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Data managed by applications continues to insanely grow. Travel data is no different: a simple search of fares from a unique city pair on a specific date can result in hundreds of options, if you add capabilities available to shop for alternate airports and alternate dates, the response matrix returned can have thousands of options to choose from.

Sabre has introduced new capabilities to help developers deal with large volumes of data, including pagination and personalized responses via configurable views. By making use of these new features, client applications can specify the number of assets (e.g., itinerary options), as well as the individual data elements to be returned. The result is reduced response payload sizes, and consequently, faster and more efficient processing on the client-side.

Further details on how to use these new features, and the associated benefits, can be found on the Advanced Features page of the REST Basics information on Sabre Dev Studio.

The new capabilities are available on the following REST APIs: Advanced Calendar Search, Alternate Airport Shop, Alternate Date, regular Bargain Finder Max, and InstaFlights Search, others will be added in the future.

New REST advanced features Now Available

Pagination

Allows client applications to request only a subset of response assets by specifying how many to return per request -using the limit query parameter- and indicating the first asset number to start with, by setting the value of the offset query parameter.

For example, rather than returning all available itinerary options, 5 options (limit=5) per API call can be requested, starting at position 1 (offset=1). Then, the next 5 options in sequence can be requested by using the same limit value, but starting at position 6 (offset=6).

This allows client applications to more quickly retrieve and return search queries, improving the overall user experience.

Custom Response Views

Allows client applications to specify individual data elements to be returned within response payloads. Default views are available, but custom views can be created to help satisfy additional data requirements.

The query parameter view={viewname} can be used to get a customized response that includes only the data elements specified in the view.

Tagging

Allows client applications to request a unique identifier (TagID) for each asset in a response. The identifier can be used in a subsequent request, to get all the information behind the associated asset, e.g., to retrieve every data element behind a given itinerary option.

Tagging is especially useful when used in combination with Custom Response Views, where certain data elements can be filtered out in an initial step (such as a flights page), but then more details of a specific asset are required to be displayed as the user proceeds with the application workflow (such as a checkout/purchase page, where a tax breakdown may need to be displayed).

Tagging can be used by specifying the query parameter enabletagging=true in the API call.

This new set of tools has been made available for developers to create the best user experience possible. Utilizing these tools in conjunction with a very good UX design allows Sabre customers to make decisions and choose from tailored data according to their specific needs.