Introduction

We have updated the promotion date system with three main objectives:

• Standardization: unify the date management across all types of promotions.
• Flexibility: completely separate the three types of dates to cover all possible use cases.
• Control: provide the administrator with a clear view of the promotion’s status and behavior at all times.

The three types of dates are:

• Publication dates
• Registration dates
• Participation dates

Over the years, we have learned that a promotion’s status can vary significantly depending on the combination of dates and features. Based on this, we have designed a system that covers all possible scenarios.

Did you know there are more than 90 different promotion states depending on the configuration of dates and features?

These are some use case examples that a promotion platform must consider:

• Show a teaser before participation opens.
• Allow user registration before the participation starts to build anticipation.
• Close new user registration, but allow already-registered users to participate.
• End participation, but keep the promotion active for prize management.
• Temporarily pause a promotion.
• Create anonymous promotions without registration, but with future participation.

And many more.

With this update, we not only cover all these scenarios but also standardize their configuration and incorporate a visual system that makes it easy to identify the status of each date type.

New date structure

The main innovation is the differentiation of the three types of dates, aligned with Easypromos’ current architecture, which clearly separates:

• The user identification and registration process
• The participation process (promotion stages)

Publication dates

Control when the promotion is visible and accessible to users.

Configured from: Editor > Dates.

Available states:

• Upcoming: the promotion is not yet visible. A teaser with a countdown is shown.
• Published: the promotion is active and accessible.
• Finished: the promotion is unpublished, but the administrator can define what content remains visible.

Registration dates

Control when users can register for the promotion.

Configured from: Editor > Dates

Available states:

• Upcoming: registration is not yet available.
• Open: new user registration is allowed.
• Closed: new registrations are not allowed, but already registered users can identify themselves and log in to the promotion.

Participation dates

Control when the promotional mechanics are available to users.

Configured from: Editor > Participation Stages

This is the main difference from the previous system:

• Participation dates are not unique, but depend on the different stages of the promotion.
• There can be multiple participation intervals.

Visually, a single overall state is shown, calculated from:

• The earliest start date
• The latest end date of all stages

Available states:

• Upcoming:
  • In single-stage promotions; the start date is in the future.
  • In multi-stage promotions; the next stage is not yet open.
• Open: at least one participation stage is currently active.
• Finished: all participation stages have finished.

Key changes compared to the previous system

Promotions with a single stage

It is now necessary to configure separately:

• The registration dates (Editor > Dates)
• The participation dates (Editor > Participation Stages)

Previously, both coincided automatically.

Promotions with multiple stages

It is now also necessary to configure:

• The registration dates, which previously were not independently configurable

Improvements in management and control

We have incorporated a new date module on the promotion management page that allows:

• Seeing the status of each date type through color-coded labels
• Quickly identifying the promotion’s overall status
• Displaying warning messages based on specific configurations

This system provides a much clearer view and facilitates the operational management of promotions.