$Id: GIATA-Flip-Cat.xml 1388 2007-07-31 14:35:27Z marc-a $
Copyright © 2006-2008 GIATA mbH
Table of Contents
Abstract
The GIATA Flip-Cat offers a virtual representation of travel agency brochures.
Your customers can go through the catalogues page by page, enlarge certain pages for a closer look, download the corresponding PDF files, search for content with an index and much more.
It is also possible for customers to view current offers, for example with links from the catalogue page to an Internet booking engine.
This document explains how you can integrate the GIATA Flip-Cat into your webpages and which options are available to you.
The GIATA Flip-Cat uses Shockwave Flash® technology from Adobe® (previously called Macromedia®). To avoid problems for the end consumer, we recommend that you check for the appropriate browser plug-ins before displaying the GIATA Flip-Cat. We will gladly offer assistance if you have any questions about this process. The GIATA Flip-Cat requires at least version 6 of the Flash® plug-ins (the newest is version 9). Once version 7 becomes more widespread, it is possible that we will only support 7 and higher. We will inform you of this in advance.
There are currently two options for integrating the GIATA Flip-Cat into your website: a link that opens a pop-up window/a new page with the GIATA-Flip-Cat, or an I-frame, in which the GIATA-Flip-Cat is loaded.
In both cases, you must decide whether you wish to integrate the GIATA-Flip-Cat as a ready-made application or custom program the integration for yourself. The latter requires programming skills and is only recommended for experienced developers.
![[Caution]](images/caution.gif) | Please Note: |
|---|---|
Please note that integration as a ready-made application and integration with your own programming require different contracts. It is not possible to use both types with just one contract. |
Integration as a ready-made application is definitely the simplest option: In the admin account, you can use the link generator to create the most important links and integrate them into your webpage.
You also have the opportunity to include a link to your IBE in our database, so that one click on an offer in the Flip-Cat will redirect customers to your IBE with the corresponding offer. If interested, please contact our support team, who will go over the details with you and arrange the activation of this service.
You can log in as administrator with the following link (you will of course need your user-ID):
http://www.extranethotelguide.de/bookable.php?uid=XXX&com=useradmin
After entering your admin password, which you should have received from us, you will be logged in to the admin account, where you will find a link to the link generator, among other things.
In the link generator, you will find the input fields "width" and "height", where you can set the dimensions (in pixels) of the application. Please note that the settings for width and height are not completely unrestricted. There are minimum dimensions, which are dependent on the link generator settings. If the input values are too small, the link generator will alert you and automatically correct the dimensions.
You will also find a list box with the title "frame", with which you can decide whether or not a travel agency selection should appear via the Flip-Cat itself.
Then there is a list box with the title "size", with which you can decide whether the Flip-Cats should appear in the standard size or in the maximum size (XL). This only pertains to the Flip-Cats themselves. Other pages, such as the travel agency overview, remain to a large extent unaffected by this setting; the application will merely require larger dimensions.
Finally, you will find a list box called "display" in the link generator, from which you can create links for three main categories:
This is where you get the link to the travel agency overview. It looks like this:
This is where you get an overview of a travel agency's catalogues.
After selecting this item, a travel agency selection box appears. From this list, the desired travel agency can be chosen.
Using DERTOURS as an example, this is what a travel agency overview looks like:
Here is a link to an individual catalogue.
Under this item, you will find an additional item in the frame list box: "unframed catalogue". Unframed cataloges are displayed without any kind of decoration, such as navigation or travel agency selection.
In addition, there is a list box called "size", with which you can set the catalogue size. You can choose between the standard size and the maximum size (XL). Please note that both catalogue sizes require certain minimum values for the width and height of the application. If the input values are too small, the link generator will alert you and automatically correct the dimensions. The minimum values also depend on whether a travel agency selection is to be visible or not or whether the catalogue is to be displayed without any kind of decoration (list box "frame").
For the standard catalogue size, the application requires minimum dimensions of 670x631 pixels (width x height) with travel agency selection, 670x601 pixels without travel agency selection and 640x520 pixels for no decoration at all.
For the maximum catalogue size (XL), the application requires minimum dimensions of 984x827 pixels (width x height) with travel agency selection, 984x787 pixels without travel agency selection and 954x706 pixels for no decoration at all.
You will need access to the GIATA XML interface because you will have to go to the current URL via this interface regularly.
The general documentation for the GIATA XML interface can be found under
http://www.giata-xml.de/dokumentation/.
If you have questions about the GIATA XML interface
or require access, please contact
Ms. Gerlinde Müller <gerlinde.mueller@giata.de>.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to provide all catalogues as GIATA Flip-Cats. You can use the GIATA XML interface to determine which catalogues are available as GIATA Flip-Cats.
To do so, load the catalogue list of a travel agency (the travel agency Neckermann is used here as an example, code 'nec', excerpt):
http://www.giata-xml.de/index.php?uid=xxx&pwd=xxx&sc=list&list=catalog&vc=nec
<CatalogList>
<cr>
<cn>Preisknüller Sonne & Meer Winter 2006/2007</cn>
<cid>4255</cid>
<cid_infox/>
<flipcat>0</flipcat>
<pdf_url/>
</cr>
<cr>
<cn>Flugreisen Winter 2006/2007</cn>
<cid>4067</cid>
<cid_infox/>
<flipcat>1</flipcat>
<pdf_url/>
</cr>
<cr>
...From the output of such a query, you can determine whether a Flip-Cat exists for a particular catalogue: if the item 'flipcat' has a value of '1', then the Flip-Cat exists, if it has a value of '0', then it doesn't. If you require a catalogue that does not yet exist as a Flip-Cat, don't hesitate to contact us.
Once you have completed such a query and determined that the catalogue in question exists as a Flip-Cat, you must note its catalogue-ID (item 'cid'). As a general rule, this catalogue-ID is unchangeable, so you only need to look it up once. (exception: subsequent editions of a given catalogue are assigned new catalogue-IDs and treated as separate Flip-Cats).
In order to be able to react more flexibly to potential server outages and overloads, you must detect the servers separately from the URL path and also, ideally, more frequently.
To do so, go to the following URL (with your access data, of course):
http://www.giata-xml.de/index.php?uid=xxx&pwd=xxx&sc=list&list=flipcat_server
<serverlist>
<service name="flipcat">
<servers>
<server>
<scheme>http</scheme>
<host>flipcat1.giata-web.de</host>
<port>80</port>
<capacity>60</capacity>
</server>
<server>
<scheme>http</scheme>
<host>flipcat2.giata-web.de</host>
<port>80</port>
<capacity>40</capacity>
</server>
</servers>
</service>
</serverlist>The sum of all 'capacity' item values is 100. Servers with a value of '0' for the 'capacity' item should be ignored. The larger the value of the 'capacity' item, the more you should use the corresponding server.
Once you have the catalogue-ID, you can determine the URL path for the Flip-Cat in question by going to the following URL (again, have your access data on hand; abridged output):
http://www.giata-xml.de/index.php?uid=xxx&pwd=xxx&sc=flipcat&katid=4067
<flipcat catalogId="4067">
<urlPath>/index.php?fc=MTE1NzMxMDM1NnwaRDlAUYoqfH...</urlPath>
</flipcat>If you wish to link to another page (e.g. to an IBE) from the GIATA-Flip-Cat, you must enter here at least the constant part of the URL of the page you want to link to. You also have the opportunity at this point to assign the target, in which the linked page should later be opened.
The constant part of the URL of the page you want to link to
is the entire URL, e.g.
http://www.meine_ibe.com/booking/index.php?from=flipcat&vc={vc}&oc={oc}&gid={gid}
&page={page}&uid=12345&KID=840000&SessionID=d1dc429b
So here, for example, you should enter:
http://www.meine_ibe.com/booking/index.php?from=flipcat&vc={vc}&oc={oc}&gid={gid}
&page={page}
(because you might wish to individually regulate the user-ID and session-ID separately for every request - see below).
The name of the window that you want to link to.
| URL-Encoding Your Parameter |
|---|---|
Please remember to encode the values that you input with the URL! |
Example:
http://www.giata-xml.de/index.php?uid=xxx&pwd=xxx&sc=flipcat&katid=4067&redirectUrl
=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.meine_ibe.com%2Fbooking%2Findex.php%3Ffrom
%3Dflipcat%26vc%3D%7Bvc%7D%26oc%3D%7Boc%7D%26gid%3D%7Bgid%7D
%26page%3D%7Bpage%7D&redirectTarget=_blank
| Caution |
|---|---|
Please note that these URLs have limited validity and must be updated regularly. Do not use URLs that are more than 12 hours old! |
The URL, which you have thus determined via the GIATA XML interface, can be supplemented by the following GET parameters:
The width of the Flash film (default: 640 pixels).
e.g. ...&width=720
Please note that for many catalogues, a width of less than 630 pixels is problematic (600 pixels, provided bookmarks are switched off). The width of the Flash film does not affect the size of the catalogue, but rather the size of the enlarged view. Additionally, if you wish to display offers on the right and/or left (see below), you should choose the width accordingly.
The height of the Flash film (default: 520 pixels).
e.g. ...&height=640
Please note that for most catalogues, a height of less than 520 pixels is problematic. Ideally, this value should be set higher, so that the enlarged view is displayed sufficiently large.
Indicates whether the XL version should be displayed (default: normal version).
e.g. ...&xl=1
Please note that you must also set the width and height of the Flash film large enough; the width must be at least 924 pixels (with bookmarks, 954 pixels) and the height, at least 706 pixels. If the dimensions are too small, the smaller Flip-Cat version will be displayed.
With the XL version, offers can only appear as pop-ups or be completely suppressed.
The background colour in six-digit, hexadecimal form (default: FFFFFF).
e.g. ...&bgcolor=A5CDEF for a light blue background.
Please note that older Flash players may not interpret this correctly.
If the GIATA Flip-Cat is to be displayed in a pop-up window, you may wish to customise the title of the page.
e.g. ...&title=Willkommen+bei+Reise-ABC
Please note that the string for the URL must be encoded.
Possible values: 1, 0 (default: 1)
e.g. ...&bookmarks=0
If you wish to display the GIATA Flip-Cat without the option of adding bookmarks to the pages, enter '0' here.
The GIATA cagalogue hotel-ID. If the offer designated by the GIATA catalogue hotel-ID exists in the catalogue loaded, then the Flip-Cat will be opened to the corresponding page.
e.g. ...&chid=811106
The page number. If the catalogue loaded has the appropriate number of pages, then the Flip-Cat will open on the corresponding page.
e.g. ...&page=42
You can display the offers of a double page and add a link (to an IBE, for example) and a link target to them. This link and link target must be provided by you (the first part should have been given already, upon accessing the XML interface). In order to identify the offer being clicked on, you can integrate the following placeholders into the link, which are allocated the corresponding values by the GIATA Flip-Cat:
The travel agency code, for example NEC for Neckermann.
The object code (EDV code) for the offer, for example 'SSH 39117A'.
The GIATA-ID of the offer.
The GIATA catalogue-ID of the catalogue displayed.
The page in the catalogue, on which the offer begins.
The GIATA internal offer-ID for this offer.
The variable part of this URL (the session-IDs, user-ID etc., not the aforementioned placeholders) can be added here - it will then be attached to the part that you entered upon accessing the URL path via the XML interface.
| Caution |
|---|---|
Please note that you must enter the first, constant, non-variable part of the URL via the XML interface! It is not possible to enter the URL exclusively and completely at this point. |
The following GET parameters serve to regulate these offer links:
Possible values: popup, left, right, both, no (default: no)
e.g. ...&offers=popup
Determines where the offers are displayed. With 'popup', they will be displayed on the page only after a click. With the other values, they will be displayed to the right and/or left of the Flip-Cat. In the latter cases, please remember to sufficiently adjust the width of the Flash film via the GET parameters.
Please note that in the XL version, offers can only appear as pop-ups or be completely suppressed.
Here, you should enter the variable part of the URL. Make sure that this part, together with the part you already entered in the XML interface, forms a valid URL, after the GIATA Flip-Cat has replaced the placeholders with the travel agency code, object code etc. (bear in mind combining characters, such as '&'). Also make sure that the value is correctly URL-encoded.
e.g. ...&redirectUrlAdd=%26uid%3D12345%26KID%3D840000%26SessionID%3Dd1dc429b
If you have not entered a target in the XML interface, this can also be entered here.
e.g....&redirectTarget=meinIbeFenster