Content exchange with a travel management system

An apparatus for accessing content in a travel management system, the apparatus comprising:

• at least one processor;
• and
• a memory coupled to the at least one processor and including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:
• receive a request from an application to access a first data element and a second data element from an extended record data structure, the request including predefined access criteria for arranging data elements in a response to the request, wherein the first data element is a standard data element from a global distribution system operating as the travel management system, the second data element is a non-standard data element that is obtained from a non-standard content provider system in a non-standard format of an application of the non-standard content provider system, and the second data element includes at least one attribute of a plurality of attributes that is not predefined according to a data structure associated with the first data element;
• generate filtering rules based on the predefined access criteria in the request;
• transform a first structure description file describing a structure of the plurality of attributes associated with the second data element based upon a predefined mapping scheme into a second structure description file;
• filter the attributes of the second data element based at least in part upon applying the filtering rules to the second structure description file in order to generate the filtered attributes;
• and
• generate an abstract container that includes the first data element and a filtered element comprising the filtered attributes of the second data element by dynamically adapting to the non-standard format of the application of the non-standard content provider system based on auto-serialization configuration properties, wherein the abstract container is independent of a type of content of the first data element and the second data element.

A computer program product for accessing content in a travel management system, the computer program product comprising:

• a non-transitory computer readable storage medium;
• and
• instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable storage medium that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:
• receive a request from an application to access a first data element and a second data element from an extended record data structure, the request including predefined access criteria for arranging data elements in a response to the request, wherein the first data element is a standard data element from a global distribution system operating as the travel management system, the second data element is a non-standard data element that is obtained from a non-standard content provider system in a non-standard format of an application of the non-standard content provider system, and the second data element includes at least one attribute of a plurality of attributes that is not predefined according to a data structure associated with the first data element;
• generate filtering rules based on the predefined access criteria in the request;
• transform a first structure description file describing a structure of the plurality of attributes of a first data container associated with the second data element based upon a predefined mapping scheme into a second structure description file;
• filter the attributes of the second data element based at least in part upon applying the filtering rules to the second structure description file in order to generate the filtered attributes;
• and
• generate an abstract container that includes the first data element and a filtered element comprising the filtered attributes of the second data element by dynamically adapting to the non-standard format of the application of the non-standard content provider system based on auto-serialization configuration properties, wherein the abstract container is independent of a type of content of the first data element and the second data element.