How to Skip the Hudson Web System Welcome Page

One of the best ways to "drive" people to your online reservation system is to provide clearly defined links to the reservation system throughout your marketing web site.  Rather than place a button or link on your site with the label: "Click here to reserve now…" or similar, why not add labels, graphics or icons to your page(s) that immediately launch the booking process and change that label to something like  "Click here for a Boston departure" or similar.


If you manage your own website you can take the next steps on your own. If you have a web designer or administrator then show them this article and ask them to update your website for you.

By taking the following URLs (Internet links) and embedding it in an image, graphic, icon or button on your website, you can lead clients to your web reservation system and bypass the main or welcome page of your reservation site.  The welcome page is typically where a client will select from  Arrival / Departure, One Way / Round Trip,  Verify / Cancel, etc.  

In the following URLs, you would replace CLIENTALIAS with the name hudson has assigned to your company.  Please contact Hudson Tech Support for help with your ClientAlias, if you do not already know it.  After each URL is a sample string for a fictitious company that has the alias  "acmelimo."

Book One Way Departure:

Book One Way Arrival

Book Round Trip (First leg is Departure)

Book Round Trip (First leg is Arrival)

Verify or Cancel an existing Reservation

Printing a Reservation Receipt

<http://CLIENTALIAS.hudsonltd.net/res?SELECTRESP=SELECT>

example:   http://acmelimo.hudsonltd.net/res?SELESTRESP=SELECT

Define the Airport too!

Book One Way Departure from Boston Logan Airport

Add the GroupID for Custom Buttons
Insert the code GROUPID=XXXXXXXX into the strings presented above and you can specify a Group Profile to use when initiating the reservation process. Replace the XXXXX above with the group profile web account login name.  When a GroupID is specified, all fare and discount rules applicable to the Group Profile will be loaded and followed during the reservation process.

example:   http://acmelimo.hudsonltd.net/res?SELDEP=DEP&GROUPID=WIDGETCO

HWeb Agent 101 - Reservation Entry

Reservation Entry

In this simple to follow basic level presentation, the first time user will follow the steps to enter an airport arrival reservation for a first time caller.  The user will need to login to HWeb Agent with a valid username and password and should be positioned at the main welcome screen before commencing.

It is suggested that the user create the test reservation using their own name and home / business address to aid in locating and canceling the reservation after it is saved.  The date used should be some date sufficiently advanced in the future so as not to appear on any current or scheduling Dispatcher grids.  The basic topics covered are:

• Fare and Availability screen navigation
  
• Navigating the tabs of the Reservation screen
• Saving a reservation

So pull up a chair, sit back and learn Reservation Entry in HWeb Agent.

File:HWeb Agent 101.mp3


Running time this netcast: 32 minutes.

Things You Can Do to Change the Appearance of HWeb iQuick

Adjust default Weave pattern (on the front page and login page)

The default weave pattern can now be turned off by going to your main web reservation site and adjusting one of the tokens. After logging in to the web reservation site, select Favorites—> Token Configuration. In the list of available tokens locate and select IQUICK_PATTERN_OFF.  Type the word “NONE” or any other word, symbol or value into this token string field. Click Update to save changes.

If your desire is to change from the Weave pattern to some other Image or background, then open the token IQUICK_PATTERN_URL as described above and enter into the token an image URL. This would be the place on the web (or your web reservation site / images subfolder) where the background image has been stored.

A note about images and patterns:
Any repeating pattern, no matter the dimension, should work. If it’s a non-repeating pattern, like an image, Then the height should be 210px (pixels). The eidth is variable because it depends on screen size of the device (ex: iPhone compared to iPad). Any images should not depend on a set width. One thing to note is that the image will be repeated when its screen width has been reached so the width of an image should be fairly high if you do not want the repeating “effect.”  Repeating patterns may be created and may be found online. For examples of free patterns, please visit: http://pattern8.com/

Home Button Configuration

The Home button (in the upper toolbar) can now be configured to direct the user to a custom URL by setting the IQUICK_HOME_URL token. After logging in to the web reservation site, select Favorites—> Token Configuration. In the list of available tokens locate and select IQUICK_HOME_URL.  In the space available, enter in the complete URL of the page or site that you want mobile users to be directed to. This might be your main or primary web marketing site, or some other appropriate site.  The URL should be entered in the format of:  http://www.website_name.com/page_name

Quick Filters

*****This Article being edited / revised January 2012…. check back for updates*******

Quick Filtering is a technology that can be used to apply filters “on-the-fly” to any default or custom grid in HWeb Dispatcher by using an easy to see pull down menu. To download a sample grid that may be used while viewing the remainder of this article, and which has examples of various types of quick filters see the link immediately below.  Save this gdf file to your standard network Hudson Templates folder.  Once saved, you can launch your HWeb Dispatcher application, select File—> Open—> and then browse to and select the sample.gdf file.

If you have had to use this second link, your browser should have displayed a page that shows a large amount of text.  This is the “essence” of content of a Grid Definition File (gdf).  Here is how you can create your own local gdf file, manually:

 
1. Highlight the entire page ( CTRL + A keys )
 
2. Copy the highlighted content (  CTRL + C keys )
 
3. Using Notepad or similar application on your computer, create a new blank document on your computer named QuickFilterSample.txt
 
4. Open this new black text document and then paste the content from the web page displayed above (  CTRL + V keys)
 
5. Click File—> Save
 
6. Move the QuickFiltersSample.txt document and place in your Hudson \  HWeb \ Templates directory
 
7. Right click on the file and select—> Rename
 
8. Change the name to QuickFiltersSample.gdf

These are the current Quick Filters to be explained:

• Cell Filter
• Quick Filter
• User Filter

Cell Fliter

A cell filter allows a user to click any single cell in a displayed grid, select the Cell Filter command, and the rest of the grid will refresh, showing ONLY those records where the data in that same column will match the selected cell. 
Examples:

• Applying a Cell Filter to a Flight Number field will force the grid to only display other reservations with that same Flight Number
• Applying a Cell Filter to a Pickup Date will force the grid to then only display other reservations with the same Pickup Date

After the information has been reviewed, you may simply “clear” the Cell Filter, and the grid reverts to its original or default condition.  To enable and configure Cell Filter:

1. Open your grid
2. Right click on any one of the column headers and select Grid Properties
3. Select the tab labeled “Quick Filters”
4. In the Filter column enter the uppercase word (with per cent symbols immediately before and after the word CELLFILTER): CELLFILTER
5. In the Caption column type the name that will appear in your quick filter pull-down menu: “Filter on Cell: CELLFILTERTITLE” or something similar. NOTE: You must put a percent symbol immediately before and after the word CELLFILTERTITLE
6. The next column Default? will automatically be checked, which indicates that the default grid title column color will be used. If you want to apply a different color when the quick filter is in use (strongly suggested), uncheck Default? and select a color in the Title color column
7. The final column is Description and is not a required field. It may be used as a way of noting what the entered filter is designed to do.

Save the changes to your grid before proceeding.
Close and reopen the grid.
Click on any cell in your grid - the one that you want to use as your filter (ex: Airline, Flight Number, etc.).
If you now look at the grid, you will see a small, downward facing arrow in the top right corner of the grid, adjacent to the “X” and Pushpin icons.
If you use your mouse to click this down arrow, you should see:

• Clear current selection
• Filter on Cell

Select the Filter on Cell option.  After clicking, your grid should refresh and display only records that match the originally selected value. Note that there is a colored border around your grid indicating that this is a “filtered” grid and that the Caption at the top of the Grid has been modified as well and reads Filter on Cell: Airline United Airlines (or similar).
To remove the Filter, click the down facing arrow again and user your mouse to select “Clear current selection.”

Quick Filter

Similar to a Cell Filter above, a Quick Filter allows you to pre-determine the cells you might want to be able to filter on and then present them to users as a menu of preconfigured filtering options to select from. Currently 10 distinct Quick Filters can be applied to any single grid definition file. To apply a quick filter:

1. Open your grid
2. Right click on any one of the column headers and select Grid Properties
3. Select the tab labeled “Quick Filters”
4. In the Filter column enter your desired custom filter string (e.g. Direction=’A’, will show arrivals only)
5. In the Caption column type the name that will appear in both your quick filter pull-down menu and in the caption of the grid when the filter is applied (e.g. Arrivals Only)
6. The next column Default? will automatically be checked, which indicates that the default grid title column color will be used. If you want to apply a different color when the quick filter is in use (strongly suggested), uncheck Default? and select a color in the Title color column
7. The Text column Override is used if you want to override an existing filter. For example if the quick filter Direction=’A’ is used and your grid already had a primary filter of Direction=’D’ the result would be the display of BOTH arrivals and departures. Unless the Override column contained the column direction which would indicate that the grid show ONLY show arrivals.
The final column is Description and is not a required field. It may be used as a way of noting what the entered filter is designed to do.

Save the changes to your grid before proceeding.
If you now look at the grid, you will see a small, downward facing arrow in the top right corner of the grid, adjacent to the “X” and Pushpin icons.
If you use your mouse to click this down arrow, you should see:

• Clear current selection
• Arrivals Only

Select the Arrivals Only option.  After clicking, your grid should refresh and display only records that match the selected menu value (Arrival Reservations).
To remove the Filter, click the down facing arrow again and user your mouse to select “Clear current selection.”
Quick filters are a great addition to both default and customized grids; they save you time from creating multiple grids to display the same columns with different filters applied. The filter syntax in Quick Filters can be complex, so if you wish to utilize a complex Quick filter, simply email support@hudsonltd.com with your desired end result and someone from Tech support will format the filter and email back to you. For example, if you were to build a primary grid that is filtered on TODAY, but you want to see tomorrow’s records, you would type (int(PickupTOD)=#%TOMORROW%#) into your filter column of quick filter, and type PickupTOD into your Override column.

User Filter

Ver 1.93 Build 4893
The more robust User Filter, allows you to build more complex and robust grid filtering on-the-fly. NOTE: User Filters are not saved.  You use this functionality on a grid to obtain the desired results, but do not save the filtering criteria for later use!  If you want to be able to save the filter for others to see and use, you should consider the Quick Filter option, outlined above.

The first step is to define which Items or Fields in your Grid you want to be able to dynamically filter on. For our example we will say that we want to include:

 
• PickupTOD
 
• ProfileIDParent
 
• ServiceType
 
• Name

Right click on any one of the grid column headings and select “Grid Layout”
Locate the first field to be included in the filter (e.g.  PickupTOD)
Scroll across the layout options and make the following settings:

 
1. Quick View Filter Show? = checked
 
2. Quick View Filter priority = 0 (will be displayed first / at top of window)
 
3. Quick View Filter Prompt ovr (override) = From,To (or Start Date,End Date; Begin,End or whatever you want your date range labels to be)
 
4. Quick View Filter suppress NL (New Line)? = leave unchecked and the next filter option will be displayed beneath this one. Check this box and the next filter option will be displayed next to (the right of) this one. For this example, leave unchecked.
 
5. Quick View Filter width ovr (override) = leave blank to accept default field width values**. Change to a new or different value if you want the field width to be less than or greater than default field width values**.
 
6. Repeat these same column settings for the other fields to be included in the list, but change the Priority for each (1, 2, 3, etc. to adjust its position relative to the other filters), Change the Filter Prompt ovr to change the name of the column label (ex: Group Profile (instead of ProfileParentID), Vehicle (instead of ServiceType), etc.

Now that the fields have been selected and defined above, to enable the User Filter(s):

 
1. Open your grid
 
2. Right click on any one of the column headers and select Grid Properties
 
3. Select the tab labeled “Quick Filters”
 
4. In the Filter column enter the uppercase word (with per cent symbols immediately before and after the word USERFILTER/li>  
5. In the Menu column type the name that will appear in your quick filter pull-down menu: Filter Range,  USERFILTERTITLE or something similar. NOTE: You must put a percent symbol immediately before and after the word USERFILTERTITLE
 
6. The next column Default? will automatically be checked, which indicates that the default grid title column color will be used. If you want to apply a different color when the quick filter is in use (strongly suggested), uncheck Default? and select a color in the Title color column
 
7. The final column is Description and is not a required field. It may be used as a way of noting what the entered filter is designed to do.

Save the changes to your grid before proceeding.
Close and reopen the grid.
If you now look at the grid, you will see a small, downward facing arrow in the top right corner of the grid, adjacent to the “X” and Pushpin icons.
If you use your mouse to click this down arrow, you should see:

 
• Clear current selection
 
• Filter on Cell
 
• Filter Range

Select the Filter Range option.  A Quick View dialog box will now open, and will display the fields that may be included in your filter: Start Date, End Date, Group Profile, Vehicle, etc., allowing you to set one or more filtering criteria. You will note in this example you have applied a very quick and easy Pickup Date.  Click “OK” when the filtering criteria are set and your grid will redraw and display the desired informatio
n.
To remove the Filter, click the down facing arrow again and user your mouse to select “Clear current selection.”

KnowledgeBase Tip - Discovering Filter Strings!

As mentioned several places above, you need to enter a Filter String when creating a Quick Filter. In the example above, we used ‘Direction=‘A’  when building a Quick Filter. Well what should you do if you don’t happen to know that this was the string of text that you needed to use?  There is a solution that may help you.  Try this example…

 
1. In HWeb Dispatcher, click File—> New—> Reservations View
 
2. Locate and right click on the column heading Operation
 
3. Select “Filter Column”
 
4. Set 1st drop list = EQUAL,  2nd drop list = Cancelled
 
5. with the grid now refreshed and filtered on cancelled reservations, right click again on any of the column headings and select “Grid Layout”
 
6. Select “View Filters”
 
7. Note the syntax and format of the string displayed: Operation=‘C’
 
8. Write down or copy this displayed string. This is how the Filter will be entered in the Quick Filter instructions noted above.

Repeating for other column headings you wish to create filters for will allow the system to generate and display for you the proper filter command or syntax. After a little practice, you will become familiar with the most common filtering strings. If you are having trouble coming up with the desired filter string / syntax, send Hudson Tech Support an email and we would be pleased to assist.

Migrating from TSL01 to TSL02

If you have been connecting to Hudson’s First Generation Load Balancer, TSL01, these are the steps you will need to take to migrate to the Second Generation Load Balancer.  Migrating to this interface requires some updates to your local computer hardware to ensure that connection speeds are optimal and that printing can be enabled (Note: TSL01 utilized UniPrint as the printing service. TSL02 does not use UniPrint). Following these notes will allow you to complete the migration. If you have any questions, please contact Hudson Technical Support and ask for our Network Engineering department.  For more information about Load Balancing, please visit this article: Migration to Load Balancing.

Recommendations and notes:

 
1. Attempt this with a Windows XP machine first
 
2. Do this one machine at a time
 
3. If you happen to be using a HP p1102w printer do not attempt this (tsl02 will use Remote Desktop Easy Print instead of Uniprint- this particular model is problematic with Easy Print)
 
4. Printing may be slower with EasyPrint (2-3 minutes). Keep the users on tsl02 as much as possible (If users absolutely need to print quickly you can move them back to TSL01)
 
5. Hudson highly recommends you let us make the necessary changes via a remote session at least for the first computer. However if you would much rather follow these steps yourself that is ok. Hudson’s Network Engineers can also talk you through the process over the phone if you would like. Please contact us to either set up a time to do this or to see what if any progress you may have made.

XP Process:

 
1. apply RDP upgrade patch:    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969084 (patch is located halfway down page- ensure you select the XP version)
 
2. apply 3.0 net framework sp1 patch http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=31
 
3. apply 3.0 net framework sp2 patch http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=6962
 
4. apply hot fix patch     http://thehotfixshare.net/board/index.php?showtopic=13908
 
5. create new RDP connection (start->programs->accessories->remote desktop connection)
 
6. Save RDP connection to desktop
 
7. change tsl01.hudsonltd.net to tsl02.hudsonltd.net
 
8. connect verify that you can print (may take longer than usual to print)
 
9. If you cannot print or printing is too slow then feel free to move back to tsl01

Vista Process:

 
1. apply RDP upgrade patch:    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969084 (patch is located halfway down page- ensure you select the Vista version)
 
2. create new rep connection (start->programs->accessories->remote desktop connection)
 
3. Save RDP connection to desktop
 
4. change tsl01.hudsonltd.net to tsl02.hudsonltd.net
 
5. connect verify that you can print (may take longer than usual to print)
 
6. If the printing doesn’t occur or is too slow move back to TSL01

Windows 7 process:

 
1. create new RDP connection (start->programs->accessories->remote desktop connection)
 
2. Save RDP connection to desktop
 
3. change tsl01.hudsonltd.net to tsl02.hudsonltd.net
 
4. connect verify that you can print (may take longer than usual to print)
 
5. If the printing is still not working or too slow move back to TSL01

How to Upload Fares to the Web System

After creating or modifying a fare.csv file in your local office, you will want to upload it to your web reservation system, so that the fares generated in your local office are consistent with the fares being quoted online.

Upload modified Fare Files to the Web

a. Login to online reservation utility page

b. Under column Heading UTILITIES, select UPLOAD AND IMPORT A CSV FILE

c. Click BROWSE to the right of the Upload File box.

d. Browse to the location on your local computer where you saved the updated fare file (example: bosfares.csv). Highlight the file and click OPEN.

e. In the box labeled DB FILE, enter the fare file name followed by ".db" (ex: bosfares.db) (****Important: make sure you put the “db” after the file name).

f. In the File Type box, select Fares (or Data, if Fares is not present). (****Important: do not select any other file type).

g. Click on the UPLOAD button.

h. Your fare file will be uploaded and imported. You will get a confirmation, if successful that says something like the following: 20 records written to ./data/bosfares.db from ./data/bosfares.csv

From there you should do a couple test reservations to ensure that your local system and web system fares are properly synchronized.

Using Remote Desktop Connection

Preparing for and Using a Remote Desktop Connection

Protecting your Internet Connection

If you will be connecting to your HWeb products (HWeb Agent, Dispatcher, Utilities, and Admin programs) via the internet, protecting your internet connection and internet access is crucial to being able to continue doing business. In the event you have a planned or scheduled internet outage make sure you prepare by printing out on paper all of the trips likely to occur during the service interruption so that you may continue to work. An alternative is to seek out another (temporary office) location to enter reservations from or to dispatch from so that you may continue to work without interruption.

Remote Desktop Connection

You will be connecting to the Hudson Server via Remote Desktop Connection. This application is included in Microsoft Windows XP and later versions. You may use earlier versions of Microsoft Windows, but you must first download the free Remote Desktop Client from the Microsoft Website here.

This application is also included on the Windows XP install disk if you have it. This XP install disk may be used to install the Remote Desktop Client on earlier versions of MS Windows.

To see if your PC has the application:

Start—> All Programs—> Accessories—> Communications—>Remote Desktop

If you do have this application, it may be easiest to copy the shortcut to your windows Desktop. To do this, browse again to the Remote Desktop program. Right Click on it. Left click on Copy. Place the mouse cursor over the Windows Desktop. Right Click again and then select Paste. This should put an Icon on your Desktop named: Remote Desktop Connection.

Connecting

(Ensure first that your workstation can connect to the internet.)

Double Click the Remote Desktop Connection program or shortcut, to bring up the connection window. In this window, enter the IP ADDRESS of the Hudson Server you will be connecting to:

 Your Server IP Address is:   (Contact Hudson Tech Support for this information) 

Once the IP Address has been entered, click on CONNECT.

An internet connection to the Hudson Server will be initiated.

At the login screen, enter your Login Name and your password. Your login information is CaSe SenSItiVe. So check your caps lock key before entering.

Your Login Names and passwords are:  (Contact Hudson Tech Support for this information)

Upon successful login, you will be presented with your customized Windows Server Desktop where you will see your normal HWeb Icons. From here, you login to and use your Hudson products in the normal manner.

When finished with your session, click the START button, then Log Off. When asked if you are sure you wish to log off, select YES. 

At any time during your session, you may return to your own Windows Desktop by clicking on the minimize (-) button at the top of your Remote Desktop screen. The session will be minimized to your taskbar. To restore, simply double click on the “TSL02.HUDSONLTD.NET” task at the bottom of the screen.

While connected to the Hudson Server, you are welcome to use a web browser (Intenet Explorer, Mozilla, etc.) to retrieve helpful and useful work related information (Flight schedules, etc). You are not authorized to download applications of any sort to the Hudson Server, without express written consent of Hudson Technical Support department.

If you have trouble connecting to the Hudson Server, make sure first that you have internet access from the workstation. If in doubt, check this from more than a single workstation or PC. If you have internet access, but cannot connect to or login to the Hudson Server, call our Tech Support line or send and email to support@hudsonltd.com.

Removing multiple servers from the RDP drop down list

If you have connected to several remote computers in the past, using the RDP application, it is possible that you will end up with a drop down list of previous server names or IP addresses.  If you want to remove or delete the computers from the list, try visiting this page on Microsofts website for a one-step fix-it link that will do this for you—>  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312169#FixItForMeAlways

To locate information, please enter words or phrases in the Search window to the left.  Select the “Title” option from the Navigation panel to view an alphabetical listing of all article titles. You may also select the “Categories” option from the Navigation menu to view a list of folders into which various articles are filed.  Where an article fits into more than one category, it should appear as filed under multiple categories.

Please: This information is provided as a courtesy to clients and users of HWeb products and services.  Reproducing articles for distribution without permission is inconsiderate. For more information, please contact WikiAdmin@hudsonltd.com

Category:New Users - Start Here!

Category:Credit Card Processing
Category:CSV’s
Category:Error Messages
Category:ExpressionEngine Websites
Category:File Layouts
Category:Go Airport Shuttle
Category:Hosted Accounts
Category:HWeb Mobile Devices
Category:HWeb Mobile Devices -> BlackBerry Configuration & Use
Category:HWeb Netcast
Category:HWeb Safety Net
Category:HWeb Agent
Category:HWeb Dispatcher
Category:HWeb Admin
Category:HWeb Admin -> Invoicing
Category:Security
Category:System Down
Category:TechTips Newsletter
Category:Unassigned
Category:Web Reservations
Category:Alert Software System

Category:Tech Support Staff Only

CSV Layout of Reservation Details Downloaded from the Web

Follow the link below to download a csv file that itemizes the fields contained in the web reservation files that are downloaded and saved to the HWeb / Imports folder.  This template will be useful in decoding a csv record to see what / if specific information was downloaded from the web.

File:Web Reservation Import Layout.csv