Fore! Internet FAQ

What features are in Fore! Internet?

The following is a list of all Fore! Internet features:

Booking Rules
Credit Card Restrictions
Custom Style and Colors
Find a Game
Fore! Information and Birthday Sign Up Forms
Fore! Travel
Internet Specials
Internet Performance Reports
Mobile Booking Interface
MyNetwork Bookings
Online Cancellations
Online Pricing
Prepaid Specials
Profile Management for Golfers
Quantity Restrictions
Social Media Integration

To view the procedures in setting these up, see Fore! Internet Procedures

What features are exclusive to Fore! Internet 2.0?

Fore! Internet 2.0 has many advantages over its predecessor. The booking interface has a more modern appearance and is generally a more graphically pleasing interface. In addition to customer styles and colors available in 1.0, Fore! Internet 2.0 enables you to add a photo or logo and a course description and contains a map. There can be a customized message to the golfers and reading the terms and agreements can be required prior to booking. The 2.0 interface allows for social media integration and has its own mobile booking engine for smart phones. The golf course can choose which credit cards to accept as a hold for a reservation and will even allow certain customer types to book with out requiring a credit card. There were many enhancements to the 1.0 interface.

How does Fore! Internet work?

Fore! Internet is a program that runs on one machine at the golf course and enables Fore! Reservations to accept Internet reservations.

Synchronization of available tee times to our replicated database occurs using the standard HTML port, usually port 80. To keep available tee times up to date, synchronizations occur every 5 minutes.

Fore! Internet 2011 keeps a connection from the golf course to the Fore! Reservations servers. When a customer attempts to book, the reservation is sent directly to the course in real time with this connection. Therefore, there is no longer a need for port forwarding.

Because the connection is initiated from the golf course behind the firewall, there should be no need for specific firewall settings. If the course has a complex firewall setup that monitors outbound traffic, you may need to make exceptions. The following executables and IP addresses should be listed in the firewall settings for both port 80 and the secure port 443. You may also need to open email ports for email marketing or email confirmations.

4reserve.exe,
4sell.exe
4internet.exe,
4tools.exe.
4catchup.exe

http://www.teeitup.com/ - 206.55.127.121 (notice the www in the URL)
http://www.forereservations.com/ - 206.55.127.122 (notice the www in the URL)
qs708.pair.com - 206.55.127.120 (no www in the URL)
core.teeitup.com - 206.55.127.125 (no www in the URL)
http://www.teeitup.biz - 216.92.61.48

We highly recommend identifying these servers by their URL, as Fore! Reservations will less likely change the URL, but more likely change the IP address as more servers are added to handle demand.

Fore! Internet is developed in .Net and runs as a Windows service. The service is set to automatically begin on start up. If the database is on the machine running Fore! Internet (only possible in 2009 and earlier because they were Access versions) then the Fore! Internet service has no trouble accessing the database. If the database resides on another machine (possible in 2009 and earlier and mandatory in 2010 and 2011) then the Service must be set up with login credentials so that it can run under an Administrator group user on the box where the database resides. Later versions of 2011 have a button to do this automatically. In really complex setups, a manual process (ForeJump) must be performed.

In addition, we recommend that the Windows Updates ports are open as this is a requirement of PCI.

What is Internet is Master? Why do we suggest that people use it?

To improve reliability for online reservations after the golf shop closes, we created an option called Internet is Master. When this option is checked, the next synchronization performed is a full synchronization, where all available tee times are uploaded, all available schedule on the Internet is deleted and replaced with the times available at the local level. In addition there is a major change in the booking process. When the customer chooses to book a time, the web server books the reservation on the web, does NOT check for availability at the local level but books it immediately at the Internet level. The reservation is queued up on the Internet as a pending reservation for the core and the golfer gets an immediate confirmation that the tee time is booked. This is done because the course has already signified by checking the Internet is Master option that they are no longer taking tee times at the local level and that anything that is available on the Internet can be booked. This option is great to use when the shop is closed and no one is there to monitor the Fore! Internet service, especially useful for times when there is a power or Internet outage overnight. Even if the service gets interrupted at the local level booking can continue on the web.

Pending reservations are brought down to the local database upon the next synchronization, in the next 5 minutes if the computer is still on or the next morning when it is booted after being shut down overnight. At that point in time, the customized confirmation is sent from the local database. This is the reason that two confirmations are sent. The email from our web server is immediate and gives the golfer confirmation that the reservation is made. The confirmation from the core is a customized confirmation but is only sent when the reservation makes it to the core, which could be many hours later in the case where Internet is Master and the computer has been shut down.

If a golf course sets the Internet is Master option but then attempts to make a reservation locally, they will receive a warning during the reservation process. The warning informs the reservationist that making the booking locally while Internet is Master could result in double bookings. The tee time being booked locally will still appear as available on the Internet until the next synchronization, which could be the next morning if the Fore! Internet machine gets shut down. If a golfer books that same time online, it will be completed without checking the availability at the local level. When the sync does occur, the reservation is retrieved and must be booked because the golfer has already been given confirmation. To handle this, Fore! Internet inserts a squeeze time in the schedule to make the reservation. This ensures that the reservation will not be lost and the staff can handle the situation accordingly.

Internet is Master can be set manually by the golfshop staff or will happen if the staff uses the Shutdown button as part of the nightly procedure. If they do neither, Fore! Internet will turn the option on automatically based on times entered into the Fore! Internet window. The times on the Fore! Internet window are local times.

Do you suggest giving online bookings a larger threshold?

Many courses promote online reservations by giving more days of availability to those booking online than those booking by phone. Perhaps the greatest advantage to online reservations is the fact that the golfer enters their demographic information accurately and you no longer have to depend on your staff to ask for and accurately enter it. This in turn can result in either a reduced labor cost or improved customer service in the golf shop. Lastly, reservations can be made 24 hours a day online, even when the golf shop is not staffed.

How do I set the number of days I want available on the Internet?

The Threshold Day and Time fields are set on the Fore! Internet window. The Threshold Day is the number of days out reservations can be taken. At the Threshold time, it increments to the next day. For example, 7 days at 5:00 means that you can always take tee times for 7 days and at 5:00 it increments to release more times to the server so that you can take them for the 8th day.

If the rules threshold is greater than the default on the Fore! Internet screen, it “overrules” that date. Starting in later versions of 2009 the rules threshold will start using the threshold time.

Can I restrict online reservations for the same day?

Some courses prefer to handle all same day bookings via the phone as they want to control the tee sheet to best utilize their open times and manage walk ups. To do so, they believe it is best to restrict online reservations for the same day. Fore! Reservations has given them the option to choose a specific time to stop taking same day online reservations. By setting this time to the approximate opening time, the course can still take reservations overnight via the Internet but then manage the rest of the day by hand once they get to the golfshop. The golf course will call Customer Support to set this option.

Why don't Internet rules work for all my customers?

Before an Internet booking rule can be set for a customer, the golfer needs to have an Internet profile and have booked an online tee time at your golf course. To see all customers who meet this criteria, open the rules wizard by selecting File | Setup | Rules in Fore! Reservations and proceed to Step 3. Step 3 lists all customers that have an Internet profile and have made an online tee time using their profile at your course.

If a customer is not in this list, rules cannot be applied until an Internet profile is made and an Internet reservation is booked at your golf course. Once the customer is listed in Step 3, the Rules Wizard can be completed to apply rules for the golfer. The difficulty in utilizing rules is completing the process of matching customers in the local database with their correct local customer types to their online profiles and their Internet customer type.

The first challenge is to get the profile from the Internet to the local database. If the golf course is running Fore! Internet 1.0 then the customer has to book a reservation or sign up for an online offer. In addition to those two methods, if the course is running Internet 2.0 then a customer’s profile is sent down upon the next Fore! Internet sync if they make their profile at the golf course’s web page.

The next challenge is matching the online profile that was sent down to the core with an existing customer record in the local database. If there is no customer profile locally, then the staff member changes the customer type in the profile created from the Internet. This change will trigger a change to update the online profile with the appropriate customer type. For example, Joe Smith makes a reservation online using an online profile and has never played at the course. His profile comes down with the reservations and creates a local customer record. Upon check-in the staff member changes his customer type from Internet (the default) to Resident. This change in his local customer type triggers a change in his online customer type to give him advanced booking privileges through the rules. While this is possible, it is not a likely scenario because most customers who receive advance booking privileges are most likely already in the database.

Therefore, when they do create an online profile and get it to the local database, it is usually a duplicate to a local customer profile that has already been created. As an example, most courses have their own membership list already loaded in their local database. Now the course has two profiles for the same customer, one that has a member customer type and another that has an Internet customer type and is associated with the online profile (has the InternetID). The most common method of eliminating duplicates is to merge the two local profiles. Merging individually from the customer list will trigger an event to update the Internet customer type in the customer’s online profile. If you run through the merge utility, it will not. Since most golf courses use the merge utility matching by email addresses, the suggestion is to run through the rules wizard after the merge utility. As described before, the last stage of the rules wizard updates the Internet customer type of everyone’s online profile.

Once the customer’s profile has been updated with the proper online customer type, when logged in at a course they can see the available tee times that fit to the booking rules of their Internet customer type.

When using frames on our course webpage, how do I assure all pages are secure?

You have a couple options on how you can assure your website users that all pages are secure:

We highly recommend purchasing a secure certificate for your web server. This is your best option and it is relatively inexpensive. You would need to contact the company which hosts your webpage and let them know that you need to purchase a secure certificate. It usually costs an extra $50-$100 per year to your hosting company. Then your webpage will be https://www.yourwebsiteaddress.com/ (notice the “httpS”). You can then forward your normal page, to this new secure one. With this solution you can continue to use frames and the page will display a small lock notifying the user it is fully secure. Feel free to visit our demo website, which implements this method: https://www.teeitup.com/sales/forentl.htm.
You can bring up the booking page into a new widow rather than framing it. When the user clicks the booking link on your webpage, popup the booking page in a new browser window instead of using the frames. Unfortunately with this solution you will not be able to frame the booking pages. You can still use frames for the other sections in your webpage however.

Why does a golfer get two email confirmations?

The first email they receive is a generic email from the Fore! Reservations server. It is sent immediately to confirm the very basics of the reservation. The second email is sent from the course and can be customized with current marketing information or course policies. This email is sent when the booking is completed at the course, which may be many hours later if the course is running Internet as Master and has shut down their machine.

Why don't the golfers get their tee time confirmations?

The 2008 version of Fore! Internet now sends Internet e-mail confirmations on behalf of the golf course using the Fore! Reservations servers.

Any e-mail confirmation from a golf course with an SPF record with their domain will automatically be blocked by spam filters. To allow Fore! Internet tee time confirmations to be sent successfully, the Fore! Reservations mail server will need to be included into the SPF record. SPF allows the owner of an Internet domain to specify which machines are authorized to transmit e-mail for that domain. For example, the owner of the ForeGC.com domain can designate which machines are authorized to send e-mail whose sender e-mail address ends with "@ForeGC.com". SPF allows software to identify and reject forged addresses, common in junk e-mail.

A simple test to check if this pertains to your course is to book an internet tee time and make sure the e-mail confirmation is not blocked by a spam filter.

If the e-mail confirmation is blocked by a spam filter, the quickest way to a solution is to call the tech support department of your Internet Service Provider. Tell them about the problem you’re having, that you think it might have something to do with SPF, and they can take care of it.

The IP address of this mail servers are:

216.92.131.71 and 216.92.131.195

Why does the Internet squeeze tee times?

Tee times being squeezed by the Internet is generally caused by improperly following the Fore! Internet closing procedure.

At closing Internet is Master is set manually by the golf shop staff or automatically by Fore! Internet after the Begin Time field in the After Hour section. When Internet is Master is set, the web server books any available time without communicating with the local golf course. This makes overnight bookings more dependable, as Internet communication with the golf course can not be guaranteed due to incidents like power outages.

If a staff member does make a reservation at the time that the Internet is Master is set, then there is a chance that the same time can be booked on the Internet. If it is, during the next synchronization the reservation from the Internet is squeezed into the tee sheet.

To avoid this from happening, the staff member should not make a reservation while Internet is Master is set. A prompt will come up during the booking process to further inform the staff member if this occurs.

intasmas

If the staff member continues to book, they should make sure that Fore! Internet performs another synchronization to make sure that the time that they booked is removed from available times on the Internet. If it has not already been booked on the Internet, this will eliminate it from being booked overnight and subsequently squeezed into the tee sheet.

If a staff member is not able to synchronize the next morning to remove the Internet is Master setting, they should contact Fore! Reservations customer support. We can provide them with a list of tee times that have been booked overnight, and also prohibit additional times from being booked on the Internet while they are open for business.