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Cars – Job Setup

Creating jobs enables Data Scout to retrieve data from target websites. The majority of the time you spend with Data Scout is executing job searches and creating reports. However, you must first create jobs. After creating jobs, they can be saved, edited, and re-used.

The Jobs tab houses your library of jobs in a table. The table gives you insight into the number of inputs the job has, when the job was created when the job was last executed, and the quality of the last run. The Jobs tab also has filters you can use to narrow your jobs by keywords, job type, or dates of when the job was created, last run, finished, or updated.

Creating a Job

How to Create a New Job:

  1. Select the Jobs tab.
  2. Click New Search in the top left corner of the page.
  3. Enter the name of your job.
    • Be descriptive with job names. This helps when contacting QL2 Support. Do not use special characters.
  4. Choose your vertical.
  5. Click Configure.
  6. If you would like to add inputs to the job now, add them in the form that pops up. If not, you can click the X in the corner and add the inputs later.
  7. Click Submit.

How to Create a New Job:

Upon logging into Data Scout, you land on the Home tab. Please navigate to the Jobs tab, create a new search and select ‘Cruise Control’ from the Data section.

Cruise Control – Off-Airport Inputs

Select Off-Airport as Search Type and click OK. Enter your search requirements in the pop-up window (Batch off-Airport search). Inputs are required in the below fields:

  • Site Code: select QL2 site code(s)
  • Pickup Location: Please fill in all information you want the database lookup to consider, but at least
    • POS: 2-letter country code
    • City: name of the rental city
  • Start date/End date: enter date ranges for pickup and return OR
  • Specific Dates: enter specific dates (calendar dates or days in future)
  • Length of Rent: specify one or many rental lengths (space separated)

Optional fields are Search Radius (allows to set a mile/km radius from the location entered), Dropoff Location, Pickup Time/Dropoff Time and the limitation to certain days of the week. Check the Appendix for further details.

Click Submit to add the inputs to your search.

NOTE: The Radius value is used to identify nearby rental locations within the database.

Input count: Please ensure to double-check the number of inputs in your new Off-Airport jobs as using the search radius might lead to a higher number of inputs created than expected.

Cruise Control – On-Airport Inputs

Select Airport as Search Type and click OK. Enter your search requirements in the pop-up window. Inputs are required in the below fields:

  • Site Code: select QL2 site code(s)
  • Pickup Location: please fill in 3-letter airport codes with * as prefix e.g. *ATL (one airport code per line)
  • Start Date/End Date: enter date ranges for pickup and return OR
  • Specific Dates: enter specific dates (calendar dates or days in future)
  • Length of Rent: specify one or many rental lengths (space separated)

Optional fields are Dropoff Location, Pickup Time/Dropoff Time and the limitation to certain days of the week.

Cruise Control – Rental ID Inputs

Select QL2 Rental ID as Search Type and click OK. Enter your search requirements in the pop-up window. Inputs are required in the below fields:

  • Site Code: select QL2 site code(s)
  • Rental IDs: use the database search tool to look up Rental IDs.
  • Start date/End date: enter date ranges for pickup and return OR
  • Specific Dates: enter specific dates (calendar dates or days in future)
  • Length of Rent: specify one or many rental lengths (space separated)

Optional fields are Search Radius, Dropoff Airport, Pickup Time/Dropoff Time and the limitation to certain days of the week. Check the Appendix for further details.

Lookup your Rental IDs by submitting at least the City information in the search tool and Insert selected stations to your list of Rental IDs.

Note: If no Radius is specified then QL2 will only search for the requested Rental ID.

NOTE: You may see all QL2 scripts that support a shop for a particular station and the Rental ID listed under each Rental ID. Make sure your Site Code entries are in line with the database. You can also manually add a list of QL2 Rental IDs into the Rental IDs search box, just make sure to always use the prefix “^QL:” (example: ^QL:49722).

Add Method – Single Pickup Dates

Using the ‘Add’ method is still available in your QL2 Account and also allows you to use any of the three previously described input methods, but for one pickup and return date (a smaller set of inputs). Please navigate to the Searches tab, create a new search and select ‘Add’ from the Data section.

Select Off-Airport as Search Type and click OK. Enter your search requirements in the pop-up window. Inputs are required in the below fields:

  • Site Code: select QL2 site code(s)
  • Pickup Location: Please fill in all information you want the database lookup to consider, but at least
    • POS: 2-letter country code
    • City: name of the rental city
  • Search Radius: allows to set a mile/km radius from the location entered
  • Pickup and Return: enter one date for pickup and return

Optional fields are Dropoff Location, Pickup time/Return time and the limitation to
certain days of the week.

Click Submit to add the inputs to your search.

NOTE: The Radius is true database information. If you need this to be changed to the website’s radius used, please discuss it with your QL2 Account Manager.

Select Airport as Search Type and click OK. Enter your search requirements in the pop-up window. Inputs are required in the below fields:

  • Site Code: select QL2 site code(s)
  • Pickup Location: Please fill in all information you want the database lookup to consider, but at least:
    • POS: 2-letter country code
    • City: name of the rental city
  • Pickup and Return: enter one date for pickup and return

Optional fields are Dropoff Airport, Pickup time/Return time and the limitation to certain days of the week.

Select QL2 Rental ID as Search Type and click OK. Enter your search requirements in the pop-up window. Inputs are required in the below fields:

  • Site Code: select QL2 site code(s)
  • Rental IDs: use the database search tool to lookup Rental IDs
  • Pickup and Return: enter one date for pickup and return

Optional fields are Radius, Dropoff Airport, Pickup time/Return time and the limitation to certain days of the week. Check the Appendix for further details.

Lookup your Rental IDs by submitting at least Brand and City information in the search tool and Insert selected stations to your list of Rental IDs.

NOTE: If no Radius is specified then QL2 will only search for the requested Rental ID.

NOTE: You may see all QL2 scripts that support a shop for a particular station and the Rental ID listed under each Rental ID. Make sure your Site Code entries are in the line with the database. You can also manually add a list of QL2 Rental IDs into the Rental IDs search box, just make sure to always use the prefix “^QL:” (example: ^QL:49722).

Upload Method

Uploading a spreadsheet allows you to add a number of inputs to a job at one time. As well, after creating spreadsheets, they can be saved and reused or edited. For more information on editing a spreadsheet, click here.

The first step is to perform the tasks for building a spreadsheet. Each cell of the spreadsheet must contain a specific type of data to successfully perform a job.

How to Add Inputs to the Job with the Upload Method:

  1. Open a spreadsheet application.
  2. Using the Spreadsheet Input Format table as a reference, enter the parameters for the keywords, product numbers, or paths you wish to add to the job into the spreadsheet you opened.
  3. Save the spreadsheet as a CSV file.
  4. Return to the Jobs tab of Data Scout to incorporate the spreadsheet into the job.
  5. In the Inputs section of the page, click Upload.
  6. Click Browse to locate the CSV spreadsheet you saved.
  7. Click Upload.

NOTE: Please make sure to add any Rental ID to column B Location and change the Location Code in column R to match your search type.

Search Properties

You may modify select properties for a job. These properties include the search name, the length of time a search is allowed to execute, the number of times to attempt reruns, and the result file upload URL.

TIP: Change the properties to a search before executing it. If it is executed, the changes will not take effect until the next execution.

How to Modify Search Properties:

  1. In the Jobs tab, click on the name of the job you would like to modify the search properties for.
  2. Click on the More drop-down menu in the top right of the page.
  3. Select Search Properties.
    • For more information, view the Search Properties table.
  4. Edit the desired properties.
  5. Click Update.

NOTE: The default search properties are set up at the time your QL2 account is created according to the type of searching your organization chooses.

Search Property Default Value Field Contents
Search Name Name Type a new name to change the search name.
Stop Search At Never Never – Allows the search to run until finished.
Abort at – Designate a particular time to stop the search.
Abort after – Stop the search after a certain amount of time.

* There are two choices for aborting a search – after the scheduled run start time or after the actual start time. Often, a search does not start on time if another search is executing. If a search is set to abort three hours into execution and is not able to begin due to another search, the search will execute only for the amount of time from the scheduled start. For example, a search is scheduled to begin at 8:00 but does not begin until 11:00 due to another search execution. If the search is set to execute for three hours from the scheduled start time, it never executes. If the search is set to execute for three hours after the actual start time, it begins at 11:00 and aborts at 14:00

Execution style Normal Normal – Continuous execution.
Pause – Choose the number of seconds between search items.
Associate a Client Center table with this job None Choose a Client Center table you would like to associate with this job.
Desired currency type of retrieved price None Enter a currency code or leave it empty if you want to have the currency returned as the site displays it.
Send email alerts to None Enter email addresses separated by commas.

Spreadsheet Input Format

Column Name Description
A Site Code Two character identifiers of the site from which to extract rates.
B Pickup Location Three character identifier of the pickup location or city name.
C Dropoff Location (optional) Three character identifier of the dropoff location or city name.
D Pickup The day of pick up, either the number of days in the future or an absolute date in the form “DD-MM-YY”, “MM/DD/YY” or “YYYYMMDD”.
E Return The day of return, either the number of days in the future or an absolute date in the form “DD-MM-YY”, “MM/DD/YY” or “YYYYMMDD”.
F Car Type (optional) Economy, compact, etc.
G RAC (optional) Two character rent-a-car company code.
H Ptime (optional) A number between 0 and 23 for the hour of Pickup.
I Rtime (optional) A number between 0 and 23 for the hour of Return.
J Reference (optional) Up to 12 characters of user-specified reference information.
K POS (optional) Point of sale, two-letter country code (default US)
L Country (optional) The destination country, two-letter country code.
M Address (optional)
N City (optional)
O State (optional)
P Zip Code (optional)
Q Discount (optional) Enter the discount code.
R Loc Code (optional) Location code: 0 = Address, 1 = On Airport, 2 = Off Airport, 3 = Rental ID, 4 = Airport, 5 = Off Airport (new) (deprecated)
S Transmission (optional) Transmission: A = automatic; M = manual
T AC (optional) Air conditioning (Y or N)
U DOW Pickup (optional) Limit query to rentals that pick up on the given days of the week.
Syntax: MO, TU, WE, TH, FR, SA, SU
V DOW Return (optional) Limit query to rentals that return on the given days of the week.
Syntax: MO, TU, WE, TH, FR, SA, SU
W WOM Pickup (optional) Limit query to rentals that pick up on the given week of the month.
Syntax: First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth
X WOM Return (optional) Limit query to rentals that return on the given week of the month.
Syntax: First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth
Y Geo An optional identifier for two characters is Country Code.
Z Search Radius An optional identifier for providing search radius in miles or in kilometres, such as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, 20 mi or km.
NOTE: If the unit is not specified along with the search radius value, then default unit miles will be considered.
AA Custom An optional identifier for custom settings.