Table of contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Offer Search
  3. Using Product Tags for selection
  4. Using Product Tags as Text
  5. Search for Products

Introduction

Many products can not be sold (efficiently) in a trip based approach like:

  • multi ride products valid for multiple trips. Either the customer does not know the trips before-hand or the prices would be too high for a singel requested trip.
  • reduction cards
  • merchandising articles

Offer Search

In a non trip based offer search the tripSearchCriteria are replaced by the nonTripSearchCriteria. These provide parameters, that would otherwise have been take from a trip:

 - Begin of validity
 - Regiona where the offers should be valid, provided as NUTS codes or as places

The offers to be provided should be valid at least on the begin of validity and within the area specified. The region is provided as a hint for the offer search, the response might include offers that are valid in a relevant part of the region or where the requested region is part of the offers validity.

Besides the nonTripSearchCriteria the generic offerSearchCriteria can be used.

The offerSearchCriteria include:

- additional parameter to narrow the list of results, e.g. flexibility of the offers or class 
- a list of products for which offers are requested
- a list of product tags to narrow the list of results

The offer request as usual provides: - the list of anonymous passengers - optionally codes to allow for corporate offers - optionally codes to allow for corporate promotions - available fulfillment methods

Using Product Tags for selections

Product tags can be used as search parameters in the search for offers and they are included in the product definition. Product tags are grouped to allow a selection of tags within a tag category by the customer.

The definition of product tags and their grouping is up to the provider of OSDM. The product tags including their grouping can be retrieved via GET /product-tags. This allows a structured access to the providers products via separate selections. E.g. searching for passes by selecting regions and selecting validity ranges or selecting merchandising articles by selecting the type of item and the size.

The retailer can provide a selection to the customer on the product tag groups to find the parmeter for the offer ( POST /offers) directly or in the product search to first search all relevant products (POST /products-search).

Examples:

Sale of passes:

    ProductTag:   
              tag:  RP_DE
              text: Germany

    ProductTag:   
              tag: VAL_14
              text: 2 weeks validity  

    ProductTag:   
              tag: VAL_30
              text: 1 month validity                      
              
    ProductTagGroup: 
              tagGroup: COUNTRY
              text: Valid countries
              productTags:  RP_DE,RP_DE,  RP_DE2

    ProductTagGroup: 
              tagGroup: VAL
              text: Validity
              productTags: VAL_14, VAL_30                 
    
    Product: 
              name: German Rail Pass 2 weeks
              tags: RP_DE, VAL_14  

   A retailer can provide a selection on country and on validity to the customer to select the product tags used in the offer search.

Sale of merch:

    ProductTag:   
              tag:  SHIRT_1
              text: T-Shirt with railway logo

    ProductTag:   
              tag: SIZE_L
              text: size L     

    ProductTag:   
              tag: SIZE_XL
              text: size XL    
              
    ProductTagGroup: 
              tagGroup: G_TYPE
              text: item
              productTags:  SHIRT_1, CAP        
    
    ProductTagGroup: 
              tagGroup: G_SIZE
              text: size
              productTags:  SIZE_L,SIZE_XL        
    Product: 
              name: T-shirt with railway logo
              tags: SIZE_L

   A retailer can provide a selection on the size of a mechandising article to select the product tags used in the offer search.

Using Product Tags as Text

Product Tags might be used as free text search in case a provider supports this. The provider would need to implement AI search on his products.

E.g. ProductTag “I want to travel for two weeks in Germany”.

Using Product Search

The POST \products-search end-point can be used to search for products. The product provides a description of the product and its conditions without giving an offer with prices that can be booked.

The search can be retricted by product tags ans other parameters like flexibility or class.