Entitlements vs products

An entitlement represents a level of access to gated content. For example, content could be restricted so that it is only available to a user with the entitlement Platinum membership, which would have the following effects:

• A logged-out fan would not be able to access this content
• A logged-in fan, who does not have an active Platinum membership entitlement, would not be able to access the content
• A logged-in fan, who does have an active Platinum membership entitlement, could successfully access the content.

A product, on the other hand, represents an item that may be purchased in a third party system, such as a season ticket purchased in a ticketing platform. The product within the Cortex system includes an identifier of that this party system, an identifier of the product within that system, and the entitlement(s) that should be granted to the fan on the Cortex side when such a purchase is made. To put it another way, setting up a product is effectively saying “When a fan buys X, they should get Y entitlement”.

Products can be seen as optional, since it is possible to bypass the product layer and simply grant the fan an entitlement directly. However, the product is an essential component where: (1) a purchase is made in a third party system; (2) that purchase should result in the granting of an entitlement to a fan; and (3) that third party system does not 'know' the entitlement identifier within Cortex systems, or otherwise is not set up to call Cortex APIs in order to grant entitlements to fans.

Integrations with ticketing and subscription platforms

A common use case for entitlements is that, when a purchase is made in a ticketing or subscription platform, the fan who made that purchase automatically gains access to gated content produced in the Cortex CMS. For example, when a fan purchases a season ticket, they gain access to content restricted for season ticket holders only. To achieve this, middleware is required to fetch or receive data from the ticketing or subscription platform, detailing purchases made; and then to grant the corresponding entitlement to the fan.

The exact requirements of that middleware will depend on the specific ticketing or subscription platform involved. In some cases, including Ticketmaster and SeatGeek, Cortex can support by providing that middleware - please contact us for further details. Alternatively, an implementation partner can build their own middleware using the APIs explained in API call specifications for entitlements and products.

Creating and editing an entitlement in the Cortex platform

To create an entitlement:

• Log in to Cortex and navigate to the Entitlements section. This is available to admin users in the correct role group - if you cannot access it, but should be able to, please speak with your designated contact.
• Ensure you are within the Entitlements subsection (this is the default page after clicking on Entitlements in the main navigation menu).
• Click the +New button.
• Set the entitlement name and description. These will be used to identify the entitlement throughout the Cortex platform, such as when creating a product (as described below), when producing gated content, or when manually assigning an entitlement to a fan via Fan Manager.
  • Note: Although the intended use cases for the entitlement name and description are for use by admin users in the Cortex platform, it is theoretically possible that a front end implementation might choose to display this information to fans. For example, to explain to the fan which entitlements they currently have, or which entitlement would be required to view gated content. If your front end platform displays entitlement details in this way, please ensure a suitable name and description are used.
• Set the status. If status is Inactive or Draft, then the entitlement will not be available throughout the Cortex platform, such as when creating a product (as described below), when producing gated content in the Content section, or when manually assigning an entitlement to a fan via Fan Manager. To make the entitlement available, set the status to Active.
• Click Confirm.

Entitlements can be edited via the same menu.

Please note: If editing an existing entitlement and switching the status from Active to either Inactive or Draft, existing fans with this entitlement will lose access to any content which requires that entitlement.

Creating a product in the Cortex platform

• Log in to Cortex and navigate to the Entitlements section. This is available to admin users in the correct role group - if you cannot access it, but should be able to, please speak with your designated contact
• Within the Entitlements section, go to the Products subsection
• Click the +New button.
• Set the product name and description. These will be used to identify the product in the Cortex platform.
  • Note: In some implementations, the name and/or description are also displayed to fans, such as to explain to the fan which products they might purchase in order to gain access to gated content. If your front end platform displays product details in this way, please ensure a suitable name and description are used.
• Select the entitlements that this product should map to i.e. when a fan makes a purchase which corresponds to this product, which entitlements should that fan be granted.
• Set a period if required. If set, this will define the duration for which the fan will be granted the selected entitlements(s), when a fan makes a purchase which corresponds to this product. Possibilities include:
  • No period. This would effectively mean that the fan is granted the entitlement indefinitely, or at least until the entitlement is revoked by an admin user.
  • A start date and an end date. This would mean that a fan is granted the entitlement for the stated duration. Access to gated content would only be permitted after the start date, and only until the end date. This is the most common approach when access is sold for the duration of a single season or pre-season.
  • A start date only. This would mean that the fan can only access the gated content after the specified date, but after that, access will last indefinitely unless revoked by an admin user.
  • A duration. This would mean that a fan can access gated content for the specified number of days, following the granting of the entitlement. For example a fan might purchase a premium content pass for 30 days.
• Set the external ID, including source system and source system ID. These values must correspond to purchases made in the third party platform (such as a ticketing platform), so that your middleware can map that purchase to the product, and therefore to the correct entitlement and duration.
• Click Confirm.