Glossary
This Glossary is provided to help guests understand more about the rental of inns, resorts and vacation rentals. It is not comprehensive but serves as a primer for terms guests may encounter in renting specialty lodging. Not all terms apply to all properties or managers.
Approvals
After content is posted to any table which is setup in the Notification system may also require an administrator to approve each record before it is distributed to users. Not all tables require pre-approval. But if they do a series of fields is use to indicate the administrators approval, the date that was given and any notes necessary. Users are allowed to set their preferences as to what they receive and how frequently. See also: Notification System (Origin: William)
Cluster Websites
A number of websites that have similar content. Usually they use a Industry tables from a common database and utilize many Universal components but also some unique components but may be shared among websites in the cluster. See also: Universals, Display System, Industry Tables (Origin: William May)
Collection
The process of securing payment from customers who owe you money. Includes contacting the customer by mail, email, fax or phone. Use of a collection agency. The filing of suit in court. See also: Collection Agency (Origin: Industry)
Connections aka Connectors
Often a table has a list of fields that join other tables to establish a relationship. Connections often include T_People.IDPeople, T_Entities.IDEntity, etc. (Origin: William May)
Contender
A Company which is a target for or possible acquisition. (Origin: William May)
Damage Waiver
A fee paid by guests that covers a maximum amount of damages they may cause. It is paid in advance, is non-refundable and covers unintentional damage up to a certain threshold if reported to the owner or manager prior to departure. Does not cover intentional damage, excessive cleaning, charges due to guest failure to follow booking contract or amounts of the limit (Origin: Industry - Link: VRIA.org)
Directory Queries
Most directory forms have fields in the header which allow the user to filter or select values from the directory. Those fields may be text fields or combo boxes. When a form is opened the focus must go to the first field in the directory query. (Origin: William May)
Display System
Our method of using a Many-One-Many relationship between the content table (Such as T_News) and the Domain table. This is done using a Join (or third) table that has the ID's from the two tables. For example a Table T_NewsDomains would join to both T_News and T_Domains. This then allows the programmer to write code that determines which data in the original table (T_News) should be displayed on the website for any given Domain.
The Display System always includes DisplayStart and DisplaySTop dates and a priority date. But it may also have other fields for providing custom information that may be required on a website. See also: Universals, Restrictor Switches (Origin: William May)
Display System
Our method of using a Many-One-Many relationship between the content table (Such as T_News) and the Domain table. This is done using a Join (or third) table that has the ID's from the two tables. For example a Table T_NewsDomains would join to both T_News and T_Domains. This then allows the programmer to write code that determines which data in the original table (T_News) should be displayed on the website for any given Domain.
The Display System always includes DisplayStart and DisplaySTop dates and a priority date. But it may also have other fields for providing custom information that may be required on a website. See also: Universals, Restrictor Switches (Origin: William May)
Distribution Website
A website, operated by a third party developer, which uses data supplied by our company. For example: an outside Vacation Rental Listing site might get its list of rentals from our VRMLS.org site. See also: Source Websiste (Origin: William May)
Domain Content
Tables of related data that are joined to Domains in the Domain table to provide information to viewers of the website referenced by the Domain. Content includes information such as News, Questions, References etc. There is a Sam Software tool that will copy the content from one Domain to another in order to save time. (Origin: William May)
Domain Content Copier
An function which causes Content in one Domain to be copied exactly to another Domain. For example, all of the Newsletters which are joined and display on one Domain, can be copied to another Domain. See also: Content Domain Copier. (Origin: William May)
Domain Names
An internet address such as Amazon.com stated in letters and characters. Each domain leads to a numerical address on the Internet called a IP address such as 92.19..45.1. Domain names are used to make internet addresses more memorable. These names are registered with a controlling body and require fees for annual renewal. (Origin: William May)
Dominion
A collection of website domains on which advertisers can purchase listings, in a group. See also: Domain (Origin: William May)
Drill Down
In a Directory or Subform, when a user double-clicks on a record, a detail form is opened that shows the record in greater detail. See also: Directory, Subform (Origin: William May)
Fast Date
In all samantha forms, short-cut keys have been installed which allow the date to be incremented forward or backward. These are called "Fast Date"
d = forward one day
w = forward one week
m = forward one month
y = forward one year.
To go backward, use the left immediately to the left such as:
s = back one day
q = back one week
n = back one month
t = back one year. (Origin: William May)
Focus Websites
A website listing vacation rentals which have a common focus or topic such as those located in Mountains, by a river or other common attribute such as Budget, a certain type of property. Focus websites pull data from other source Websites. Focus websites are just one kind of Distribution website. See also: Geo Websites, Distribution websites. (Origin: William May)
Function Tracking
A method of adding fields to the T_Stencils, T_Pages, T_Domains or T_Webform tables for each major function to be designed and used for all records in the table. Such as: T_Pages.Submit indicates whether the page allows Content Self-Submission. Fields can be Checkbox, Combo Box or text. (Origin: William May)
Generic Websites
To speed design for domains, generic websites are sometimes created and populated with content so that they can be copied in their entirety to new domains. This begins to attract Search Engine crawls and optimization for them. Those websites can be customized and improved later. Often these are named as subdomains such as Beach.Carnacs.com but they can also be used for Kreskins, Houdinis, Lentinis and other stencils. See also: Stencil, Carnac, Houdini, Kreskin, Lenini (Origin: William May)
Geo Websites
A website listing vacation rentals in a specific geographic location such as for a town, county, state or country. Geo's are one of many types of Distribution websites which pull data from other source Websites See also: Source Website, Distribution Website (Origin: William may)
