Configuring Business Events

Business Events are required in OPERA Cloud to trigger and send messages to the external systems configured at your property. Business Events are configured according to the types of data the external system supports and requires. Unique business events and data elements are defined for each external system, external database and module combination. When a user performs an action in OPERA Cloud that involves that selected data elements and conditions (optional), a business event is triggered which then becomes a message to the external system.

For example, if an external system requires reservations and profiles data you need to configure reservation and profile business events. If an external system requires rates and inventory data you need to configure business events for rates and inventory, and so forth.

There are three levels to Business Event setup.

  1. The Business Event Modules (Activity, Availability, Block, Block Offsets, Cashiering, Catering Notes, Configuration, Enrollment, Housekeeping, Night Audit, Owner Contract, Profile, Rate, Reservation, and Stay Records.)

  2. Within each module there are the actual Business Events (Action Types) that can be subscribed to- New Reservation, Update Reservation, New Profile, etc.

  3. Finally, there are Data Elements corresponding to each Action Type- Room Type, Rate Code, name , etc.

The Business Events generated are based on a customizable configuration that the business event user determines. The result is a user-configurable flow of data that is available to third parties to extract (dequeue) from OPERA Cloud on a regular basis.

When a Business Event is triggered, the payload includes only those data elements that are explicitly selected in the configuration. Fields that are not selected are excluded from the message, even if they were modified during the transaction.

Send Delta Only check box is available in the Business Event configuration screen. When enabled, only the changed values among the configured data elements are included in the payload. Unchanged or empty fields are excluded. If the check box is not selected, all configured data elements are included in the payload regardless of whether their values changed.

A Business Event is triggered only if at least one of the configured data elements has changed. If no change is detected among the selected elements, no event is generated.

Note:

Business Events subscribed to with no Data Elements attached will generate an XML message with header information only for the Business Event. It is imperative that third party systems carefully consider this before programming their dequeue process from OPERA Cloud. It is highly suggested that the third party dequeue application is programmed to ignore Modules/Business Events (Action Types)/ Data Elements that the hotel may subscribe to but that the data recipient does not recognize. In this way, you can insure an uninterrupted process of data flow.

Note:

When the Negotiated Rates and Publish Profile Business Events with Modified Negotiated Rates OPERA Controls are active, only New, Modified, and Deleted negotiated rates are included in Profile Business Events. This does not apply to legacy OXI XML handling (OXI continues to include the full profile/details).

Adding Business Events

  1. From the Administration menu, select Interfaces, select Business Events and then select Business Event Configuration.

  2. Click New and enter the following details:

    1. Property: Enter or select the property.

    2. External System: Select the external system from the list. See Configuring External Systems.

    3. Module: Select the module from the list.

    4. Business Event: Select the business event from the list.

    5. The Send Delta Only check box is available for each Business Event; when selected, only modified data elements are included in the payload, while unchanged or empty fields are excluded.
    6. Data Elements to generate a Business Event when any of the data element values are changed in OPERA Cloud.

      1. Search and select data elements in the Available panel, click > or >> to move selection to the Selected panel.

    7. Conditions (where clause)

      1. Click Add to add a conditional expression.

        1. And/Or: Displays for compound expressions; select AND / OR operator.

        2. Attribute: Select an attribute from the list.

        3. Operator: Select an operator from the list.

        4. Value: Enter the comparison value for the expression.

      2. Click OK.

      3. Repeat to add another condition.

    8. To Edit, select a condition and click Edit.

    9. To Delete, select a condition and click Delete.

  3. Click Save.

Editing Business Events

  1. From the Administration menu, select Interfaces, select Business Events and then select External Systems.

  2. Enter search criteria and click Search.

  3. Select the business event, click vertical ellipsis Actions menu and select Edit.

  4. Update details.

  5. Click Save.

Deleting Business Events

  1. From the Administration menu, select Interfaces, select Business Events and then select Business Event Configuration.

  2. Enter search criteria and click Search.

  3. Select the business event, click vertical ellipsis Actions menu and select Delete.

  4. Click Delete to confirm.

Parent topic: Interfaces Administration