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There are several things that need to be set up before the 2-way integration is ready to use. For the most part it's easily done, and the checklist below along with detailed information on each part should guide you through it pretty quickly.
Here's a summary and checklist of the setup procedure. See the following sections for details on each step:
Preparation:
•Get a Hercules account prepared (through Leisure Interactive, see http://www.leisureholding.com/), and make sure they set it up for the "2-way" interface with Campground Master. Once you have the account set up, you will need your Customer # (also known as your customer "Record #") and have Hercules set up a Password for the 2-way interface (this is different than the web site login). There are also some other things you will need to know for configuration later, such as the Space Numbers (which ideally you will have them set up to match your site Abbreviations), Adder ID's, and Discount ID's.
•If you want to use a separate Payment Method for the deposit made online, add that through Maintenance / Pick Lists / Payment Methods.
•If you want to use a separate Reservation Type for the reservations made online, add that through Maintenance / Pick Lists / Reservation Types. Typically this isn't necessary (you can just use the default "Normal" type), but it's an option if you want the online reservations to have a separate type for reporting, rates calculation, or other reasons. If necessary, you can define 2 types for online reservations -- one for reservations longer than a certain number of days (e.g. Weekly or Monthly), and one for reservations shorter than that. (Actually you can have any number of types, but any other special cases would need manual adjustment after the reservation is imported.)
•If you want or need to enable or set up Site Attribute fields for the various Amp Service values, you can do that (see Data Field Definitions). Typically this would just be whatever you're already using, most often just an option for 50A, so it's not likely that you would need to change this. These will be mapped to Hercules values in the next steps.
•If you want to add or modify Rig Types to correspond with the Unit Types available through Hercules, do that through Maintenance / Pick Lists / Rig Types. Most often you will just use the values you already have set up there already, but in some cases you might want to add some that Hercules offers that are different than the default options in Campground Master. These will be mapped to Hercules values in the next steps.
•If you need special Discount types for discounts offered through Hercules, set those up through Maintenance / Pick Lists / Discounts. This is not usually necessary, since the discounts used online can be mapped to your existing discounts in the following steps.
Configuration:
•Configure the various options (see Maintenance / Online Reservations / Hercules / Hercules Setup):
• Operation options -- update mode, timing, etc. (But don't "Enable" it yet!)
• Reservation creation options
• Parsing options, including:
• Site Data Fields (mapping your Sites to Hercules "Space numbers")
• Amps Service values mapping
• Unit Types values mapping
• Adders Mapping
• Discounts Mapping
• Availability settings
• Connection settings (Hercules account user name and password, etc.)
•Set up Access Levels, for whether to allow the operators to continue when there are warnings (see Maintenance / Park Setup / Access Levels). The access levels for the Hercules 2-way are show in the Access Level list with the prefix "Hercules Online Res. - Allow continuing....".
•Set the Alerts Options, for when handling user alerts such as new reservations received or synchronization errors (see View / Alerts / Alerts Options). There are also several Access Levels associated with Alerts (see Access Levels in the step above). The Alerts access level settings are just below the Hercules access levels in the list.
•If you were using the 1-way Friend integration before, disable it (see Maintenance / Online Reservations / Other Online Interfaces / Connections & Options / Reservation Friend, and uncheck the "Enable" box).
Starting Communications
•When ready to "go live", Enable the Hercules functionality to begin communications (see Maintenance / Online Reservations / Hercules / Hercules Setup).
•Also note that you need to make sure Campground Master is not being blocked from the Internet by any security software or firewall. You may see a warning from Windows Firewall, for instance, asking whether Campground Master should be blocked -- make sure you always "Allow", "Unblock" or "Approve" Campground Master. If you don't see this message, it might be that Campground Master had been blocked before. If you get an error indicating that it can't communicate with Hercules, check your firewall and security settings.
•Most likely it will initiate a full synchronization upload right away, followed by a download if there are already reservations online to be downloaded. You won't see any of this happening, unless there is a problem or something is downloaded that needs your attention. Then you may see an Alert that new reservations have been automatically imported, and/or an Alert that reservations could not be automatically processed and need to be manually processed. See the Initial Synchronization section for more details.
•From here on it should be communicating and in sync. If you log into the Hercules web interface and refresh the grid, you should see an "External reservation" for each of your Campground Master reservations (or a customer name if it was initially created online). You may also see a "Maintenance Hold" on sites that you've designated as Unavailable. If you don't see this within a few minutes, there may be a communication problem and you need to contact support. Be sure to read through the Operations sections for more information.
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