Automatically listing my events on the Business-Scene website!

If you run lots of events, and would like to have them listed on the Business-Scene website, you can build an xml data feed which we will then read and then use to regularly update our database.

Why would I want to do this?

• Although you can manually add events to our website, if you list events on your own website too, then using an xml feed will ensure that you only have to enter your details once
• Our events are syndicated to a number of our partners. Feeding your events through to us will mean that they will also be shown on our partner websites
• Any updates that you make to the events on your website will automatically be fed through to Business-Scene

Ok, I'm convinced. Now what do I need to do?

• Build an xml feed according to the specifications below
• Let us know where your feed will be located (a url)
• We will then validate your feed to ensure that it meets our specified requirements
• We will then create a regular job to automatically look for your feed and update our database with the details we find there

How long will this take?

This will mostly depend on the complexity of your own database and the ability of you, or your website developer, to create an xml extract of your data in the format required by Business-Scene. We have to insist on a standard specification for the feed so that we can easily support many different websites. If required, we can do this work for you, but this will be a chargeable activity. We are happy to provide support and testing services free of charge to help you to get this ready.

Although there will be some work for you (or your website developer) to actually create the xml feed, once it is set up there is nothing more for you to do!

Technical Specification

Here is a sample showing what a typical xml event feed would look like. You will need a <EVENT>...</EVENT> element pair for each of your events. Within each event you will then need to describe your data in the format required by our database. For a complete guide to the items you need, please see the table immediately following this xml example...

Item Name	Mandatory?	Contents
event_name	Y	Max. 100 characters to describe your event. This is displayed on the event listing pages (as anchor text in links) and in various emails sent to members.
main_desc	Y	Max. 255 characters to describe your event in a little more detail. This is displayed on the event listing pages and the event detail page.
topic_desc	N	Text field to describe your event in more detail. This is displayed on the event detail page.
member_price	N	Numeric field to indicate the price (format £££.pp) of admission to your event for full Business-Scene members. If the event is free, you do not need to enter anything here.
non_member_price	N	Numeric field to indicate the price (format £££.pp) of admission to your event for all others. If the event is free, you do not need to enter anything here.
event_owner	Y	Your Business-Scene username. Assigns the event to you on the Business-Scene website, giving you manual access to edit the event, and also allows our visitors to view your profile on the site to find out more about your organisation.
event_url	N	If you want to send visitors to an events page on your own website, then enter the URL of that page into this field.
start_date	Y	If your event occurs just once, enter the start date here (in YYYY-MM-DD format).
start_time	Y	Enter the start time for your event in HH:MM format
end_date	Y	If your event occurs just once, enter the end date here (in YYYY-MM-DD format).
end_time	Y	Enter the end time for your event in HH:MM format
location	N	Enter the place where your event will happen (e.g. The Village Hall, Wendleberr y Green, Ascot). This will be displayed on the event detail page.
location_postcode	Y	Your event postcode is very important! It determines which Business-Scene regions will list your event. Without a postcode your event will not be listed. We will include a Google Maps link on your event detail page so that visitors can check the precise location of your event. Only events that have a postcode listed will be eligible for inclusion in our ‘Search Events by Postcode’ facility – so it is better to all round if you enter the event postcode.
map_link	N	If you have a page which clearly shows the location of your event in map form, add the link here.
cancelled_timestamp	N	If your event has been cancelled, enter a valid timestamp in the format 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS'. Any such events will then be shown as 'Cancelled' on the website.
booking_url	N	If you have a page on your own (or another) website that can take bookings for your event, enter the url here.
accepting_bookings	N	If you are not accepting bookings for this event, enter a value of '1' in this item. The 'Book Now' link will then be removed for such events.
event_category	N	Enter your event category here. The following values are accepted... Breakfast, Lunch, Evening, All Day, Morning, Afternoon
event_network	N	Not currently used
event_type	N	Enter the type of event here. Acceptable values are : B2B, Conference, Dinner, Exhibition, Network, Seminar, Training
fixed_day	N	If this event occurs at the same time and same place every week, enter the day of the week here (Sunday - Saturday) and we will add it to our 'Regular Events' section.
bypass_payment	N	If you enter your email address here, we will send you an email as people register for your Event. The member will be emailed to confirm their registration, but you will need to follow up to collect any payment and to provide them with joining instructions.
bypass_payment_message	N	Not currently used
pricing_message	N	If you don’t yet know the price, or you want to keep the ticket price private until people enquire, or if you want to refer interested parties to your own web page where you may have a more comprehensive price structure, you can enter a comment here that will be displayed to all who see your event. You will then need to collect payment from attendees manually once the price is set. Event attendees will be notified of this by email when they register for your event.
paypal_account	N	If you would like Business-Scene to handle registration payments for your event, enter your paypal email address here and any payments for your event will be deposited into your account.
keywords	N	A comma-separated list of keywords that you would like to associate with this event. These will be used in meta-keywords for this events detail page, and also for aiding visitors when searching within business-scene.
** Any events that you pass to us will be added to the Business-Scene website, but it is your responsibility to ensure that they are displayed correctly. If we consider that an event is duplicated on our website, we will update the details with those that you have supplied in your xml feed. An event will be considered as duplicated if the event_name, start_date, start_time, fixed_day, and location_postcode fields are the same for another event already listed on Business-Scene. If you want to remove an event, you will either need to delete it manually by logging in to the Business-Scene website, going to 'Events' / 'My Events' and deleting it, or by passing the event to us again in your xml feed but with a cancelled_timestamp field completed.