ResRequest Architecture

Before you start using ResRequest you have to understand our architecture and the different ways our system servers and environments can be setup. Understanding this and knowing what options are available to you, enables you to set up your ResRequest system to best suit your business.

Environments and Servers

An ‘Environment’ is an instance of the ResRequest system, e.g. the Reservations office environment and a Property environment. The ‘Reservations’ environment always includes a web server and may also include one or more offline servers (if you have multiple reservations offices). Each Property server always represents an independent environment. It is possible for 2 environments to be hosted on a single offline server, which is applicable if you require both Reservations and Property functionality at a single offline location.

Each environment ‘owns’ its own data. This means that a user operating on a particular environment can only update data that is owned by that environment. This is a safeguard to ensure that the same data is not changed simultaneously on a different environment resulting in data conflicts.

Each server is identified by a 2 character code, e.g. WB for Reservations office web server, PA for a Property offline server. Any new records added to the database are prefixed with this code to prevent duplicate records being created on different environments or servers. These codes are visible in reservation numbers, receipt numbers, etc. There are 2 classes of server, ‘Reservations office (Primary)’ and ‘Property’, which are described below.

ResRequest online and offline environments/servers

ResRequest is designed to be accessible on the Internet and at any number of designated ‘offline’ locations. Offline installations of ResRequest cater for locations that have unreliable Internet connectivity and need an offline solution to continue working when the Internet fails. ResRequest offers two types of offline installations, one being a Reservations server and the other being a Property offline server. All online and offline servers are synchronised via the Internet using a send and receive data transfer process. This data transfer ensures that all environments are kept up-to-date as often as the Internet allows.

Watch the video tutorial to gain an overall understanding of how the ResRequest architecture works.

Synchronisation / Data transfers

Data synchronisation or data transfers are always performed between an offline server and a web server. There is never any need for 2 offline servers to connect directly to each other. The synchronisation process is always initiated from the offline server. Synchronisation can be scheduled to run at specific intervals or it can be initiated manually from your system.

To run a data transfer manually navigate through Admin > Operations > Data transfer > Run data transfer.

Workstations connecting to ResRequest

Any number of workstations (computers) can connect to a ResRequest offline environment/server. These workstations do not run any ResRequest software, they simply connect to the ResRequest server via a browser (e.g. Chrome or Mozilla Firefox). The connection is through a Local Area Network (LAN) in the case of an offline server or through the Internet in the case of a web server.

Reservations Office servers (Primary servers)

You may have several Reservations office servers all contained in a single ‘Reservations’ environment. A Reservations office server may also be referred to as a primary server. There is always one Reservations office server on the Internet, identified by the prefix ‘WB’. There is also generally at least one offline Reservations office server, which is identified as ‘RS’ (depending on how you want to setup your system). There may be additional offline servers; ‘RA’, ‘RB’, etc.

All of these servers represent a single environment. This means that data created on any Reservations office server can be updated on any other Reservations office server. However, just as there is a data ownership rule to prevent data being simultaneously changed on different environments, so there is a control to prevent data being simultaneously changed on multiple Reservations office servers.  

This control is applied by ensuring that only one primary server can hold ‘Master’ status at any given time.

There are certain functions that can only be performed in the Reservations office environment (i.e. these functions are not available on a Property environment). These functions include:

• Managing the business structure
• Managing user access rights
• Managing agent terms and allocations
• Setting up rates
• Managing system defaults

Property server

A single property server is always in it’s own Property environment (unlike the Reservations environment which may contain several Reservations office servers). There can be servers at any number of properties, the first letter for the prefix will always be ‘P’ and the additional letter will change so each server and environment may be distinguished from the other, e.g. ‘PA’, ‘PB’, ‘PC’, etc. The functionality available on a property environment is identical to that on a Reservations Office environment, with the following exceptions.

• Those functions listed above as being specific to the Reservations office are not available,
• Check-in and check-out can only be performed on a Property server,
• Point Of Sale (POS) and telephone management system interfaces can only be run on a property server.

On a property server you can view all data created in the Reservations office environment (subject to your access rights) but you cannot change it. For example you cannot change the value of an extra added at the Reservations office. However, you can add a new extra to that reservation – and that extra will not be updateable on the Reservations office server.