Changeset 560350
- Timestamp:
- 06/19/2012 09:02:12 AM (14 years ago)
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wp-cinema/trunk/readme.txt (modified) (1 diff)
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wp-cinema/trunk/readme.txt
r560344 r560350 1 WP Cinema is a plugin for displaying and managing movies - programme information, sales, and ticketing - on WordPress websites. This is an "early beta" release of the "lite" version of WP Cinema; providing full manual movie management to smaller cinemas, theaters and film festivals. 2 3 This release of WP Cinema is functional but is in early beta status; needing some code tidy up as well as feature extension but we wanted to get some community feedback (and what's here is actually usable now). 4 5 The next version of this community/free version will provide ticket purchase assistance (possibly Paypal), ability to categorize movies (eg luxury class, child friendly, cry-baby sessions, etc), CSV upload of movie schedules, and an AJAX-style session management front-end (what's there now is primitive). 6 7 We're excited about being able to offer something great to the community for free and believe this is the first WordPress plugin to assist in this area in any way, and perhaps likely to be the first open source tool in the cinema industry. 8 9 The forthcoming Pro version in a few months will add extensions such as integration with in-house ticketing and session management, customer loyalty integration, and connection with payment gateways and systems as appropriate - we have an extensive development roadmap and are committed to making a difference with this project and having a bit of fun doing so. The free/lite version will be kept fully functional with a limit of 1-3 screens and limits on a few of the extended features (eg limited number of auto-fills for movie images and descriptions). 1 === WP Cinema === 2 3 Contributors: Brian Coogan 4 Plugin Name: WP Cinema 5 Tags: cinema, movie, tickets, ticketing, venue, booking, film festival, live theatre, sales, theater, programme, program, movie website, cinema website, entertainment, showtimes, google showtimes, film festival website, schedule, festival 6 Requires at least: 3.4 7 Author: Brian Coogan 8 Author URI: http://www.wp-cinema.com/ 9 Requires at least: 3.3 10 Tested up to: 3.4 11 Stable tag: 0.6.0 12 Version: 0.6.0 13 14 WP Cinema is a movie display, management and ticketing system intended for 15 cinema websites. 16 17 18 == Description == 19 20 WP Cinema is a movie display and management system intended for cinema 21 websites. It is flexible, configurable, and powerful, and can be integrated 22 with your inhouse ticketing system. 23 24 = NOTE: WP Cinema is in beta at the present; this is a functional beta release for your testing purposes = 25 26 It provides the following functionality: 27 28 * Displays movies on home page with session times 29 * Clickable session times can take you straight to booking links 30 * Framework supporting integration with in house ticketing systems 31 * Manual movie and session entry if your system is not supported 32 * Easy movie categorization for "baby friendly" or "premium" sessions 33 * Commercial options and full support available 34 35 The basic version of WP Cinema provided here works for 1-3 screens 36 and is sufficient to run a small cinema or film festival website. 37 38 We're excited to be able to offer a starter product which helps smaller 39 cinemas, film festivals and occasional venues to get a functional cinema 40 website going at virtually no cost. 41 42 43 = Display of movies = 44 45 WP Cinema provides a simple framework for displaying today's session times on 46 the home page. The home page format displays a thumbnail for each movie, along 47 with a title and session times. The session times are clickable and lead to a 48 configurable booking link. 49 50 The user can also click on a movie which then displays in it's own page, with a 51 description of the movie (which you can edit). The commercial version provides 52 default images and description, in the lite version you enter everything 53 yourself. 54 55 There are several different formats implemented through the use of shortcodes; 56 at the moment these are: 57 58 * A daily programme with ability to switch to tomorrow via week day links 59 [due for release July 2012] 60 * A summary list of all movies and the entire entered schedule 61 * Subset (category) pages for special session categories (see below) 62 63 64 = Clickable session times for booking = 65 66 WP Cinema makes it easy for customers to book; they simply click on the 67 session time which takes them straight to your booking page. 68 69 Booking pages/links can be provided by integration modules, or you can 70 enter your own booking links on the setup page. 71 72 Payment for bookings via PayPal will be included in the free version 73 shortly. 74 75 76 = Integration with in-house ticketing systems = 77 78 Integration provides the following features: 79 80 * pulls movie details from the ticketing system definitions 81 * pulls session times and availabilities 82 * easily categorizable sessions (eg baby-friendly, premium class, film festival, seniors with coffee sessions) 83 * easily refreshed manually or automatically 84 * integrates with any booking system provided 85 86 The free version does not provide any free integration modules; though it is 87 completely usable without them via the manual entry system. 88 89 WP Cinema integrates with a number of in-house ticketing systems through 90 additional licencing modules. This provides fully automated update of 91 session times on an hourly (or configurable) basis, as well as 92 (in the near future) flagging of sessions that are full or nearly full. 93 94 If your ticketing system provides a site or link for booking, 95 the session links can be set to go direct to the appropriate site. 96 97 Full support for internet booking is currently under development; when 98 this is done you'll be able to sell tickets for most systems direct from 99 your site. Currently you can only sell tickets through the configurable 100 third party link system as just mentioned. 101 102 103 = Manual movie and session entry = 104 105 As mentioned previously, the free version allows you to enter all movie 106 descriptions, images and session information yourself. Provided you 107 enter sufficient days ahead (we recommend at least 3-5 days) the times 108 will rotate on the site to show the relevant times for today. 109 110 Please see the screenshots page for more information, or view our short 111 video. 112 113 We recommend use of the automated synchronization module for your 114 ticketing system to remove the need for nearly all manual entry. Note 115 that if no automated module for your system is available, you can choose 116 to use the manual system until it is ready (see FAQ). 117 10 118 11 - Brian 12 13 Download site: http://www.wp-cinema.com/downloads 14 15 Demo site: http://wpc1.testarea.in (NB: we're working on more sophisticated/real demos) 16 Login as: plugintester OkJ0Ii1lIaiHjl10OoIl 17 18 Website: http://www.wp-cinema.com 19 20 Link to readme.txt in HTML format: http://www.wp-cinema.com/downloads/readme.html 21 119 = Easy movie categorization = 120 121 You can set up special programme pages for specialized movie categories. 122 123 The system provides easy and powerful categorization for special 124 sessions, such as "baby friendly", or premium/luxury/gold sessions, or 125 special showings or festivals. 126 127 This is configurable and can be controlled: 128 129 * automatically through use of a prefix in the movie title 130 * automatically through use of a special text flag in the description 131 (which can be invisible) 132 * automatically through detecting a special price code on the session 133 * manually through editing the session and assigning a type 134 * this is all setup through the admin options pages 135 * one movie can be in multiple categories 136 137 Once you have the categories setup, you can use them in the following 138 ways: 139 140 * have a special prefix or suffix after the session time, with a link, 141 eg "baby" or "luxury" 142 * have different ticketing links for categorized sessions 143 * remove categorized sessions from the home page 144 * list category sessions on a special page, eg have a dedicated page for 145 baby-friendly sessions, or a science fiction festival, or your weekly seniors and coffee discount sessions 146 147 This allows you to market to special interest groups, or to run special 148 "festivals" throughout the year, with their own dedicated pages. 149 150 151 = Commercial options = 152 153 A more advanced commercial version extends the free version with plugins 154 and support services: 155 156 * email support 157 * phone support (even in US business hours!) 158 * setup support 159 * automated pull of session and movie details from your supported 160 in-house ticketing system 161 * customer loyalty interfacing 162 * multi-venue cinemas (ie in different cities) 163 * optimised and reliable hosting 164 * rapid defect fixes for supported sites 165 166 WP Cinema provides an excellent basis for cinema site development. 167 If you are a web developer wanting to use WP Cinema in your customer 168 site, we have wholesale pricing and extended developer support 169 available, including developer training (no charge at the moment) and site setup 170 services. 171 172 173 == Installation == 174 175 = Usual install = 176 177 WP Cinema is usually installed via the WordPress plugin 178 installation system: 179 180 1. Login to WordPress as the site admin 181 1. Navigate to Plugins -> Add New and use the Search box to find WP Cinema 182 1. Click on "Install Now" next to WP Cinema (the only current match), accept the prompt 183 1. Activate the WP Cinema plugin through the link at bottom or the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress 184 1. Configure the plugin by going to the `WP Cinema` menu that appears in your admin menu 185 186 = Manual Install = 187 188 If, for some special reason, you need to follow manual installation steps, they are: 189 190 1. Upload the `wp-cinema` folder to the `/wp-content/plugins/` directory 191 1. Activate the WP Cinema plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress 192 1. Configure the plugin by going to the `WP Cinema` menu that appears in your admin menu 193 194 Once you have installed WP Cinema, please make time to go through the 195 setup options carefully. 196 197 If you are unfamiliar with WordPress, visit us at www.wp-cinema.com to 198 find out how our various installation and setup service options work. 199 200 = Removal = 201 202 In the unlikely event WP Cinema causes problems and you can't use the 203 deinstallation option, simply remove the /wp-content/plugins/wp-cinema folder and WordPress will deactivate WP Cinema. 204 205 206 == Frequently Asked Questions == 207 208 = What are the limitations on the free version of WP Cinema? = 209 210 The free version supports a maximum of 1-3 screens in a cinema site. 211 Everything you need to have a fully functional website is provided. 212 213 We also support limited-duration film festivals without charge, no matter 214 how many screens or sessions you run. 215 216 The free version does not provide automated connections with in-house ticketing 217 systems or synchronisation of session times - you have to enter your times 218 manually. As you'd expect, the plugin does rotate your sessions as entered 219 from day to day and you can enter a week at a time. 220 221 The free version also does not automate movie descriptions or images, 222 which are added automatically when a movie is first seen when you have the 223 commercial version. You can enter these manually. 224 225 226 = How can you afford to release a functional system like this for free? = 227 228 We make our money from support and licencing for larger sites. This 229 includes additional modules for the system which make it very powerful 230 and extensible. 231 232 We also work with developers who wish to use our products for their own 233 cinema sites. 234 235 Actually, we're rather thrilled to offer this "lite" version without charge to 236 smaller cinemas and to film festivals as we see it as a way of giving back to 237 the industry, and we hope it might help smaller locations and occasional venues 238 get started more easily. 239 240 Additionally, the free version allows you to evaluate and experiment with the 241 software without restriction. Please note that we love to hear if there 242 are key features missing that would make a difference for your site - 243 please let us know. 244 245 246 = How do you support commercial web developers? = 247 248 We love to see other people developing cinema sites with this software, 249 either for free or commercially. 250 251 The licenced addons, which would be an integral part of a fully automated 252 implementation, are available under wholesale pricing arrangements to 253 developers. However, if the site you are developing doesn't need any 254 licenced modules, you don't need to talk to us or pay us - enjoy using it! 255 And maybe send us a note to check out your work! 256 257 We also offer developer support: 258 259 * free support being the occasional web seminar 260 * free developer-only support pages and videos 261 * free support for licenced modules 262 * best efforts support for free modules 263 * chargeable 'site setup and configure' where we configure a 264 base movie setup for yourselves for testing/development and you then 265 build the theme, possibly using one of the newer gen themes such as Headway 266 or Woothemes Canvas. This is a great place to start if you haven't done 267 much WordPress before. 268 269 If you are a customer (eg cinema owner) looking to get a cinema website 270 developed, we find it works best for you if we work with your preferred 271 local developer and assist them as we beleive this gives you a better 272 experience - faster service and a point of local contact in the same time 273 zone, with the same language and customs. We're happy to talk this through 274 with you if that helps. 275 276 277 = What ticketing systems do you synchronize with? = 278 279 Currently, we provide interface modules for the following systems: 280 281 * Venue Ticketing (highly recommended) 282 * Showcase (under development) 283 * Manual entry 284 285 With the exception of the Manual entry module, these interface modules are 286 available additional to the lite version and are licensed for a small monthly 287 fee, which includes support. 288 289 Additional interfaces can be developed at a nominal fee if your system is 290 not listed and the providers are able to give us the information we 291 need. 292 293 We recommend Venue Ticketing due to their excellent support 294 and the incredibly configurable and flexible system they provide 295 (see www.venueticketing.com.au). Venue also provide an internet payment 296 gateway which works closely with WP Cinema. 297 298 Note that the system doesn't require a ticketing interface module; you 299 can enter all the session time and movie information yourself. 300 Sessions will automatically rotate on the site and you should ensure you 301 enter at least 2-3 days (and preferably a week) ahead to ensure your 302 listing in Google showtimes works well. 303 304 Please visit www.wp-cinema.com/ticketsystems for further information as 305 it becomes available. 306 307 308 = Who are the people behind WP Cinema? = 309 310 White Dog Green Frog, an Australian Web Development and web hosting 311 company, is behind WP Cinema. WDGF has been developing Cinema sites 312 for 6 years supporting a small number of Australian sites. 313 314 One of the founders had a background in cinema technology fitouts, and we love 315 movies, so we decided to create a new way of building cinema sites 316 with active programme content. 317 318 319 = Why did you choose WordPress for WP Cinema? Why not XXX? = 320 321 We'd had two versions of our cinema management software - an old PHP version 322 (circa 2004), and a Joomla module (circa 2008). 323 324 The reasons we chose WordPress: 325 326 * a complete, powerful, yet easy to use CMS ready to use out of the box 327 * very regular WordPress core updates and feature additions (3 monthly compared to 12-18 months for Joomla and Drupal) 328 * quick security releases - within hours/days 329 * self-updating website and plugin code 330 * well documented systems for our developers to work with 331 * a flexible and powerful plugin and hook system 332 * 55,000,000 sites worldwide (est) using WordPress with nearly 20,000 plugins [April 2012] 333 334 335 = What plans do you have for other language support? = 336 337 We plan to do full customer-side internationalisation to allow support for 338 other languages, but it isn't included in the first version. We anticipate it 339 will become available late in 2012 under current plans. 340 341 If you would like an internationalized version which supports customers 342 in your own language, please contact us to discuss - obviously the more 343 demand the higher we will prioritize internationalization! 344 345 There are no short term plans for admin internationalization; again, if 346 this would make a difference for yourselves please contact us. 347 348 349 = What is the roadmap for future WP Cinema development? = 350 351 WP Cinema is being actively developed and we are continuing to invest in 352 development for both the free and commercial platforms. 353 354 Some of our planned extensions and additional plugins: 355 356 * Paypal booking support (will be in free version as soon as we can) 357 * Flagging of full, or nearly full, sessions 358 * Optional display prioritization of categorized sessions/movies 359 * (full) Internet booking support 360 * Seat allocation and maps 361 * Internationalization (see above) 362 * Full multi-location support (cinemas at multiple locations on one+ site(s)) 363 364 If there is a feature you would like to see in WP Cinema that is not currently 365 available, please let us know in detail what you are looking for. While we 366 can't make promises, if we get a number of requests for the same feature it 367 will be prioritised highly. 368 369 370 = Do you work with other developers? Or accept bugfixes? = 371 372 Yes and Yes! We're always happy to collaborate with other open sourcers 373 and WP Cinema plugins will utilise the WordPress plugin system to make the 374 system extensible. We are committed to retaining a GPL-licenced usable 375 version of WP Cinema well into the future, and updating as much as is 376 humanly possible. 377 378 Bug fixes are welcome - please include a clear summary of what you're 379 fixing - we've found Jing.com very helpful here - a short before-after 380 movie is usually worth a thousand words. We also need the original file 381 before you edit it, as well as the fixed file or patch diffs. 382 383 384 == Screenshots == 385 386 1. An example of a WP Cinema site - home page - click here for more 387 examples www.wp-cinema.com/samples - live site is www.suntheatre.com.au 388 2. An example of a WP Cinema site - a movie page - click here for more 389 examples www.wp-cinema.com/samples 390 3. The WP Cinema options page (first pane) 391 4. The WP Cinema movie entry page 392 5. The WP Cinema session entry page 393 394 395 == Changelog == 396 397 * No changes since initial release (19 Jun 2012). 398 399 See also our website at www.wp-cinema.com/releasenotes 400 401 Note that the commercial components will sometimes have more frequent updates 402 than the free version. 403 404 405 == Other Notes == 406 407 If you're a developer, please ask us for access to the developer only 408 resources. 409 410 There will be a series of short movies at www.wp-cinema.com/free-setup 411 which will take you through setup of the free version. Some of this is 412 obvious but if you haven't done it before please watch them as there are 413 some invaluable tweaks you'll miss out on otherwise. 414 415 416 == Upgrade Notice == 417 418 There are no active urgent upgrade notices. In the event of an urgent need for upgrade, we will notify you through: 419 420 * our email list (if you subscribe!) 421 * the WordPress upgrade system (when you login to the admin area) 422 * a notice here 423 * a notice on our website 424 425 If an upgrade is offered through the WordPress update system, please 426 backup your system and upgrade quickly - don't just ignore the notice - 427 some upgrades contain important security fixes! 428 429
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