SFTP - Instructions for custom fields

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• SFTP - Instructions for custom fields
• Instructions
  • Custom field response file processing logic
  • File format and naming conventions
  • Frequency and scheduling
  • Custom field file format

Instructions

This topic contains helpful information to ensure your file uploads are successful.

For general SFTP guidelines and information, see SFTP - Setup instructions.

Custom field response file processing logic

Spotnana requires a complete custom field response data set each time you upload the file. The primary field used to identify which custom field the responses are added to is the SFTP custom field identifier. Custom field responses can be sent in separate files or combined into a single file.

The SFTP custom field identifier can be found upon creating a custom field and setting “Require SFTP identifier code” to “Yes”.

The logic used to process the contents of your CSV file is as follows:

• The responses which are present in the custom field file for a given SFTP custom field identifier and not in the Spotnana database, would be created.

• The responses which are not present in the custom field file for a given SFTP custom field identifier and are present in the Spotnana database, would be deactivated.

File format and naming conventions

The .CSV custom fields feed file name must use this format:

custom_fields.*.csv

where the * (wildcard) represents any characters you wish to add to the name. The “.” after “feed” and the “.” before “csv” must be present. The file name is not case sensitive. We recommend including the date and time in the name of the file (to ease troubleshooting in the future). For example:

custom_fields.spotnana_integration_<DateTime>.csv

The .CSV feed file must also be in a specific format. The column names must exactly match the defined format (see Custom field format section below). More details on file formatting can be found in Appendix 1.

We require certain data level validations to be followed (see Custom field format section below for details). 

Frequency and scheduling

For general information on frequency and scheduling, see the Frequency and scheduling section of SFTP - Setup instructions.

We recommend you upload a file at least once a week to be sure to notify Spotnana of any additions/updates/deletions that may have occurred (if your custom fields change often, daily updates may be preferred). If this practice is followed: 

• new responses will be available to be selected at checkout by travelers immediately. 

• deprecated responses will be removed as an option and no longer available for travelers to select. 

Deprecated responses will still be visible on reports.

Custom field file format

Use this information to help you ensure the data in your custom field upload is correctly formatted and prepared.