Our inventory service provides a comprehensive set of APIs (and widgets) to satisfy all your inventory-loving needs. From checking availability across a date range, to retrieving a detailed list of available seats for a specific performance - it's all possible! Not only do we have endpoints that can provide all the above but we also have widgets to let your customers, search for their chosen show and choose a performance from a slick UI calendar. Below are some key concepts, which are useful to know, before diving into our Inventory Service.
Inventory Hierarchy
How our inventory is sent.
- A product (e.g. The Lion King) will have a number of performances (e.g. Saturday 1st November at 7:30pm, Sunday 2nd November at 2:30pm).
- When a customer selects the date you query the inventory endpoint which returns the data in a specific format.
- Area: The area where the availability exists. Examples: Stalls, Orchestra, Mezzanine.
- Grouping: A group of items, within the given area that can be purchased in one basket (we currently only support the hold and purchase of consecutive seating). Examples: Row B Seats 1-5, Row J Seats 12-16
- Seat: - The individual "seats" or items, within the given group, which can be purchased. Examples: Seat B1, Seat B2, Seat B3.
- Within the seat
The diagram below shows the basic hierarchy of how performance-level inventory is returned by our areas call.
Different Types Of Inventory
As we're on sale with a range of different products our inventory hierarchy is flexible enough to cater for all sorts of inventory "modes" or types of inventory. For example:
- Allocated/Assigned:
When availability can be specified by dedicated seats (e.g. B1 or J23).
In this case, you'd get area, grouping and seat-level details returned to you.
This is typical of most UK / London West End Theatre shows. - General Admission/Freesell:
When availability can't be specified by dedicated seats, but instead just by the "location" or general area you'll be in (e.g. VIP or STANDARD).
In this case, you'd only get area and grouping-level details returned to you (no seat details).
This is typical of several Broadway Theatre shows and non-theatre events. - General Admission/Freesell.2/Open
When availability can't be specified by dedicated seats and there's effectively no limit to the number of tickets available.
In this case, you would still receive the area but no grouping details.
An example of this might be a festival.
Here's a simple table to help summarise:
| Type | Limited availability | Unlimited availability |
|---|---|---|
| Allocated inventory | Example: B1, B2, B3 Commonly used by: London West End Theatre Shows Inventory Service returns: Area, grouping and seat details | N/A |
| Freesale inventory | Example: Stalls Row A-J Commonly used by: Broadway Theatre Shows Inventory Service returns: Area and grouping details | Example: General Admission Commonly used by: Festivals or attractions Inventory Service returns: Area and grouping details |
Further Information
Also included in our inventory endpoints:
- Restricted view information
- Part Two Details (only used for shows that a customer must book in two parts)
- Discount amount and promotion highlights
- Much more than you can explore via the API responses below