This document's originally intended purpose was an internal reference for First Resort staff when assisting clients setting up the Email to Inquiry Folio Process. It has been converted to html for use by First Resort clients and their Internet Service Providers/Web Designers. Please bear in mind its point of reference is directed towards First Resort staff.

Overview

1. A prospective guest finds our client's website on the Internet.

2. The guest fills out an information request form (usually designed by the client's web page provider and accessed from the client's home page) to have more information mailed to them (although they can request any service the client is offering as long as it is defined on the e-mail form.)

3. The request form is emailed to that client's email address (i.e. reservations@client.com)

4. The email is retrieved using commonly available software such as Eudora, Outlook, Outlook Express, Netscape, Pegasus, etc. (Must use SMTP format).

5. These and other messages will then be saved in a file typically referred to as the "inbox." The client will have a physical file somewhere on the hard drive of the PC that retrieves email
(ex.: C:\Program Files\Netscape\Users\Username\Mail\Inbox). The email software MUST store it's incoming messages in a standard text file format for this process to work. Microsoft Mail, for example, compresses it's messages in a proprietary format which our system is unable to access.

6. Someone at the client site should be designated responsible for logging into First Resort and running the email to inquiry folio routine found in I-E from the Application Selection menu. This routine reads the email and creates force-closed folios booked in the "INQ" (or whatever they choose to use) property. See below for setup instructions for the "INQ" property code. The folios will be created with an arrival date equal to the email message date (NOT a requested stay arrival date!), and a departure date of one day later. The prospective guest's email address is stored in O,B,I.

7. The client may use several methods in First Resort to track and respond to inquiries. The R,R,F report may be run using the "B" option for both a date range and a property (INQ) to obtain a report of the inquiries coming through. Remember, these folios are automatically force closed, so it will be necessary to set the Show cancelled folios field to 'Y.' The more inquiries the client receives, the more often they may want to run this report as a source for creating responses. To create mailing labels, the client can go to R,T,M and run labels for the unique statistics complex their 'INQ' property code has been given (see 'Proper First Resort Setup' below). They can run it for a range of arrival dates equal to the range of email message dates they want labels produced for. Again, be sure to remember to change the Enter Y to include cancelled folios field to 'Y." It may also be desirable to design a specialized letter to print for these folios. It could be run from R,S - again just for the unique statistics complex their 'INQ' property code has been given, and for their desired range of 'arrival' (email message) dates or by selecting folios listed in the R,R,F report. A startup shell of a specialized inquiry letter is available on First Resort's network at
P:\usr\share\internet\install\email\inquiry.ltr and can be provided to clients at no charge upon request.

What the client needs to make this work

1. Proper First Resort setup:
   1. A property code such as 'INQ' to accept the bookings. It should be given a unique statistics complex, excluded from availability, and have a minus sign placed in it's 'Occ Report Flag,' 'Housekeeping Time/Unit Code' and 'Housekeeping Complex' fields.
   2. Module 'I' added to Business Setup, screen #2.
   3. An existing user code needs to be given access to module 'I.' Optionally, a new user code of 'IE' may be added to the system and given access to module 'I' for use with the 'inq.bat' file described in step #4.
   4. (Optional) A custom response letter to send to inquiries.
   5. Source codes added in R,O,R for any new source codes to be used with this process.
   6. An entered by code of 'WWW' added to the system.

2. A website on the Internet with an email-linked form (this means the form's 'action' is to create an email to our client) for the prospective guest to fill-in. Here's an example of such a form from First Resort's website. It's URL is support.firstres.com/frs/sales/sendfrs.htm
   

   Information Request Please fill in the required information below. Thank you for your interest. First Name Last Name Address 1 Address 2 City State Zip Country Home Phone Work Phone Ext: FAX E-mail address

   
   
   

   Unit Size Desired: 1 Bedroom2 Bedroom3 Bedroom

   Approximate Arrival Date Desired
   Month	Day	Year	Stay Length (nights)
   JanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember	12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031	1996199719981999Other	1234567891011121314More than this

   	Check box if you want Brochure/Rate Information
   	Check box if you want Group & Conference Information

   How did you hear about us?

   Past GuestWeb Search Tool IndexDirectory ListingMagazineBrochure

   
   

   Other Comments:

   
   

   Thanks

   The client's web page provider needs to format their email message content so that it contains the following layout in addition to the "normal" message. We suggest placement at the end of the message:
   

   
   
   FRSAUTOSTART
   TYPE=RSINQUIRY
   FNAME=
   LNAME=
   ADDRESS1=
   ADDRESS2=
   ADDRESS3=
   CITY=
   STATE=
   ZIP=
   HPHONE=
   BPHONE=
   FPHONE= (Fax)
   COMMENT1=
   REQUEST1=
   REQUEST2=
   REQUEST3=
   REQUEST4=
   E-MAIL=
   SOURCE1=WW1 (Or can be any source code the client wants)
   SOURCE2=WW2 (Or can be any source2 code the client wants)
   FRSAUTOEND
   

   The information that the prospective guest filled in on the email form will need to be structured to be placed after the appropriate "=" sign:
   

   FNAME=Lester
   LNAME=Tester
   ADDRESS1=123 Main Street
   Etc...
   
   

   On the First Resort website, this email formatting has been achieved via the use of a text file called 'sendfrs.txt' (it's on First Resort's network at
   p:\usr\share\internet\install\email). Here's what that file's content looks like:

   From: [email] To: support@firstres.com Subject: Request Brochure & Rate Information ====================================== Name & Address: [required-fname] [required-lname] [required-addr1] [addr2] [required-city] [required-state] [zip] [country] Phone #s: Home- [hphone] Work- [bphone] ext: [xphone] Fax- [fphone] Interested in: Size: [size] Arrive: [month]/[day]/[year] Length: [length] Comments- [comments] ---------------------------------------------- Please ignore the following, for system use only..... FRSAUTOSTART TYPE=RSINQUIRY FNAME=[required-fname] LNAME=[required-lname] ADDRESS1=[required-addr1] ADDRESS2=[addr2] ADDRESS3= CITY=[required-city] STATE=[required-state] ZIP=[zip] HPHONE=[hphone] BPHONE=[bphone] FPHONE=[fphone] COMMENT1=[comments] REQUEST1=[request1] REQUEST2=[request2] REQUEST3=[request3] REQUEST4=[month]/[day]/[year] ([length]) EMAIL=[email] SOURCE1=[source1] SOURCE2=WW2 FRSAUTOEND

   It is important to recognize that the data fields specified in this text file (they are surrounded by square brackets) exactly match data field names specified in the web page form's html coding. This text file lives on a web server and works in conjunction with a popular CGI email script program called cgiemail. which runs on UNIX servers. Another option on UNIX servers is the FormMail perl script which utilizes the sendmail UNIX program. On Windows NT Servers utilizing the Internet Information Server, similar programs such as MailPost, FrontPage 98.

   
   Below is an example of an actual email message as it would be received by a First Resort client's email program from a prospective guest:
   

   From: ltester To: support@firstres.com Subject: Request Brochure & Rate Information Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2003 7:48PM ===================================== Name & Address: Lester Tester 300A Aspen Airport Bus. Center Aspen CO 81611 USA Phone #s: Home- 970-111-2222 Work- 970-925-5481 ext: Fax- 970-920-3732 Interested in: Size: 2BR Arrive: 08/14/2003 Length: 3 Comments- Sample Comments ----------------------------------------- Please ignore the following, for system use only..... FRSAUTOSTART TYPE=RSINQUIRY FNAME=Lester LNAME=Tester ADDRESS1=300A Aspen Airport Bus. Center ADDRESS2= ADDRESS3= CITY=Aspen STATE=CO ZIP=81611 HPHONE=970-111-2222 BPHONE=970-925-5481 FPHONE=970-920-3732 COMMENT1=Sample Comments REQUEST1=BR REQUEST2= REQUEST3=2BR REQUEST4= 08/14/2003 (3) EMAIL=ltester@howzitgoin.com SOURCE1=BRO SOURCE2=WW2 FRSAUTOEND ======================================

   To avoid truncation, information written to this email should adhere to the same field size limitations as the fields in First Resort. This can be accomplished in the setup of the information request form. The HTML form 'sendfrs.htm' which is shown above has been set up to adhere to our field sizes and may be referenced as an example.
   

   It is also critical to have a line in the email body which starts with the word 'Date' which is followed by the email date in the format: Tue, 14 Jul 1998. A complete line would appear as 'Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998' (it might also be followed by the message time) where the numerical day of the month, 14 in this case, begins at the 12^th character in from the beginning of that line. If the message date is not in this format no folio will be created for it.

   The REQUEST 1,2,3,4 fields in the FRSAUTOSTART routine are optional and are intended to store codes that relate to what a person is requesting such as BR (brochure), MP (meeting planner), RC (rate card), etc. This information will be stored on the single line comment field on the reservation. There is a limit of 15 characters per request field, and any request fields used will precede any data sent to the 'Other Comments' field on the information request form (which fills in the COMMENT1 field in the email message) - potentially eliminating any comment information from appearing on the folio, so try to keep these request fields short.

   For example, if a Request 1 field was filled in with 'BR,' a Request 2 field was filled in with an 'RC,' and the guest filled in a comment field with 'Please send me information about Christmas rentals,' the comment line on the First Resort reservation would appear as follows:
   

   :BR RC Please send me information about Christmas rentals :
   

   Note: First Resort versions prior to version 9.47 may produce an error message "C-tree error #222" during the inquiry folio creation routine if the information in the 'Other Comments' field is too long to fit in the folio's comments field. The likelihood of this occurrence will be increased if information from the request fields are also sent to the folio comment field. Versions 9.47 and newer are able to resolve this error by truncating the comment information when necessary.

   In the sample information request form example shown earlier, the checkbox for 'Brochure/Rate information' is set up to feed into Request 1 in the email message; the checkbox for 'Group & Conference Information' feeds into Request 2; the pull down box for 'Unit Size Desired' feeds into Request 3; and the 'Month', 'Day', 'Year', and 'Length' of 'Approximate Dates Desired' all feed into Request 4 (which just fits into that field's 15 character length limit!). The pull down box for 'How Did You Hear About Us?' feeds into source code #1 on the reservation. The client's web page provider may pass source codes through as a pull down box of (prospective) guest options on the email form or, if preferred, the client's internet service provider may hard-code the source codes (this would generally be done in the email formatting, although it could be 'hidden' in the HTML form). In our example, we allow source code #1 to be passed through from the web page form but have hard-coded source code #2 to be 'WW2' in the 'sendfrs.txt' email formatting file mentioned above. Source code #2 is optional and could be left out if the client doesn't use it. Whatever source codes are allowed should be added to the client's database in R,O,R for proper reporting, although technically the process will create folios even if invalid source codes are used.

3. A configuration file defining the path to the client's email "inbox" and the property code that will be used for these inquiry folios is also necessary. This is a plain text file named 'WEBbbb.CFG' where 'bbb' should be replaced by the client's business code, using a zero to 'pad' any unused characters. (older versions of First Resort used 'FRSINET.CFG' which is still supported in current versions). It lives in the FRS data directory (typically F:\ACCOUNTS on networks, C:\ACCOUNTS on stand alone PCs) and needs to contain the following lines:
   

   VERSION=1
   MAILFILE=
   FORMAT=
   INFILEDIR=F:\ACCOUNTS\WWW
   INQPROP=INQ

   The table below desribes each line:

   VERSION=1	Place a 1 on this line after the =
   MAILFILE=C:\"Program Files"\Netscape\Users\Username\Mail\Inbox	Place the path to where their "inbox" resides after the =. A typical path for Netscape email is shown, where 'Inbox' is the actual mail file name. Eudora email is often at c:\eudora\in.mbx. Outlook Express is usually found at c:\Windows\"Application Data"\Microsoft\"Outlook Express"\Mail\inbox.mbx. Note: if the directory path includes long directory names like "Program Files," place the directory name inside quotes. Finding the 'Inbox' directory path and filename may require some detective work.
   FORMAT=Netscape	Place the format/type of the email after the =. Eg. Netscape or Eudora
   INFILEDIR=f:\accounts\www	This line should simply have 'f:\accounts\www' (or "FRS data directory"\www) after the =. It's actually used for the Internet Online Interface, and not used with this process
   INQPROP=INQ	Place the property code of the "inquiry" property after the =. It's usually 'INQ'

   A standard form of this is on First Resort's network in: P:\usr\share\internet\install\email. If used as a starting point remember it will need to be updated with the proper client-specific information.
   

   NOTE: Only one person's email file can be used at any given time, although this configuration file may be edited and changed to point at a different "inbox" if necessary.
   

4. Optional: A batch file called 'inq.bat' that lives in the First Resort data directory directory that loads AVMAIN.EXE(version 9.23 or newer). Versions prior to 9.23 will not work properly with this process. The client may need to download the proper version from our website at ftp://firstres.com/ftp. Note: if the client downloads a 'beta' version of FRS, be sure to help them set it up as 'AVver#.EXE rather than AVMAIN.EXE, show them how to use it only for this process, and advise Technical Support of their use of this version. For example, to create a batch file that loads version 9.47 (a beta version at 7/98 that includes support for truncating long comments), type:

   'Edit inq.bat' (for consistency let's use this batch file name), then type in:

   AV947 "BBB IE IE"

   Note there are 5 blank spaces between BBB and the first IE, and 7 blank spaces between the two IEs. Then save it. (Alt-F, X, Y to save). A standard form of this batch file is on First Resort's network at: P:\usr\share\internet\install\email\inq.bat. Remember it will still need to be updated with the proper client-specific information.

5. Optional: If #4 above is utilized, a new First Resort user code whose initials are IE with access to 'module' I will also need to be added. This may also require adding module 'I' to Business Setup, screen #2.
   

Client Use

Once email is transferred from the internet to their "inbox" (usually the client just needs to dial-in and pickup their messages) the client may start the process by manually going to I-E or by running the optional inq.bat file from the First Resort data directory. If using the inq.bat file, they can run it from a DOS prompt, setup an icon in windows or create a new line-item on their DOS/Novell menu depending on what they are most comfortable with.

Once the process is run, the client should see a red message box in the middle of their First Resort screen telling them how many INQ folios were created.

Note that this process will only allow one reservation with the same first/last guest name and city per email message date - any rejected emails will return an error message Inquiry 2 Rejected - MESSAGE=Duplicate Inquiry as shown in the image above. So if someone sends multiple email inquiry messages in one day, using the same name each time, only their first message will result in an inquiry folio (Note: Netscape email seems to keep deleted emails in a wastebasket folder within the inbox file, so users of this email program may see an ever-increasing number of harmlessly rejected duplicates as First Resort browses through the inbox file contents). Because of this built-in error-checking feature, the process may be run as frequently as desired, creating folios for newly-received email messages each time, without creating duplicate folios for email messages previously received but still resident in the email inbox. Generally once daily is sufficient.

The Team C Demo data on First Resort's network contains several sample folios created by this process; folio #1305 is one of them and looks like this:

Mr. Tester's email address has been stored in O,B,I as well. A 'WEBBAR.CFG' file and a sample email file are also in the Team C Demo directory. It's name is 'in.mbx' and is an email file for Eudora software. Because it's a plain text file, it's possible to simulate the folio creation process if desired by editing it, changing the First or Last names listed after the 'FNAME=' or 'LNAME=' formatting headers, and running the I,E routine.

Troubleshooting

The three most common problem areas are:

1. An error in the email formatting resulting in incorrect information included between the 'FRSAUTOSTART' and 'FRSAUTOEND' statements.

2. An error in the directory path to the email inbox file in the webbbb.cfg configuration file. If the email inbox cannot be found, an error box will appear with the message "Cannot open input file." Double check the directory path to the email inbox file.

3. Procedural errors in running reports/mailing labels to track inquiry folios. When running labels in R,T,M; be sure to change the field 'Enter Y to include CANCELLED folios' from its default of N to a Y.