Air – Job Setup

Creating jobs enables Data Scout to retrieve data from target websites. The majority of the time you spend with Data Scout is to execute job searches and create reports. However, you must first create the jobs. After creating jobs, they can be saved, edited, and re-used.

The Jobs tab houses your library of jobs in a table. The table gives you insight into the number of inputs the job has, when the job was created, when the job was last executed, and the quality of the last run. The Jobs tab also has filters you can use to narrow your jobs list by keywords, job type, or dates of when the job was created, last run, finished, or updated.

Creating a Job

How to Create a New Job:

1. Select the Jobs tab.
2. Click New Search in the top left corner of the page.
3. Enter the name of your job.
   • Be descriptive with job names. This helps when contacting QL2 Support. Do not use special characters.
4. Choose your vertical.
5. Click Configure.
6. If you would like to add inputs to the job now, add them in the form that pops up. If not, you can click the X in the corner and add the inputs later.
   • For help on adding inputs and building a job, click here.
7. Click Submit.

Once the job is created, you can access the information on your job. There are three sections on the Job Details page: Inputs, Schedule, and Results. Inputs is where you will build your job.

There are two methods for building jobs:

1. Wizard – Add single entries via a form directly in the platform.
2. Upload – Use CSV-formatted spreadsheets to upload several input line items at once.

Wizard

Wizard is a convenient way to add inputs to a job. The platform contains a form that formats your inputs automatically. Using Wizard to add inputs to a job is useful when you have a small number of edits. Each input is added individually, therefore, large jobs should be built using the Upload Method.

NOTE: Wizard is currently only available for Travel clients.

How to Add Inputs to the Job Using Wizard:

1. In the Jobs tab, click on the name of the job you would like to add inputs to.
2. In the Inputs section of the page, click Add Inputs.
3. The Search Name and Select Vertical fields will be auto-filled with the inputs you created the job with.
4. Use the drop-down menu in the Site Code field to select the site(s) you would like to search.
   • Only select site codes QL2 has designated for your organization to search.
5. Use the Reference field as a free field to use for sorting or formatting input internally.
6. Enter the origin airport(s) and destination airport(s) in the O&D List field.
   • An O&D is a string made up of an origin and destination. In most cases, the origin and destination are three-letter airport codes.
   • For example, an O&D entry for a flight from Seattle (SEA) to Phoenix (PHX) would be SEAPHX. You can enter as many of these as you need for your Market Collection, but you must separate each O&D with a comma.
7. Choose your Travel Dates for your search.
   • Specific Range – Specify specific ranges for departure and return dates using days in the future or actual dates.
     • Days in the Future – Use the up and down errors in the fields to select the number of days in the future you would like your departure and return dates to be (e.g. Enter “7” for a departure in one week)
     • Actual Dates – Use the date picker to enter departure and return dates in the corresponding fields.
   • Shopping Span – Set relative departure dates and lengths of stay using the Standard Span or the Custom Span
     • Standard Span – Commonly used advance purchase categories
       • Check the appropriate checkboxes for the departure date and length of stay for your search (e.g. If you check the “7” box for the departure date and the “1” box for the length of stay, your Market Collection will retrieve a fare assuming a departure 7 days from today and a return 8 days from today).
     • Custom Span – A custom range of first departure date and last departure date, as well as the length of stay.
       • Use the date pickers to choose the First Departure Date and the Last Departure Date. In the Length of Stay field, type the number of days you would like to stay to be. Multiple values can be entered by separating the values by spaces or commas.
8. For advanced options, click on the Advanced options drop-down arrow.
9. Complete the remaining fields remembering that the more fields you utilize, the more targeted the information.
10. Click Submit when finished.

NOTE: The remaining fields are either optional or have a default value. Some fields are not available for all sites.

Upload Method

Uploading a spreadsheet allows you to add a number of inputs to a job at one time. As well, after creating spreadsheets, they can be saved and re-used or edited. For more information on editing a spreadsheet, click here.

The first step is to perform the tasks for building a spreadsheet. Each cell of the spreadsheet must contain a specific type of data to successfully perform a job.

How to Add Inputs to the Job with the Upload Method:

1. Open a spreadsheet application.
2. Using the Spreadsheet Input Format table at the bottom of the page as a reference, enter the parameters for the keywords, product numbers, or paths you wish to add to the job into the spreadsheet you opened.
3. Save the spreadsheet as a CSV file.
4. Return to the Jobs tab of Data Scout to incorporate the spreadsheet into the job.
5. In the Inputs section of the page, click Upload.
6. Click Browse to locate the CSV spreadsheet you saved.
7. Click Upload.

Search Properties

You may modify select properties for a job. These properties include the search name, the length of time a search is allowed to execute, the number of times to attempt reruns, and the result file upload URL.

TIP: Change the properties to a search before executing it. If it is executed, the changes will not take effect until the next execution.

How to Modify Search Properties:

1. In the Jobs tab, click on the name of the job you would like to modify the search properties for.
2. Click on the More drop-down menu in the top right of the page.
3. Select Job Properties.
   • For more information, view the Search Properties table.
4. Edit the desired properties.
5. Click Update.

NOTE: The default search properties are set up at the time your QL2 account is created according to the type of searching your organization chooses.

Search Property	Default Value	Field Contents
Search Name	Name	Type a new name to change the search name.
Stop Search At	Never	Never – Allows the search to run until finished. Abort at – Designate a particular time to stop the search. Abort after – Stop the search after a certain amount of time. * There are two choices for aborting a search – after the scheduled run start time or after the actual start time. Often, a search does not start on time if another search is executing. If a search is set to abort three hours into execution and is not able to begin due to another search, the search will execute only for the amount of time from the scheduled start. For example, a search is scheduled to begin at 8:00 but does not begin until 11:00 due to another search execution. If the search is set to execute for three hours from the scheduled start time, it never executes. If the search is set to execute for three hours after the actual start time, it begins at 11:00 and aborts at 14:00
Allow output of multi-carrier flights	No	Select “No“, “Yes“, or “User Account Setting“. If “Yes“, all carriers in a trip are displayed.
Desired currency type of retrieved fares	None	Enter a currency code or leave it empty if you want to have the currency returned as the site displays it.
Send email alerts to	None	Enter email addresses separated by commas.

Spreadsheet Input Format

Column	Name	Description
A	Site Code	Short identifier of the site from which to extract data (between two and five letters).
B	Origin	Origin location, is usually a three-letter airport code.
C	Destination	Destination location, usually a three-letter airport code.
D	Depart	The day to depart, either the number of days in the future, an absolute date in the form “DD-MM-YY”, “MM/DD/YY” or “YYYYMMDD”, or by day of the week.
E	Return	The day to return, either the number of days in the future, an absolute date in the form “DD-MM-YY”, “MM/DD/YY” or “YYYYMMDD”, or by day of week
F	Specific CXR (optional)	One or more two-letter carrier code(s) separated by spaces to use in a specific carrier search.
G	Reference (optional)	User specified reference information.
H	Cabin	Flight class. Syntax: “F” – First Class “B” – Business Class “E” – Economy “ER” – Economy Refundable. “EN” – Economy Nonrefundable. “EP” – Economy Premium. “P” – Premium “ES” – Economy Standard “EB” – for Economic Basic (Default is “E”)
I	Passengers	Number of passengers, a number 1-99 (Default is 1)
J	With Connections (optional)	Space separated list of three-letter airport codes, only fares for flights with these connections will be retrieved.
K	Booking Engine (optional)	URL for an alternative booking engine.
L	DOW filter depart	Limit query to flights which depart on the given days of the week. Syntax: MO,TU,WE,TH,FR,SA,SU (Default is all days of the week)
M	DOW filter return	Limit query to flights which return on the given days of the week. Syntax: MO,TU,WE,TH,FR,SA,SU (Default is all days of the week)
N	Direct flights only (optional)	“0” or empty to include all flights, “1” to query only non-stop flights (Default as per account setting)
O	Depart time	Departure time in 24-hour HH: MM format such as “17:45” or “01:00-09:00”
P	Return time	Return time in 24-hour HH: MM format such as “17:45” or “01:00-09:00”
Q	Search type	Search type. Syntax: “F” – Search by fare “S” – Search by schedule “C” – Search by calendar “D{n}” – Flexible date search, such as “D2” for ±2 days.
R	Search POS	Search point-of-sale, a three-letter country code.
S	Specific stops	Specific stops, one or more single digit ‘0-9’ space-separated values.
T	Include codeshares	“1” or empty to include codeshare flights, “0” to exclude codeshare flights.
O	Circle trip (optional)	An optional identifier for multi-leg trips. Syntax: “name#” such as “TRIP1”
P	Custom (optional)	An optional identifier for two-character country code