As a business owner, I have been involved in organising exhibitions, fairs and markets for a number of years. And whilst I can not describe myself as a developer, I do have a reasonable working knowledge of Drupal 7 and quite a bit of experience in specifying the build of event websites and internal booking systems.

Having looked around this forum, there seem to be a number of people wishing to accomplish similar event related things with Drupal Commerce and I'd like put down my own thoughts, as an organiser, regarding some common aspects that I think I will need.

My hope is that some of the bigger brains around here can help us form a methodology for creating flexible event booking systems with Drupal Commerce.

Keeping it simple, the management of the content types and general workflow goes something like this.

- Define the event
- Define the venue
- Define the dates
- Promote the attractions
- Sell the space

We may need to sell a number of different space related products to our customers such as; admission, seats, tables, booths, units of area or units of frontage. In addition, there may be ancillary items such as advertising, sponsorship, signage, lighting or furniture rental.

So how do we go about this is in Drupal Commerce? What is the product? Are we selling the event, the venue, the event date or the space?

An example. I run local trade fairs aimed at the public, where vendors sell products, displayed on tables that they rent from me. I operate a repeating schedule of events from a number of regular venues. At each event I have a specified number of tables for rent. Each venue has a different capacity and sometimes different admission charges which are just taken on the door.

In creating my event schedule, I have a venue content type and an event content type. Using the Date Module, this method allows me to create individual or repeating events to which I can easily reference a venue content type which details the capacity, admission charges, location maps and the like. This method allows me to create different views of upcoming events, by date, by event type or by location. It is what users understand and it works well.

It would seem that it is the date specific event that I need to sell space for, but it is the venue which dictates the amount of space for sale. Could this me made to work with Drupal Commerce?

I can see how I might create an event-date-product of which I have say 100 units for sale which can be controlled using a using a stock control module. But this is really counter-intuitive when compared with my normal method of creating my event schedule using event and venue content types.

Once vendors have booked in for an event I need to be able to create views which show a traders bookings history at any given venue or event.

Are there any boffins out there?