Galileo Web Services Structure and Data Flow

Galileo Web Services combine Galileo’s XML Select application with Web Services technologies. The XML Select Web Service performs two key functions:

However, with Galileo Web Services, the XML Select Web Service components are hosted by Galileo International on secured servers. By hosting XML Select Web Service at Galileo, customers do not need to install, configure, and maintain XML Select components on-site.

The following graphic shows the basic flow of information in a transaction that uses Galileo Web Services to communicate with the CRS.

Sending Requests

The following description explains how a message is sent from a client application to the CRS.

Client Application

Client applications can be written in any language or platform that supports Web Services technologies or protocols. The XML transaction data is wrapped in a SOAP envelope.

See Requirements and Recommendations for further details about supported environments.

Network Connection

Galileo Web Services calls are made using HTTP via a public Internet connection or a private dedicated connection. The amount of network bandwidth is the most important factor in planning for adequate capacity. Regardless of the type of network connection, the size of the connection has the most direct effect on the speed and capacity of the client application. See Capacity Planning for additional recommendations about connectivity.

Galileo Web Services Servers

The Web Services servers receive and process the Web Service call. Most services interact with the Apollo or Galileo CRS. These services require a Galileo Web Services-specific identifier, the Host Access Profile (HAP), which is included in the SOAP header to identify the sender and provide permissions to a specific service.

Some Web Services messages end at the Web Services servers, while others are forwarded to the XML Select servers and processed by the CRS. For example, the Travel Codes Translator eBL, which maps between travel-industry codes to names, has all of its functionality located within the Web Service itself. The decode request and response is handled completely within the service. However, an air availability request requires additional processing by the XML Select and the CRS.

XML Select Servers

For requests that must interact with the CRS, the message is sent from the Web Service servers to the XML Select Web Service servers.

Because XML Select Web Service already uses XML, this product is compatible with Web Services standards. The XML Select Web Service takes the XML data that has been received and processed through the Web Service and essentially translates the data from XML into Galileo’s proprietary structured data format. The structured data is then processed by the Galileo or Apollo CRS.

The Web Services and XML Select servers reside on server clusters to provide fault tolerance and support expanded volumes of data.

Retrieving Responses

The response message follows the same path as the request message, in reverse. The proprietary structured data response is sent from the CRS to XML Select Web Service, which converts the response into an XML format.

The XML message is then sent to the Web Services server, which wraps the response in a SOAP envelope and forwards the message back to the client application.