PassSource (beta)

Passbook is your boarding passes, movie tickets, retail coupons, loyalty cards, and more now all in one place. You can add passes to Passbook through apps, emails, and websites from participating airlines, theaters, stores, and more. Then you can scan your iPhone or iPod touch to check in for a flight, get into a movie, and redeem a coupon. You can also see when your coupons expire, where your concert seats are, and the balance left on that all-important coffee bar card. Wake your iPhone or iPod touch, and passes appear on your Lock screen at the appropriate time and place — like when you reach the airport or walk into the store to redeem your gift card or coupon. And if your gate changes after you’ve checked in for your flight, Passbook will even alert you to make sure you’re not relaxing in the wrong terminal.

When you purchase a ticket, coupon, card, or pass, you no longer have to carry paper copies of them. Instead, a URL, mail attachment, or link from a 3rd party application allows you to open and store passes in Passbook. Once a pass is there, Passbook categorizes each ticket, coupon, pass, or card by type in a neat and organized interface. The 2D barcode that appears on the pass can contain information like your name, flight number, or loyalty information. The code can be scanned by a participating retailer or airline just like they would your paper code. In order to get this benefit, the merchant has to support Passbook (or at least 2D barcodes), so keep watching our list of official Passbook merchants.

Passes are only officially designed to work on iPhones and iPod touches (unfortunately not iPads) runing iOS 6 and we're focusing on making sure the Apple experience is first class. Our focus is on making it simple and easy for small businesses to take advantage of Passbook with minimal fuss. However, Android users can join the fun by downloading PassWallet from the Android marketplace.

This is a bug in iOS. Some have reported that setting the clock forward a year and then back fixes it.

This was a bug in the latest beta. You can delete the apps it is trying to open or you can try emailing the passes to yourself. Please file a bug report with Apple at http://bugreport.apple.com

There is no set limit to the number of passes you can store. You must manually remove passes from Passbook.

Tap the (i) button in the lower right to flip the pass over and then tap the trash icon in the upper left.

There is a standard image that loads when Passbook starts. This only displays when you have no passes loaded into Passbook. Deleting all passes will cause it to reappear. If you want the App Store link on that screen, it is http://itunes.com/passbookapps.

This is an oversight on Apple's part, but if you created your passes from us, copy the update link on the back of the passes and save it in the notepad. Then delete all the passes from passbook and you should be able to view that button again (or you can use this link that the button goes to: http://itunes.com/passbookapps). Then you can tap the links you copied in the notepad to re-install your passes. If you have passes from other sources, try doing whatever you did to initially get the pass again to get those passes back.

Unfortunately, Delta's website is no longer 508 compliant and therefore we cannot get your balance programmatically anymore. Please contact them and tell them you want Passbook support and that their Skymiles balance website needs to be accessible. In the meantime, you can update your card information manually. We apologize for the inconvenience.

You will have to decode the message in the barcode you're trying to copy. We have found a couple of tools that are useful in doing this. There are several QR/PDF417 scanners on the app store, but we usually use either the ClearImage Online Barcode Decoder or the OnLine Barcode Decoder.

Yes, if you created your pass with us. All passes have a link that will generate the pass. With the API, you can distribute links via email to generate customized passes. You can also choose to include a share link in the pass to share similar passes with friends without disclosing a particular user's data. Note that if you share the link to a public pass with an update link, anyone with that link will be able to update your pass contents so please use the share link provided instead.

Warning: Technical info ahead! The Starbucks app generates a PDF417 barcode that is missing the stop pattern from the end. Codes generated like this are usable but more prone to failure if one of the data codewords are damaged (which is not really an issue on a device's screen). That's why there's such a big difference between the two. Also, Apple assembles the codewords in a slightly different pattern that looks different then the Starbucks app's pattern. But, the code is decipherable by a 2d scanner as the same output string. That being said, we make no guarantees that it will work for you. You'll just have to try it and see! The Starbucks card number should be replaced with your own number. The number we used was the number of Jonathan's card. It is unlikely to work.

Our passes support everything Apple's passbook supports, so that does include geofenced presentation on the lock screen for up to 10 locations you specify when creating the template or pass. Please refer to Apple's documentation on relevancy features for how the relevant location and time fields interact with the various passes.

Currently, these merchants do not support the 2D barcode requirement set by Apple to use Passbook, so until they do, the merchant must type in your card number manually. The best way to get these merchants to support Passbook is to contact them and let them know how much you want Passbook support. An example script and contact information can be found at http://www.passsource.com/request.php.

The "point" depends on what you're trying to do. If you're trying to get all your life digitized and get rid of your keytags and paper and cards, then the "point" is to get businesses on board so that everyone is moving forward on the same page. If you'd like to continue using your physical card, by all means continue to do so. Our service is for people who like being cutting edge or who want to be environmentally responsible by cutting waste. We can help companies do this, but the customers need to put pressure on the companies to encourage them to do so.

Some of our demo templates have special updaters built in, but in order to update, you will need to flip the card around to the back side by pressing the (i) button in the lower right of the pass and then tapping on the update link. Other passes are just shells (like a blank piece of stationary) where you can write in your information to keep it with you. Unfortunately this is currenly a manual process but companies can use our API to push updates to their passes. These passes will not get any update benefit until the company decides to support Apple's Passbook. To encourage them to do so, contact them (information can be found at our requests page).

The companies who issue the cards need to have claimed the account and linked up their code in order for updates to work. Please contact the company and request that they claim their card here. Or let us know and we can try to write a manual updater for the card.

Unfortunately, standard 1D barcodes do not scan very well with many scanners (lasers usually won't pick it up at all and many companies do not have optical scanners). Apple has decided to only support QR, Aztec, and PDF417 formatted barcodes in Passbook. We would suggest filing a bug report if you're a developer (we already have) or sending them a message at http://www.apple.com/feedback if you'd like them to add this support. We know there are several companies with scanners that do support scanning 1D barcodes off a phone screen and we'd love to be able to offer our services to them.

Personal and Professional accounts have access to a template editor which allows changing of all images.

There is no charge to create and use our demo pass templates. If you'd like to customize images or use the API, take a look at our pricing page for details.

Our website is not the only way of creating passes. You could of course have your own web server, build out the passes by hand, and use your own SSL signing certificate to sign it, register with Apple's push notification servers to do the updates, and check their feedback server for errors, but if most of that went over your head, our site is probably the way you want to go.

We would suggest contacting the company before anything else. Passes really need to be created by the merchant in order to be useful and have balance updating. Be sure to tell the company you're interested! We can make any kind of pass you want but you'll need to have at least a Personal Account to view it. See our pricing page for pricing and details.

We have just launched a new visual and template editor that should eliminate the need to know any JSON (or even what JSON is). This simple interface (we're working on simplifying and clarifying it…if you have any ideas, email us!) will allow you to specify the fields and specify which fields users can edit as well as adding fields and re-arranging fields.

Payments through PayPal through our subscription link use instant payment notification so your account should be active immediately upon payment completion.

We believe in simplicity and not nickel-and-diming customers so we do not impose any artificial limits to the number of passes for either personal or professional accounts. If an individual account is abusing the system, we will need to discuss, however, you may consider the accounts unlimited as our servers have been serving thousands of passes daily without issue.

Our passes are never automatically removed from a Passbook once they are added, so you can create as many passes for yourself as you want during your first month without fear that they will disappear when your month ends. If you wish to distribute your business card to others, you can link to the specific pass you create and update your information on the pass and everyone who has the pass will get an update as long as your subscription is active. However, if you do not have an active subscription, you will not be able to update your passes or modify them or create new copies of them.

The subscription is for a month's access to PassSource.com for creating custom templates and passes for Apple's Passbook.

If you only wanted to try it out, you can cancel your subscription and continue to create templates until your subscription expires. At that point, any passes created will still work, you just will not be able to update them or create new ones.

If you have a personal account, passes only appear if they are created while you're logged in so make sure you go to http://www.passsource.com on your phone if that's where you're creating them and log in with your account.

If you've already purchased the personal account and want to upgrade, just let us know when you've purchased the professional account and we'll refund the personal account payment.

Yes, you may distribute a specific pass, however, access to the API for creating and tracking new passes is only available to our professional accounts. Additionally, personal passes cannot use any PassScan features for invalidating or updating passes. This would work fine for a generic coupon, flyer, or business card, but would not work for loyalty cards, tickets, or store cards, or single-use coupons.

1. Go to http://www.passsource.com
2. Click the large "Join or Login" button.
3. Enter your email and a password.
4. Click Account Info.
5. Click Upgrade to personal account and purchase using PayPal.

It depends on how you integrate it. If you are creating a pass that your scanners will scan, then your system will act just as if their membership expires with a traditional physical pass. If you're using our PassScan solution, you can update values on the pass and update the scanning logic to flag it as invalidated when they try to scan it. Hope this answers your question. Email us if you need more specifics: support+passsource@kudit.com.

Most definitely! The first thing you'll need to know is if your existing system scans 2d barcodes (QR, PDF417 or Aztec format). If so, setting this up will be a piece of cake. All you would need to do is create a template for your business and then distribute passes to the members (or we can create a widget for your website where they can enter their member number and have it create a pass for them). If you have a list of emails linked to the member numbers, you could send out an email blast to the members with links to passes specifically for their barcode. If you don't need the pass to display any account information, there's no need to integrate with any software so that keeps things simple. In order to distribute passes and create your own template, you will need a professional account but we'll help you get everything set up and we can even help you design the pass.

If you don't have a 2d scanner, you have 3 options:

• You can upgrade or buy scanners that recognize 2D barcodes. More products are going to start using this so it could be a worthwhile (albeit expensive) investment. You might be able to get the company who manages your POS to do that and take the burden of cost.
• You could aquire a bunch of iPod touch devices (or old iPhones) to use as scanners. You can use our Pass Scanner app (free on the App Store) to scan passes. Depending on your needs, you will probably also want to create some bridge software that will allow our service to talk to your services. This requires making sure all your locations have wifi (or you're using data-enabled devices) and you will need to create the necessary integration code (we can help with that for an additional fee depending on the complexity of the system).
• You could bypass scanning entirely and just include information in plain text on the pass. While this is not the best experience for the user and eliminates a lot of the data and update benefits, it is the most cost effective option and even if you decide to implement one of the other options, this would be a great interim solution while systems are upgraded and installed. This would still allow your customers to add your passes and you would get a lot of good will and publicity in that fact alone.

Don't worry if this is all over your head. We can help you! Just tell us whatever you know about your system and we can take it from there.

We can certainly help with that. All you need to get this set up is a professional account and an iOS device with a good camera and our free Pass Scanner app from the App Store. Shoot us an email when you've signed up and we can help set up and create your template, give you QR codes to distribute your pass, and set up your scanner to start using the passes immediately!

There are multiple ways customers can acquire passes. Our passes are all able to be generated and downloaded via links, so you can either provide the customer with a customized link in an email blast, or post a link on your website or Facebook page, or create a QR code customers can scan or even send them a pass file if you prefer. We can help with any of those forms of distribution.

Our service does not require a developer certificate, however, if you are a big name, you will probably want to use your own certificate which you can provide to us and we can handle the heavy lifting of the notifications and pass signing.

Yes. We do offer a professional account you can purchase from your account page. That enables access to the API and distribution of passes as well as updating passes with push notifications.

Yes, we are tracking pass installs and creations and updates and we are planning on creating an analytics dashboard. What kinds of information would you like to see? We currently have some analytics available via the API which include the number of passes created for each of your templates. Please share with us your thoughts so that we can make this give you exactly the information you want and need.

Of course! Just shoot us an email and tell us some of the specifics about your system and what you'd like to do! We have an API for PassSource so you can integrate these features without having to know anything about generating passes or Apple's Update Services.

Currently, Pro account passes will be white-labeled unless marked as public (since public passes are viewable on PassSource.com). If they are marked as private, they are (should be) white-labeled. Let us know if this is not the case (note that if you create passes while logged in, we will include update links, however, this should not be visible for passes created via user links when you're logged out).

We believe in simplicity and not nickel-and-diming customers so we do not impose any artificial limits to the number of passes for either personal or professional accounts. If an individual account is abusing the system, we will need to discuss, however, you may consider the accounts unlimited as our servers have been serving thousands of passes daily without issue.

Please flip the pass over and tap and hold the update link and tap "Copy" when the sheet appears. Please include this link in your email so that we can troubleshoot the issue. Passes will only work with merchants whose scanners support 2D barcodes, so if you're creating your own pass, you should contact the company and tell them you want Passbook support.