Creating a Ride

• Ride Name: (Required) A short, descriptive name. This will appear on the Ride Master home page, in correspondence with the rider, etc.
• Short Description: (Optional) About 40 words or less describing your ride. This text appears in a tooltip window as the user hovers over the ride name on the Ride Master home page. Short and sweet. No novels. Save that for your ride's website.
• Registration Begin Date: (Required) When does registration begin?
• Registration End Date: (Required) When does registration end?
• Web Page: (Required) The ride's webpage. Ride Master is not a replacement for your ride's webpage. It's only an online rider management system. The ride webpage should be used for the vast majority of ride information.
• Max Riders - If you want to limit the number of riders that can register for the ride, set this value to that number. Zero indicates unlimited riders. Note that each rider class, if any, can have a maximum number of riders too.
• Currency - If the ride uses PayPal, Ride Master will ensure PayPal is configured with the desired currency.
• Rider List - If you want the rider list to remain private, check this box.

The release/waiver and disclaimers work hand in hand. Ride Master only displays the release/waiver to the registrant during the registration process. Disclaimers are used to ensure the registrant has read and understands the release waiver.

The release/waiver and disclaimers are optional, but if your ride has a release/waiver, the ride must have at least one disclaimer. If your ride doesn't have a release/waiver, it can still have disclaimers.

Rider classes allow you to group riders together. For instance, if your ride is a rally, you may have 12-hour and 24-hour rally riders. Or you may choose to group your riders into novice and expert classes.

Rider classes are optional.

Prerequisites are associated with each rider class. If the ride requires prerequisites, the ride must have at least one rider class. Each rider class can have zero or more prerequisites.

The ride's fee schedule is optional. A fee schedule is composed of items (e.g. registation fee, shirt fees, banquet tickets, etc). Each item has the following attributes:

• Description: (Required) A short description of the item. Keep it short.
• Price: (Required) How much does each item cost?
• Shipping: You may associate a shipping cost for each item.
• Small Picture URL: (Optional) This picture is displayed when the registrant views the ride's fee schedule. Keep this picture small - somewhere around 60x60 pixels. Otherwise, the fees page is too much.
• Large Picture URL: (Optional) If there's a small picture URL, the user can click it to display the large picture URL. This image can be as big as you like.
• Default Quantity: (Required) Usually this is one, but it can be any number.
• Enabled?: Enabled items can be purchased. Disabled items cannot. This flag allows you to control the timeframe in which an item may be purchased.
• Mandatory?: Does the registrant have to purchase this item? This is useful for registration fees and other mandatory fee items.
• Enable Size?: Should Ride Master display sizing information? You may also select the sizes that apply to this item.
• Enable Quantity?: Should Ride Master allow the registrant to modify the quantity purchased?

If you supply refund policy text, the system will display a link to registrants on the fees page.

If the ride has fees, you may specify payment options, including snail-mail and/or PayPal options. PayPal can be setup in one of two different modes - Interactive and Non-Interactive. See below for more details.

Snail Mail
If you want to accept checks and money orders, you'll need to specify to whom the check or money order should be made payable as well as the address to which the payment should be mailed.

Interactive PayPal
In interactive mode, the rider must complete the payment before his/her registration is created. This mode requires the following PayPal account options to be set properly:

• Auto-Return - In the account's Website Payment Preferences section the Auto Return option must be turned on. A return URL is required. Anytime a payment is made to the account, the payer is forwarded to this URL when the payment is complete. This doesn't apply to Ride Master payments because this URL is overriden during the registration process.
• Payment Data Transfer - This option must be enabled as well. Ride Master needs to know your PayPal account's Identity Token which is used by Ride Master to validate payment information with PayPal before committing it. An identity token is generated when the Payment Data Transfer option is turned on.
• PayPal Account Optional - Turning this option on allows riders to pay without requiring them to have a PayPal account. Turning this option on or off isn't required to use Ride Master in interactive mode, but if you choose to turn it on, please understand this statement from the PayPal help pages:
  
  Please note that if both the "auto return" and "account optional" features are turned on, customers who don't log in to PayPal can choose to go back to your website after checkout, but aren't returned automatically.

To access and learn more about these options, log into your PayPal account and click Profile->More Options. In the Selling Preferences column click on the Website Payment Preferences link. On the next page you'll find these two options as well as links to more information about each one.

Non-Interactive PayPal
In non-interactive mode, the rider pays any fees after his/her registration is created. The last registration page contains a PayPal link the rider can use to make a payment. This link is also included in the registration confirmation email sent to the rider and to you. Additionally, this link can be found on the rider management screens.

You may choose to enable PayPal's Instant Payment Notification (IPN) service. IPN allows PayPal to notify Ride Master when a payment has been made. This only applies to those payments made when using the Ride Master supplied PayPal link discussed above. When Ride Master is notified, a payment entry is added to the rider's fees automatically.