I’m using the event_search API method to let my users find their Eventbrite events. I’ve been getting a lot of complaints from users that their events don’t show up. And indeed, it seems that loads of events simply aren’t returned by event_search.
One example: http://blogher12.eventbrite.com/. It’s a big event, it’s starting in a few days time and it has a very distinctive name. It’s typically an event that should be very easy to find through event_search.
Yet, it’s not anywhere to be seen in event_search’s results, no matter what search term I try. You can try yourself at http://developer.eventbrite.com/doc/events/event_search/ – enter ‘BlogHer’ in the ‘keywords’ field and you’ll get a small handful of fringe events that mention “BlogHer” in their description but not the main event.
This is just one of many missing events I’ve seen in the past few weeks. I initially thought that the EventBrite API perhaps didn’t return events for which ticket sales had closed, which would have explained some of the missing events. But I really can’t see any reason for BlogHer to be missing in action.
Is there a trick to get event_search to return all events?
The event owner has configured that event to be ‘private’, which prevents it from being shared via Eventbrite’s public search index.
If you think the event should be public (and accessible via the API), feel free to use the ‘contact the host’ link on the event page to pass your suggestion on to the event organizer.