Overview

This section gives more details about the 3 main pieces of an integration with the Actions Center. You will use each of these in the steps outlined in the End-to-End guide.

Feeds

Feeds are files in JSON or pb3 format used to transmits your inventory data to the Actions Center. This allows you to submit all of your data at once to update the merchants, services, and availability slots using an SFTP upload.

Maps Booking API

The Maps Booking API allows you to update objects in the Actions Center system between feed submissions to keep information up to date. The API also allows you to cancel bookings that are made through Reserve with Google end-to-end integration.

Real Time Updates are implemented using REST calls.

Note: Real Time Updates are rarely applicable for starter integrations. For starter integrations you may ignore the Maps Booking API.

Note: Some existing legacy integration are using RPC calls. This is still maintained but must not be used for new integrations.

Booking Server

In order for the Actions Center end-to-end integration to create bookings on your behalf, you must set up a Booking server.

Note: This is not applicable for starter integrations.

REST API

The v3 version is the latest version of the API, and supports a REST-based interface. All new integrations should use the v3 API.

This section specifies the feed files used to transmit your inventory data to the Actions Center. The contents of your feeds defines which services you are providing, what services are available, and when the services are available.

Check the References and Samples accordion to learn how to share these feeds with us.

The structure of the inventory feeds are defined by the Google Maps Booking API.

The following feed is mandatory across any integration:

• Merchants feed: Contains data describing your merchants.

In addition, the 2 following feeds are mandatory for end-to-end integration.

• Services feed: Describes the services provided by your merchants.
• Availability feed: Lists availability slots of services provided by your merchants.

Note: All feeds must be uploaded with processing_instruction PROCESS_AS_COMPLETE. PROCESS_AS_INCREMENTAL is deprecated and cannot be used.

Some fields in these feeds are required and some are optional. Any field marked as optional can be left out of the feed when empty.

The feeds format is described using protocol buffer 3 syntax. You have the option to upload the feeds file as a binary serialization of the protocol buffer data in pb3 format or in a derived JSON format. We recommend uploading the feeds in JSON format.

We recommend using gzip to compress feeds prior to upload.

This guide is specific to the Actions Center protocol buffers. For general information on how to use the protocol buffers to generate a pb3 file, here is an example in Java.