Auto-register people for events based on membership

Question

We are going to introduce a new tier of membership to our organization that gives people unlimited access to certain category of events. So the event would typically cost $X, but if you are a member, the event is free.

I know that I can use CiviDiscount to let the user register for $0. But as a value-add, I'd like to actually auto-register them for the event. I'm looking for validation of how I might do this.

Here are some things I have thought of...are there others you would suggest? Which of these do you think would work best or easiest?

• Could I use CiviRules? So...trigger on new event create, filter by type of event, action is register anyone with membership X? I don't honestly know if CiviRules could do that but it was a thought.
• Could I create a Drupal view that lets a member of our back-office team select an event from a list, and select a membership, and then executes some kind of VBO or Rule that registers those people?
• Could I use webform? Perhaps create a webform that pre-selects people in membership X and lets a back-office member quickly register than on a selected event?
• Could I use the Civi API and write a script (perhaps that I trigger by cron) to register people with the right membership to events?

Thank you

Answer 1

You can already do this (manually) by searching for the contacts with a certain membership (advanced search) and then select the action register participants for an event.

Answer 2

We have used VBO for changing registration status so if this was not yet currently an option for adding people to the event it feels like not a big stretch, but since automated would be the best route i would be looking down the Drupal Rules approach if civirules can't offer it