A brief history: Babel was built here at Web Applications UK from the ground-up; we have designed it to be fully extensible, and by that I mean future-proof. Modules can be added and information providers changed without rewriting the client site. Some of its advantages over traditional web services include, but are not limited to, being more secure, allowing partial responses, handling multiple requests and using multiple information providers to source availability and results from a single search query.

In the Babel world, there are Providers and Gateways. Every source of information is called a Provider, and common information sources are grouped into Gateways. Providers in the same Gateway implement the same message set, which allows Babel consumers to quickly and painlessly change provider as commercial needs change. It also allows consumers to talk to multiple providers at the same time, and in the same way.

Babel, as it is most commonly used, communicates with three distinct groups of entities. It speaks to the client’s public facing website, it communicates with Tr@veller during multiple stages of a user’s session, and it is the conduit to a number of Gateways. Gateways (I remind you, as Babel is most commonly used) include Payments (where Babel exchanges information with SagePay, Commidea and Pharos), Flights, Ferries, Address Management and Reservations (consisting of the Tr@veller Provider which generates the reservation documents). Companies use Babel to power websites with Tr@veller stock and one or two special providers and process payments.

The Web user accesses a website, whilst on the website he or she (for our purposes) will book a holiday. As the Web user clicks on a hotel, they are really using Babel. Flight information? Babel.  Credit Card acceptance? Babel. It’s all Babel. When the website talks to a third party provider via Babel, it alone receives the response. Trusty Tr@veller uses a module called the Listener Hook that allows other providers to securely listen in on messages. The Tr@veller provider listens in to payments and relevant 3^rd party messages and updates the Tr@veller Database in a guaranteed offline way.

The other route for accessing Babel is through the Tr@veller user who keys information into Tr@veller directly. Once the details are in Tr@veller, the information is exchanged through Babel which accesses all the gateways... this should be familiar because it works the same way as above. When Babel talks to Tr@veller, it gets a response directly. Offline, it gets a confirmation back from Babel via the listener. In a very real way, it hears about it twice. So when the information bounces back to Babel, it is sent to the Tr@veller Database (and then the Tr@veller Provider) as well as the Tr@veller which is on screen in front of the Tr@veller User, who is most likely talking to a customer on a phone.

Now that you have a brief history of Babel, let’s look at how we came to work with Capital Breaks, a subsidiary of Encore Tickets. The good people of Encore approached us in July 2008 and asked us if we could sell them a dynamic package that could incorporate UK Rail, Eurostar, flights, theatre tickets, attractions, and restaurants, AND be able to search for everything with real time availability for their new venture, Capital Breaks. We spent a few months going over requirements with Encore, and in February 2009 we started developing. The first live booking was achieved by November. We originally designed Babel with these capabilities in mind, so we were able to pull together bits and pieces to make a new complete system without too much trouble.

Babel, as it is implemented by Capital Breaks, now has improved capability to source stock and availability from a multitude of providers without loading the stock directly into Tr@veller, bundling it all together and incorporating package deals with flights, UK Rail and Eurostar (as well as everything else). Oh but that’s not all; Tr@veller users can now search availability and prices in real time. With this, we shifted from selling primarily Tr@veller stock to selling any stock due to broadened availability. What is most import for current Babel users is that now, the Tr@veller availability search looks through all Babel providers (including Tr@veller) rather than just directly accessing stock held in Tr@veller itself.

Increasingly people are sharing stock, so instead of being offered a block of hotel rooms to rent out, you can search live availability and bring back current prices to your customers, eliminating hold time.  These new features empower call centre staff to include more add-ons from their workstations, and, they move Tr@veller on from being limited to stock u-haul to anything that is available via 3^rd party APIs.  Call centre staff can add comments and special provisions, and do their own searches using the criterion that they choose.  We can plug additional suppliers into the equation as the API/contracts become available, which increases your selling opportunities. 

Babel is now capable of booking and confirming flights and UK Rail tickets, as well as the necessary references to produce tickets and E Tickets.  Package deals can now be generated to include hotel, Eurostar, UK Rail, Flight, Exhibition/Attraction, Restaurant and Airport Pick-up for one price or a mark-up value provided to produce dynamic packages for a set profit.  Babel can process credit cards through a number of payment providers; it can speak to multiple providers at once and in real time, and can accommodate numerous stops through various countries.

Here at Web Applications UK we like to constantly improve, upgrade and tweak our systems to make sure that they are the most cutting edge product on the block. We do it with Babel; we do it with Tr@veller, and just in case you thought we were getting complacent we’ll be introducing Mercury soon. Sleep is for sissies, we’d rather be working for you.