WeTicket WordPress Sync

Periodically syncs events from a WeTicket Storefront RSS feed into a custom post type, rendered with Twig templates.

Description

WeTicket WordPress Sync reads the WeTicket Storefront RSS feed (events.xml) on a schedule and creates/updates a post in the WeTicket Events custom post type (weticket_event) for each event.

Titles and content are rendered with Twig. Because Twig runs in non-strict mode, template variables that the feed does not provide simply render empty instead of erroring, so templates stay robust as the feed evolves.

What the feed provides

The WeTicket Storefront RSS feed exposes a focused set of fields. These map to the following Twig variables:

• title — event title
• description / text — plain-text event description
• shortDescription — short plain-text description (weticket:short_description, also stored as the post excerpt)
• textHtml — HTML event description (used as the post content by default)
• start — start date/time (ev:startdate)
• end — end date/time (ev:enddate)
• tickets_url — link to the ticket shop
• venue.title / location.name — venue (ev:location)
• organizationName — organizer (ev:organizer)
• status — defaults to onsale (the feed only lists upcoming events)
• media.mainImageUrl — cover image when media:content is present (set as the featured image)
• guid — the WeTicket event UUID (used to match events across syncs)

Variables that this feed does not provide (prices, categories, programItems, status_internal, and so on) are not populated and render empty.

Custom fields (visible & REST-exposed)

In addition to rendering the title and content, each event stores its data as public custom fields so themes, ACF, and page builders can read individual values without parsing the content HTML. These appear in the Custom Fields metabox and the REST API:

• weticket_start
• weticket_end
• weticket_tickets_url
• weticket_venue
• weticket_organizer
• weticket_short_description (short plain text)
• weticket_description (plain text)
• weticket_text_html (HTML)
• weticket_status
• weticket_pubdate

A few internal values stay protected (hidden) because they are plumbing rather than content: _weticket_guid (used to match events across syncs), _weticket_synced_at, and _weticket_image_url.

Settings

Settings → WeTicket Sync:

• Feed URL
• Sync interval (15 minutes / hourly / twice daily / daily)
• What to do when an event leaves the feed (set to draft / move to trash / leave published)
• Title and content Twig templates
• A "Sync now" button and last-run status

Installation

1. Upload the plugin to wp-content/plugins/weticket-wordpress-sync.
2. If installing from source, run composer install in the plugin directory to vendor Twig.
3. Activate the plugin.
4. Go to Settings → WeTicket Sync, set your feed URL, and click "Sync now".

Frequently Asked Questions

How are duplicate events avoided?

Each event's WeTicket UUID (the RSS guid) is stored in the _weticket_guid post meta. On every sync the plugin matches events by that UUID and updates the existing post instead of creating a new one.

What happens to events that disappear from the feed?

Configurable: set them to draft (default), move them to trash, or leave them published.

Development

Install dependencies and run the test suite:

composer install
vendor/bin/phpunit

Continuous integration (GitHub Actions) runs the test suite on PHP 7.4, 8.1, and 8.3 for every push to main and every pull request.

Releasing

Tag a version to build and publish the installable zip as a GitHub Release asset:

git tag v1.0.0
git push origin v1.0.0

The release workflow installs production dependencies only (Twig, no dev tools), packages the weticket-wordpress-sync/ plugin folder with vendor/ bundled, and attaches weticket-wordpress-sync-v1.0.0.zip to the release — ready to upload to WordPress.

Changelog

1.1.1

• Fix: the short description was never picked up from live feeds. The feed emits camelCase <weticket:shortDescription> while the parser only looked for snake_case <weticket:short_description>; both spellings are now accepted.
• Self-heal the sync schedule: if the recurring weticket_sync_cron event is missing from the cron queue (cleared by a migration, restore, or cleanup plugin), it is re-created on the next page load instead of requiring plugin reactivation. Re-creation is guarded by an atomic lock (INSERT IGNORE on the options table) so concurrent requests cannot schedule duplicate events.
• Fix activation with the 15-minute interval selected: the activation hook runs after plugins_loaded, so the custom weticket_15min schedule was not registered yet and wp_schedule_event() failed silently, leaving no sync scheduled. schedule() now registers the interval itself.

1.1.0

• Sync the short description (weticket:short_description) from the feed: available as the shortDescription Twig variable, stored in the weticket_short_description custom field, and set as the post excerpt.

1.0.1

• The feed URL no longer defaults to a staging URL; it must be configured per site. Syncing is skipped (and logged) until it is set.

1.0.0

• Initial release: scheduled RSS sync into the weticket_event post type with Twig templating.