GDS: Apollo / Galileo

Note: the screens you see in this article might not match your BookingBuilder exactly, but don't worry about that- the differences are just cosmetic and the directions will still work.

Apollo / Galileo

BookingBuilder can connect with the GDS known in North America as Apollo and Europe as Galileo.  Although they are so similar that Apollo is frequently labeled Galileo, some differences do exist- things like how currency is displayed, for example.

This article is concerned with those two, rather than Smartpoint- although Smartpoint is not found without one of those running in the background, Smartpoint setup and troubleshooting is distinctly different , so if you are working on that instead, check out the article on Smartpoint.

Admin site settings

If you sign in to the BookingBuilder administration site, and click on the relevant Group on the right, you should see the BookingBuilder Options link.  That has a setting called Galileo Fare Format, which allows you to control whether decimals are used or not.

It also has a setting called Multi-GDS Enabled, which allows BookingBuilder to connect to multiple GDS systems at once.  It will occasionally pop up and ask which one you want it to work with if it isn't sure which to use.

Troubleshooting

BookingBuilder might not connect, or some currency entries might not be correct.  If you are new to this GDS, the running process for Apollo / Galileo is called viewpoint.exe .  

No Communications

The BookingBuilder icon near the clock might be staying yellow, indicating no connection is being made.  It might also be green, but no information still makes it back and forth.

1. Make sure BookingBuilder and viewpoint.exe are running under the same permission level / user account.  If BookingBuilder is running as admin, then Apollo / Galileo also has to.  If any of the shortcuts include the 'admin shield' blue and yellow icon, that could be the problem.
   
   
   
   
2. Run through the steps to re-register BookingBuilder found here.
   
   
3. Make sure security software like an anti-virus or firewall isn't blocking it.  Processes to look for include BBComm.exe, BBDesktop.exe, and viewpoint.exe.   A quick way to check is of course to turn all that off and restart BookingBuilder and Apollo / Galileo.
   
   
4. Audit the Windows user's effective permissions- sometimes it will turn out that one of those changed itself or they are mistakenly in a user group that they inherited from.  The quickest way to do that may be to create a new user account and see if it has the same problem.
   
   
5. Check the Windows events for general problems related to network communications- these can frequently be repaired of course with SFC, DISM, and the .Net Repair Tool.
   
   

Brackets

BB might be entering a bracket [ where it should use the pillow (in the BB GDS settings as @ ). You can't see it in the BB logs because it is an error on the receiver's end. 

1. Go to Start, Control Panel, Galileo TCP/IP. 
2. Click Edit, fill in the checkbox marked Force Download button at the bottom, and click OK.
3. Restart Apollo/Smartpoint and BB.
4. It might take a few minutes to work- if the BB icon doesn't turn green for a while, give it several minutes and then restart them both again.

What is happening is that the GDS is getting a little confused about whether to use the North American or European character codes in the background, and this procedure makes it double check, correcting it to the right region.