Category:HWeb Agent

Looking up Locations in SubType in HWeb Agent

Using Location SubTypes in HWeb Agent

This is part II of an article started previously. In this section, we will review how to setup and configure your reservations system so that reservations agents will be able to make informed recommendations to clients seeking to visit specific types of locations. As an example: a visiting business traveller is looking to go to dinner in the area and prefers Italian food. Your reservations agent (who may be new, or not know the area well) will be able to quickly identify the Italian Restaurants in your service area, identify the types of entrees on the menu and even the cost of the entrees!  This information will all be gleaned from the Location Notes that have been created and linked to the locations in your fare file. These notes are quickly and easily accessed while still on the telephone with the client.

Before proceeding with the steps below, you will need to review and complete the preliminary setup and configuration steps. To review part I of this process, where you will learn how to setup and configure Location Notes, and then add location notes to your database click HERE.

The overall process here consists of building a series of small, custom dispatcher grids which will be filtered according to the location subtype. These small grids will be pulled into and displayed on the Fare and Availability screen on demand via a HotKey combination.

The ovarall steps:

1. Create a Folder named Location Notes in HWeb \ Templates on server
2. Build a grid for each Location SubType and save to the folder created above
3. Create HotKey / Fast Info Menu Items
   

Create a folder named LocationNotes on Server

1. Browse to the folder on your Network or server where Hudson files are stored. Typically this will be something similar to \\SERVERNAME \ Hudson \ HWeb \ Templates
2. Click File \ New \ Folder
3. Name the folder: LocationNotes

Build grids for each location subtype created in Step I of the process

If you already comfortable with building grids, follow this brief outline. If you prefer to download a pre-configured grid that can be copied and customized, skip down to the text underneath step 4.

1. In Dispatcher, open a new Notes View grid.
2. In Grid Layout, show the following fields, and apply the following filters and settings:
1. NoteType= Filter EQUAL Location Note, LN, LocNote, etc. and Hide Column
2. NoteType2 (Set Caption=Type)
   
3. Subject
4. LastUpdateBy
5. RecordUpdateTOD
   
6. Status= Filter EQUAL ACTIVE and Hide Column
   
7. Status2= Filter EQUAL OPEN and Hide Column
   
8. NotesTXT= Override Optimization and Hide Column
   
9. LocationKey= Override Optimization and Hide Column
3. In Grid Properties
1. Enable Auto Search
2. Center Form on Load
3. Close Form on ESC key
4. Read Only
5. Optimization = Automatic
6. Caption: Location Note Template
4. Save the grid with the Name: LocationNoteTemplate.gdf and save it in the LocationNotes folder, on the server, created in the first step above.
   

NOTE:  If you have always wanted to know how to build your own custom grids, and think this is a good time to learn,  Click HERE to go to a section of the Knowledge Base where you can download listen to HWeb Netcasts, audio training sessions (mp3 files)  that will step you through the process of creating and saving your own custom grids.

OR…. If you are not comfortable building custom grids, per the instructions above:
download the LocationNote.gdf attachment located at the top right side of this article, and save it to the LocationNotes folder, on the server, created in the very first step above.

Regardless of which of the processes above you used to create your master LocationNote template, the following steps remain the same.

Apply a filter to the NoteType2 column (Caption = Type)

1. Open your LocationNoteTemplate.gdf file in HWeb Dispatcher.
2. Right Click on column NoteType2 (Caption should be Type)
3. Select ‘Filter Column’
4. Select LIKE in the Value field
5. In the field to the right, enter R% (This will filter the display of all Location Notes and should allow only those starting with the letter R (Restaurants). The ’ % ’ symbol is a wild card that basically stops filtering after the first letter, and allows everything else that starts with the letter R to also be displayed.  If you have Restaurants and Race Tracks (for example) as two different subtypes, and you do not want them both displayed together on the same grid, then for Restaurants, your filter would be Re%.  When you then create a grid for Race Tracks, your filter will be Ra%.
   
6. Click OK - If you have already added LocationNotes to your system, with the SubType starting with letter R, they should now be displayed in your grid.
   
7. Right click on any of the column headers and select Grid Properties
8. In the Caption field - enter the name for this grid sub Type:  ex: Restaurants   Click OK
   
9. Select File - Save As
10. Browse the place on your network or server where the LocationNotes folder is, and double click to open it.
11. Save your new grid with the name Restaurants

Go back to step 1 in this section and repeat the process, creating grids for the other location subtypes you have previously defined.  The filter you apply to the NoteType2 column will depend on the subtypes you have defined. For example,  Hotels = H%,  Schools=Sc%, Theaters=T%, Sports venues= Sp%, etc.  Save each grid created in the same Location Notes folder on the network, and give it a unique name that corresponds to the data displayed in the grid. NOTE: When saving the gdf files, it is best to omit any spaces from the file name. For example: Sports Parks should be saved as SportsParks, or Sports_Parks, etc.

The process of creating and saving these grids will go fairly quickly.

Building the HotKey/FastInfo Items

Tools / Configuration / HotKey FastInfo

1. Click White Paper Icon to create new item
2. Profile = <Any>
3. Record Type = ‘Fast Info Menu (fare and availability only)’
4. Caption = Restaurants
5. Priority = 1
6. Function = ‘File open (view only, modal)’
7. Parameters = Double click this blank field. You will then be able to browse your network or server and locate the LocationNotes folder where you have saved the grids created in the preceding step. Double click the Folder and then click / highlight the grid named ‘Restaurants.gdf’  and say OPEN.  You will be returned to the HK/Fast Info configuration window and the directory and path to the Restaurants.gdf file will be displayed in the parameters field.
   
8. Click Update

Return to step 1 and repeat the process, creating a new FastInfo menu entry for each of the Location Note subtype grids you have previously created.  In each case, assign it the appropriate Caption (ex. Hotels, Theaters, Sports Parks, etc) and a different priority (2, 3, 4, etc).  By adjusting the priority number, you can change where on the list this subtype will appear.  1=top of the list, with higher numbers appearing in sequence underneath, with the highest priority number at the botton.  The priority number could be incremented in steps of 5 (5, 10, 15, 20)  to allow for others to be inserted later, if needed. 

Now for the Fun…. you can see the result of your time, effort and labor!

• Open HWeb Agent
• Start a Reservation in the normal manner.
• From the Fare and Availability screen, press ALT + I keys together.  This will open the FastInfo menu on the screen, listing the Location Sub Types available from the previous section: Restaurants, Hotels, Theaters, etc.
• You can use the UP and DOWN arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate to the desired category, or you can press the first letter of the desired category on the keyboard (ex: ’ H ’ will open Hotels).
• When the Location Notes grid opens, all locations that have been added, and are of the proper type (ex: Restaurant) will be displayed.  To Sort all displayed notes, simply Click one time on the caption at the top of the column = TYPE.  Now all Italian, Chinese, Seafood Restaurnats, etc. will be grouped togethter,
  
• Double click any of the lines in the Location Notes grid to open and view the note associated with that location. This is where detailed information, menus,  Web site addresses and other information is very useful. When finished with the note,  press ESC (escape) key, typically at top left of the keyboard to close the note.
• Continue with the reservation - selecting the desired (Restaurant) location in your location drop down menu.  If you need to reopen the note assoicated with that restaurant, simply highlight it in the Location field and press CTRL + N keys, as was learned in Step I of this process.
  

Congratulations!

Categories:

• HWeb Agent