Specifications

Technical Standards to Move the Industry Forward!

HTNG publishes a wealth of technical specifications designed to promote easy interoperability among systems.  We also operate the only Branding and Certification program in the hotel technology industry, wherein vendor products can become certified to HTNG specifications and use the "HTNG Certified" trademark label. 

This page is your guide to find the documentation you need:

• As a vendor, to achieve compliance with HTNG specifications
• As a hotelier, to understand what HTNG-compliant interfaces can do for you.  If you are writing an RFP, you should also visit this page to find out what questions you can ask your prospective vendors about their commitment to interoperability through HTNG interfaces.

Technical Specifications for Developers

Product Specifications for Certification

Conformance Statements

Specifications Equivalence Table

Register of Certified Products

Technical Specifications for Developers

What they are:  Technical specifications are the primary work product of HTNG workgroups.  Typically they describe requirements for two (or more) systems to be able to interconnect and interoperate seamlessly.  Or, they may set forth the requirements of an infrastructure component (software, network, hardware) in order to meet the needs of the hotel industry and interoperate with various devices and systems.  Examples of technical specifications include:

• Standards for XML messaging for interfaces
• Design for hospitality-specific hardware components such as set-top boxes, connectivity panels, or remote controls for an in-room entertainment system
• Requirements for key infrastructure-level systems, such as network gateways and wired or wireless network distribution systems

Where to find them:  HTNG's completed technical specifications that have been released to the public domain can be found at www.opengroup.org/htng/specs.  Other specifications, which may inadequately tested or otherwise not considered suitable for public release, are available to HTNG members through our members' collaboration site. Links to various specifications that may be of interest to buyers or sellers of various types of hospitality systems can be found here.

WSDLs and XML schemas are in the process of being created for HTNG's web services Technical Specifications.  Completed WSDLs and schemas can be found at the URI namespace for each Technical Specification, for example the Single Guest Itinerary 2008A Technical Specification WSDLs and XSDs can be found at http://www.htng.org/PWS/2008A/SingleGuestItinerary.  Please note that only WSDLs are published for HTNG's distribution-related specifications; XSDs can be found at the OpenTravel Alliance website, http://www.opentravel.org.

Product Specifications for Certification

What they are:  For HTNG's certification program, one or more related Technical Specifications are grouped together into Product Specifications, identified by a Name (such as "Property Web Services") and a Version (such as "2008B").  Vendors may certify technology products as compliant with an HTNG Product Specification.   This means that the product complies with requirements outlined in the Product Specification and its component Technical Specifications.  When a product is certified, it is allowed to display the trademark "HTNG Certified" logo, which always includes the name and version of the Product Specification.

Where to find them:  Released HTNG product specifications can be found at http://www.opengroup.org/htng/cert/docs/prodspecs.tpl.

Release Cycles and Version Names:

• HTNG Product Specifications that use web services are released twice a year, in the early spring and early fall.  Version names consist of the year followed by the letter "A" for the spring release and "B" for the fall release, for example 2008B.  The schedule for upcoming releases can be found here.
• HTNG Product Specifications related to devices, networking, etc. will be released on an as-needed basis, and version naming conventions may differ; some will likely use the 1.0, 1.1, 2.0 type sequence.

Conformance Statements

What they are:  Formal, structured statements by a vendor, describing how an HTNG-certified product conforms to an HTNG Product Specification. 

Why they matter:  A single HTNG Product Specification can be very large, can cover many different problem sets, and can apply to many different types of technology products.  Some functionality that is defined in the specification may be required, while other functionality is optional.

The Conformance Statement tells you the following:

• For Product Specifications that apply to multiple types of products (such as an interface specification that could apply to a Property Management System in one way and to a Point-of-Sale system in another way), it tells you which "end" of the interface is being certified.
• For Product Specifications that include multiple Technical Specifications, where some may be optional, it tells you which one(s) have been implemented.
• Where the technical specification allows for functionality to be optionally supported, it tells you whether the product implements the optional functionality.

Where to find them:  Conformance Statements for any HTNG-certified product can be found in the Certification Register on the HTNG Certification Website.  Or, you can download the blank Conformance Statement Questionnaires at http://www.opengroup.org/htng/cert/docs/csqs.tpl. 

HTNG Specifications Equivalence Table

HTNG Certification specifications are released semiannually, but not all of the component technical specifications are updated in each cycle.

This table shows, for each certification release, the technical specifications incorporated, and the certification cycle in which each one was most recently updated.