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Knowledge Base		 RDP-DOS
Knowledge Base		 IRM and IRM.Net
Knowledge Base		 Crystal
Knowledge Base
         

Updated:   11/27/08 SS/TC

Customize IRM.net

IRM.net features can be configured using the RDPWIN IRM.Net/Configuration screen. The Reservations and Appearance tabs include configuration options for enabling and customizing various reservations features. The Owners tab includes options specific to the IRM.Net Owners pages (Condominium Owner Account Module R3 required).  The remainder of the tabs include options that are applicable to both IRM.Net Reservations and Owners.  See IRM.net configuration for more information.

The IRM.net is configurable and customizable to a great degree. The documentation contained below is designed to be used by web programmers to configure the IRM.net. The documentation will be self explanatory to a web programmer. Programmer support is not provided for integrating the IRM.net. If you are not a web programmer, or you have not hired a web programmer and you would like to customize the IRM.net, please contact GuestStream, our preferred provider for IRM.net configuration.

Color Schemes

IRM.net uses ASP.Net Themes for styling page color scheme, font types and sizes. Several themes, with different color schemes, are provided by RDP. To choose which theme to use:

  1. On the web server, run RDPWIN.
  2. Select the Appearance tab from IRM.Net | Configuration.
  3. Select from the Theme (Reservations) drop-down.  There are basic default themes and those specific to IRM.net for reservations. 
  4. When the Condominium Owner Account Module R3 is installed, a theme can also be selected for the IRM.net Owner pages. The same or different themes can be chosen for IRM.net Reservations and Owners.
  5. Save and close.

The IRM.net is configurable and customizable to a great degree. Creating your own customized theme requires some expertise in the use of Cascading Style Sheets.  RDP's the customization documentation is designed to be used by web programmers to configure the IRM.net. The documentation will be self explanatory to a web programmer. 

See Custom Themes for more information on creating and customizing a new theme for IRM.net.  Programmer support is not provided for integrating the IRM.net. If you are not a web programmer, or you have not hired a web programmer and you would like to customize the IRM.net, please contact GuestStream, our preferred provider for IRM.net configuration.

Customizable Text

Select parts of the IRM.net display can be customized to show unique text.  See IRM.net Knowledge Base Article KINet0005 for information on how to use unique text in the IRM.net.

Customize the Available Rooms List

When the IRM.net is configured to book inventory reservations, a list of available room types is displayed when the guests clicks the 'Search for Availability' button. Here, the IRM.net can be customized to display a thumbnail picture and description of each room type in the list. Similarly, when IRM.net is configured to book preassign reservations, a list of available rooms is displayed; and IRM.net can be customized to display a thumbnail picture and description of each room in the list. Use the following steps to customize the Available Rooms List:

RDPWin Configuration

  1. Log into RDPWin.
  2. Access the Appearance tab from the IRM.net | Configuration screen.
  3. Check the "Show room Images on availability list" if thumbnail Images are desired. 
  4. Select how many rooms/room types to display per page on the IRM.Net availability list.  This affects both the physical size of the list and performance of the page.
  5.  In the Label Each Room With section, select how each room will be labeled:  Room Type (room type descriptions are from the C2 table), Room Number, both; or an Alternate Room Name.  Alternate room names can be configured by clicking on the "Alternate Room Names" button.
  6.  In the Room List Rate section, select whether the rate for each room in the Available Rooms List displays as the average nightly rate or total rate for the stay.  The text for the rate label can also be customized, the defaults being 'Nightly Rate' and 'Total Rate' respectively.  Space within the available rooms list is limited for this label, if the text is longer than about 20 characters it will wrap to two lines.

The IRM.net ships with several themes available for selection.  A sample of those themes housed in the App_Themes folder is shown below.

DefaultBlue
The default blue theme for IRM.Net (Reservations) uses the style sheet and skin located in c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\IRMNet\App_Themes\DefaultBlue folder.

Click More on Themes for many more theme details.

Thumbnail Images

 When Show Room Images on Availability List is checked in RDPWin IRM.net Configuration on the Appearance tab, a small image will be displayed for each room (or room type) in the available rooms list. All room / room type thumbnail images must be stored in the c:/inetpub/wwwroot/irmnet/Custom/<ServerName>/RDP<resortNumber>/Rooms folder. The following describes the file naming convention to be used for the thumbnail images.

Thumbnail Images
Inventory Reservations

Save room type thumbnail images using the file name convention: SubRecord_small.jpg, where SubRecord refers to the room type subrecord value in Table C2. 

For example, if the room type King has a subrecord value of 'K',  the thumbnail image for the room type King is K_small.jpg. 

To see a list of all room types in Table C2, select C2 from the drop-down on the RDPWin | System | File Utilities | Table Maintenance screen.  The SubRecord column values should be used in naming the room type thumbnail images.  Only room types that have a "Y" in the "Display_In_IRM' column are included in the available rooms list.

Thumbnail Images
Preassign Reservations

Images for individual rooms can be displayed.  Save the thumbnail room images using the file name convention: RoomNumber_small.jpg.  For example, the image for room number 103 is 103_small.jpg.  If a thumbnail for a specific room is not found, then the image for it's corresponding room type will be displayed (named as in the inventory reservations case above).

Room Descriptions

A short description of each room/room type is included in the available rooms list. The customizable descriptions are stored in HTML files in the c:/inetpub/wwwroot/irmnet/Custom/<ServerName>/RDP<resortNumber>/UserHtml folder, a description file for each room type or room number.  The following describes the naming convention to be used for the short description files.

Room Descriptions
Inventory Reservations

In the inventory reservations scenario, save the room type descriptions files using the following file name convention: SubRecordDescShort.htm, where SubRecord refers to the room type subrecord value in the C2 table. 

For example, if the room type King has a subrecord value of 'K', the short description file name should be KDescShort.htm. The description files can be created with Microsoft Expression Web or other web page editors.

Room Descriptions
Preassign Reservations

In the preassign reservations scenario, save the room descriptions files using the following file name convention: RoomNumberDescShort.htm. For example, the short description file for Room# 103 should be saved as 103DescShort.htm. If the description file for a specific room is not found, then the description for its corresponding room type is displayed.(names as in the inventory reservations case above.)

Detailed Room Descriptions

The available rooms list includes a "View Details" link for each room in the list. Click the link to display a detailed room description for the selected room or room type. IRM.net supports two different methods for displaying detailed room descriptions. When room detail pages already exist on the marketing website, IRM.Net can be configured to link to the existing detail pages. Then they do not already exist or you chose not to link to them, a detailed description (including additional photos) can be displayed within the available room list (when the "View Details" link is clicked).

Use Existing Room Detail Pages

If IRM.net is configured to book inventory reservations, then each room type can be configured with the URL of the existing page containing the detailed description for that room type. If IRM.net is configured to book preassign reservations, then each room can be configured with the URL of the existing page containing the detail for that room.

Enable the feature to use existing detail pages from RDPWin/IRM.Net/Configuration Appearance tab.


For the inventory reservations scenario, check the box labeled 'Show room type details using URL from W2 table' in the Room Details section. Then use RDPWin/System/File Utilities/Table Maintenance to configure the specific room type detail page URLs. Select the W2 table from the table dropdown, then for each room type click the 'Add Subrecord' button at the bottom and specify the room type SubRecord and URL for the detail page. The SubRecord values must match those in the C2 table.

For the preassign reservations scenario, check the box labeled "Show room details using URL from room master". Then use RDPWin/Masters/Room/Change to configure the URL for the room detail page. The URL field is at the bottom of the Room Detail tab.

Use Room Detail Long Descriptions

When the IRM.net is not configured to link to existing detail pages on the marketing website, or when no detail URL is configured for a specific room or room type, then the long description, including additional photographs, is displayed within the available room list when any "View Details" link is clicked. 

Note:  All long description files must be stored in the c:/inetpub/wwwroot/irmnet/Custom/<ServerName>/RDP<resortNumber>/userHtml folder.  The following describes the naming convention to be used for the long description files.

Long Descriptions
Inventory Reservations

In the inventory reservations scenario, save the room type detailed descriptions files using the following file name convention: SubRecordDescLong.htm, where SubRecord refers to the room type subrecord value in the C2 table.

For example, if the room type King has a subrecord value of 'K', the long description file name should be KDescLong.htm. The description files can be created with Microsoft Expression Web or other web page editors.

Long Descriptions
Preassign Reservations

In the preassign reservations scenario, save the room detailed descriptions files using the following file name convention: RoomNumberDescLong.htm. For example, the long description file for room number 103 should be saved as 103DescLong.htm. If the long description file for a specific room is not found, then the description for its corresponding room type will be displayed.(names as in the inventory reservations case above.)

Room Detail Images

 When long room description files are being used to display room details (rather than linking to existing room detail pages on the marketing web site), up to 20 photos of the room can be displayed as well.  From the RDPWin IRM.Net Configuration Appearance tab, select whether the photos should be displayed above or below the room description text.  If room photo image exist, following the naming convention below, then they will be displayed with the room long description when the 'View Details' link is clicked from the available rooms list. All room / room type detail images must be stored in the c:/inetpub/wwwroot/irmnet/Custom/<ServerName>/RDP<resortNumber>/Rooms folder.

Room Detail Images
Inventory Reservations

Save room type thumbnail images using the file name convention: SubRecord_N.jpg, where SubRecord refers to the room type subrecord value in Table C2 and N refers to a photo number (1-20). 

For example, if the room type King has a subrecord value of 'K',  room detail image for the room type King would be K_1.jpg, K_2.jpg, K_3.jpg, etc. 

To see a list of all room types in Table C2, select C2 from the drop-down on the RDPWin | System | File Utilities | Table Maintenance screen.  The SubRecord column values should be used in naming the room type thumbnail images.  Only room types that have a "Y" in the "Display_In_IRM' column are included in the available rooms list.

Room Detail Images
Preassign Reservations

Images for individual rooms can be displayed.  Save the room detail images using the file name convention: RoomNumber_N.jpg, where N refers to a photo number (1-20).  For example, the images for room number 103 would be 103_1.jpg, 103_2.jpg, 103_3.jpg, etc..  If room images for a specific room is not found, then the images for it's corresponding room type will be displayed (named as in the inventory reservations case above).

Click on Photo to Enlarge

When the image files described below exist, the room photos displayed on View Details can be clicked on to show a larger photo.  In the IRM.Net demonstration, see room 102 to view a sample of this "click to enlarge" feature.

For each room photo there must be two images: one large ".jpg" image (best if over 500 pixels in width), and one thumbnail ".jpg" image.

To create the thumbnails, resize the large ".jpg" image so the width is exactly 100 pixels.  Let the height automatically resize so the height-to-width proportion remains the same. This can be done in all image editors.

Save all images in: c:/inetpub/wwwroot/irmnet/Custom/<ServerName>/RDP<resortNumber>/Images/Rooms/Gallery.
The 'Click photo to enlarge' text can be included in the room long description file (for example /Custom/<ServerName>/RDP<resortNumber>/UserHtml/101LongDesc.htm).

Naming Convention:

For large ".jpg" images:            room#_image#.jpg

Examples:

    101_1.jpg
    101_2.jpg
    101_3.jpg
    102_1.jpg

For thumbnail ".jpg" images:     room#_image#_thumb.jpg

Examples:

    101_1_thumb.jpg
    101_2_thumb.jpg
    101_3_thumb.jpg
    102_1_thumb.jpg

Room# in the above file names can be replaced with room type.  There is a maximum of 20 photos per room number or room type.

Change Width of Room Details Page

When users click on the Reserve button before selecting reservation dates, the Room Details page displays. The width of the RoomDetailsPage.aspx can be changed by making modifications to the style sheet as shown below:

  1. Use an existing custom theme or create a custom theme folder under IRMNet/App_Themes and copy style sheets, skin, and images from an existing theme.

  2. Configure IRM.net to use the custom theme. Do not modify the RDP provided style sheets, since they are replaced with each IRM.Net update.


  3. In the custom theme folder, allow write access to: Skin.skin.
    1. Right-click Skin.skin in the ...Inetpub\wwwroot\IRMNet\App_Themes\Custom folder and select Properties.
    2. Uncheck the Read-only checkbox on the General tab.
    3. Click OK.

  4. Open the Skin.skin document using Notepad.
    1. Right-click Skin.skin and select Open With - Notepad.


    2. Change the RoomDetailsPanel to the new desired width.  For example: <igmisc:WebAsyncRefreshPanel SkinID="RoomDetailsPanel" runat="server" width="600px" />.
    3. Change the RoomDetailsTabs to slightly smaller than the RoomDetailsPanel.  For example: <igtab:UltraWebTab SkinID="RoomDetailTabs" runat="server" width="550px" >
    4. Change the RatesGrid to the same size as RoomDetailsTabs.   For example: <igtab:UltraWebGrid SkinID="RatesGrid" runat="server" width="550px" >

  5. If the width of RoomDetailsTabs is being set to less than 700px, then change the number of calendar months to be displayed to three (3) months. (The default of four (4) months is too wide to fit.). This is changed using the Appearance Tab in RDPWin IRM/Configuration.

Change Width of Available Rooms List

When users click on the "Search for Availability" button, the IRM.Net displays the Available Rooms List.  The width of the list be changed by making modifications to the style sheet as shown below:

  1. Use an existing custom theme or create a custom theme folder under IRMNet/App_Themes and copy style sheets, skin, and images from an existing theme.

  2. Configure IRM.net to use the custom theme. Do not modify the RDP provided style sheets, since they are replaced with each IRM.Net update.


  3. In the custom theme folder, allow write access to: Skin.skin, RoundedBoxes.css, and ResStyles.css.


    An example is shown below re: how to give access:

    1. Right-click Skin.skin in the ...Inetpub\wwwroot\IRMNet\App_Themes\Custom folder and select Properties.
    2. Uncheck the Read-only checkbox on the General tab.
    3. Click OK.
  4. Open the RoundedBox style sheet in the In the custom theme folder using NotePad or FrontPage and change the RoundedBox2 style to the new width such as:

    .RoundedBox2 {
      width: 500px;
      background: #1a4093;}

  5. Open the ResStyles.css style sheet in the custom theme folder using NotePad or FrontPage and change the .AvailList style to the same width set above.

    .AvailList {
      width: 500px;
      text-align: center;}

  6. While still accessing the ResStyles.css style sheet, change the .RatesTable and RoomDetails styles to the a slightly smaller width such as shown here at 480px:
     
  7. Open the Skin.skin document using Notepad.
    1. Right-click Skin.skin and select Open With - Notepad.


    2. Change the RoomList skinID to the same width as set above.  For example: <igmisc:WebAsyncRefreshPanel SkinID="RoomList" runat="server" width="500px" />.
  8. If the width of RoomDetailsTabs is being set to less than 500px, then change the number of calendar months to be displayed to three (3) months. (The default of four (4) months is too wide to fit.). This is changed using the Appearance Tab in RDPWin IRM/Configuration.

Pass Search Criteria
into IRM.net from Marketing Site

IRM.net allows various search criteria (such as arrival and departure dates, room type, guest preferences) to be collected on your marketing web site and passed into the IRM.  IRM.net then displays the rooms that match the requested criteria. See  KINet0004 Pass Search Criteria into IRM.net from Marketing Site for more information.

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