wp event-ticket-scanner link-organizer 77 doorstaff
wp event-ticket-scanner list
wp event-ticket-scanner seed --fresh --attendees=20 # test dataDevelopment
Requires PHP 8.1+ and WordPress 6.8+.
./bin/build-zip.sh # release ZIP, excludes everything in .distignore
wp plugin check event-ticket-scanner \
--exclude-directories=bin \
--exclude-files=.gitignore,.distignore,CLAUDE.mdThe second command is the release-equivalent Plugin Check run — it must report no errors before submitting to wordpress.org.
License
GPL-2.0-or-later. See LICENSE.
Read the full README on GitHub →
Releases
These releases are tags only. The author does not attach a packaged zip, so there are no download counts to report.