Retail Data Feeds Troubleshooting Guide

Transcription

1 Retail Data Feeds Troubleshooting Guide Retail Data Feeds (RDF) is a near real time flow of ticket information of all Ticketmaster Host sales. These sales include all points of purchase including Box Office, Ticket Centers, Phone and Internet Sales. Accounts are created in Archtics for all Account Sales, while Ticket Center and Window transactions are associated with a generic account to display all transactions within a single report such as Seats Sold. Below you will find Best Practices as well as a trouble shooting guide to exceptions that occur when there is an issue with the information flow, as well as solutions to resolve these issues. Best Practices Preparing Events for RTF By default, RTF is enabled once an upgrade to Archtics version 6.0x occurs for all events. When creating events in Archtics, please follow the action items listed below. Please note: If you do not want RTF enabled on a specific database, contact your Client Support Specialist (CSS to CES via Infra). -Price Level Mapping. When setting up price codes in Archtics events, the Ticketmaster Host Price Level Mapping must be populated in each Parent Price Code (ie. A=1, B=2, etc.) -Process Retail Transactions Checkbox. By default, the Process Retail Transactions checkbox is active. If the Archtics event does not exactly match the HOST event (ie. only specific seats are made available on Archtics), unclick this box. This will make the RTF inactive for that specific event and avoid daily exceptions that will need to be cleared. If mismatches in Archtics/HOST events are present at the time of the upgrade to version 6.0x, please ask your Client Support Specialist to delay activating RTF until 1 day after the upgrade so that the Process Retail Transactions checkbox can be unchecked on applicable events (CSS to CES via Infra). WARNING! RDF works off of either the Primary and/or Secondary TCODE in the Host event. If events on the Host are TCODEd (Primary or Secondary), with the TCODE that was set up for a certificate, (typically the AHAA or DIGIT TCODE), the client will get data feeds for that event. If this is not desired, please contact your CSS for alternatives.

2 HOST Data Warehouse Feeds The current HOST Data Warehouse Feeds should be imported as normal for three days after moving to RDF to insure all legacy data is imported into Seats History. Please ask your Client Support Specialist to disable the HOST Data Warehouse feed after the three days of overlap has expired (CSS to CES via Infra). HOST Event ID Prior to HOST events going on sale, double check that the HOST Event ID is populated in eligible events. This data should sweep in automatically assuming the Process Retail Transaction box is checked and the event is DIGITed. Retail Seat Exceptions Retail Seat Exceptions are detailed explanations noting the reason why a HOST transaction is not being inserted into the Archtics database. These exceptions should not be ignored! Once an event/section/row combination is recorded as an exception, all new activity for that combination will automatically be treated as such. Exceptions that are not resolved will result in loss of HOST transaction data and cause omissions in reports such as Seats Sold. Retail DB Exceptions At this point, Retail DB Exceptions need to be addressed by Chantilly Consultants. Please contact your CSS if any of these types of exceptions occur. -Retail Seat Exceptions- Resolution Options. To resolve Retail Seat Exceptions, one of three actions is available: -Resolve. This option ignores the exception and dismisses the error message. Be aware that if this option is chosen, the transaction will not be populated anywhere in the database. -Resubmit. This option sends the transaction to/from the ticket table for a resolution attempt. This option is a good choice if an error with the event or event set up is found and corrected. -Move to History. The option sends the transaction to the Retail Non-Ticket table and will not associate the transaction with any event. This option is an alternative to resolve/ignore as the data does still reside in Archtics vs being ignored. Bulk Clearing or Resubmitting Exceptions Exceptions can be acted upon in bulk by highlighting and right clicking the event line and choosing the Select All option. Seats Not Found

3 Explanation. This message occurs when the HOST Event ID (dw_event_id) is correct (ie the HOST can see the Archtics event that it should link to), however the seats associated with the HOST section cannot be found. This can be caused if event modifications on the HOST have occurred (ie. flex sections, etc.) or if the HOST chart does not match the Archtics chart (ie. not all seats have been made available on the Archtics event, etc.). Resolution. Depending on the cause, making the entire manifest available on Archtics and killing unwanted seats (vs not making them available) or re-running the DIGIT event definitions should correct the issue. After making the adjustments, click Resubmit in the Exception Notice screen. If this does not work, run a HOST AUDIT and SECDAT and compare inventory and price levels to the Archtics Audit and repeat the resolution once updates have been made. Seats Not Found in Ticket/Seats Not Found in Avail Explanation. This message occurs when the original sale occurred prior to RDF being enabled. This is a common error for the fall/winter sports seasons as many already had HOST events onsale prior to the RDF enable. This message also may occur if the Archtics event has only made available a partial manifest where the entire HOST manifest exists (similar to the Seats Not Found exception). Seats Not Found in Ticket is specific to HOST refunds, whereas Seats Not Found in Avail is specific to HOST sales. Resolution. In the event where sales occurred prior to enabling RDF, the only solution is to click Resolve or Move to History in the Exception Notice screen. If the exception stems from a partial event being made available, make the entire manifest available on Archtics and killing unwanted seats. After making available the missing seats, click Resubmit in the Exception Notice screen.

4 Price Code Not Found or Price Level Not Found Explanation. This message occurs when the HOST AUDIT price column is not mapped to the Archtics event. For example, if there are 5 audit columns, these must be mapped the parent price codes A, B, C, D and E. Resolution. Go to administration->season/event->events and plans. Find your event and click Price Code. Update the Ticketmaster Host Price Level fields in the parent price ONLY. After updating the price level mapping, click Resubmit in the Exception Notice screen. Class ID Not Found Explanation. This message occurs if someone had deleted any Distribution classes (ie. DIST-ADULT, DIST-BYTYPE, DIST-COMP, etc.) in administration->properties- >class administration or has deleted said classes from the t_class table. Resolution. These classes need to be re-added via class administration using the original class codes in order to resolve. After re-adding the classes, click Resubmit in the Exception Notice screen. Invalid Seat Number Explanation. This message occurs if seat numbers are non-numeric. In general these are not supported for DIGIT enabled events. Resolution. The HOST chart needs to be updated, or RDF should be disabled for that specific event via administration->season/event->events and plans->edit and unclick Process Retail Transactions. After updating, click Resubmit in the Exception Notice screen. Event Not Found Explanation. This message is unusual and should not be seen in most cases. If an event is not found in the Archtics database, it should populate the HOST data to the Retail Seats tab in the account. Resolution. Review to be sure the HOST Will Call via Archtics is working properly and review related AHAA items. If those items are working as designed, escalate to your Client Support Specialist (CSS to CES via Infra).

5 Exception in E/S/R Explanation. This message occurs if the Event/Section/Row is already present as a current exception. Please note: This is not seat specific, only event, section and row. If an earlier exception is present, it must be resolved prior to any E/S/R exception resolution. For example, if the exception for EVENT1, Section F, Row 10, Seat 5 is a current exception, all seats in EVENT1, Section F, Row 10, (all seats) will be noted as exceptions as well. Resolution. Resolve all earlier exceptions related to the event, section and row in question (preferably via Resubmit). After the earlier exceptions are addressed, click Resubmit on the E/S/R exception.