Private Events: Require an Access Code | Planadar Help

Private Events: Require an Access Code

An access code makes an event private: people need the code to open the event page and to register. Use it for a closed training, a members-only dinner, a school evening, or any event where the guest list is yours.

Turn it on

1. Open your event in the Event Console and go to Event Info (the same place as the Listed in public directory switch).
2. Switch on Require an access code. Planadar makes a code of 10 letters and numbers, shown in two halves so it can be read aloud, for example K7M2Q-X9P4T.
3. Click Copy invitation link to send guests the event's own address with the code in it (it opens the event straight away), or Copy code to send the code by itself.

You can set a code on a draft event too, before you publish.

What your guests see

• The event page and the event's website show This event is private and a box for the code. Nothing about the event is shown until the code is entered.
• Once the code is entered the event opens. The browser remembers it for 30 days on that device, and a signed-in guest is remembered on their account, so they are not asked again.
• Registration is closed to everyone without the code, on every way in: the free sign-up, the ticket checkout, the guest forms and the ticket waitlist. A guest without the code is asked for it and no account is made for them.
• The ticket widget you embed on another website shows a lock and a link to the event page, where the code is entered.

Who is never asked: you and your co-organizers, people who are already registered for the event, its invited speakers, committee members and confirmed volunteers.

Choose your own code, change it, turn it off

• Choose my own code sets a code you like: 6 to 32 letters and numbers. Capital letters, small letters, spaces and dashes make no difference when a guest types it.
• Make a new code replaces the code. Everyone who entered the old one is asked for the new one. People who are already registered are not affected. Use it when a code has been passed on to someone you did not invite.
• Switching Require an access code off opens the event to anyone with the link again. The event stays unlisted until you switch Listed in public directory back on.

Private events are unlisted

An event with an access code is kept out of Browse Events, search, recommendations, the sitemap and search engines, and the Listed in public directory switch stays off while the code is on. When someone shares the link in a message or on social media, the preview says only "Private event": it does not show the event's title, description or picture.

What an access code does not do

• It is a shared code. Anyone who has it can register and can pass it on. Send it only to the people you invite, and make a new code to cut off a code that has spread.
• It protects the event page and registration, not the event's public details. Someone who already has the event's link and asks Planadar's data directly can still read its title, date and place, so keep anything that must stay secret out of the public description.
• Attempts are limited. To stop people guessing, the number of code attempts for one event is limited each hour. If guests see "Too many attempts for this event", ask them to wait a few minutes and try again.

If a guest says the code does not work

• Check they typed it as you sent it. Codes made by Planadar never contain the letters I, L, O or U, so a 0 is always a zero and a 1 is always a one.
• If you made a new code since you sent the invitation, send the new one.
• A guest whose browser blocks site data is asked for the code on every visit. Sending the invitation link avoids typing it.

If you are asked for an access code

The organizer of the event gives out the code. Ask them for it or for their invitation link. Planadar cannot look it up or reset it for you.