The primary requirement for most web sites is to integrate the Navigator Vehicle Stock with the Web site so that vehicle stock is updated in near realtime.
Navigator provides a web service which provides a vehicle stock list - this is a RESTful web service, responding only to GET and which can optionally return eithera JSON or HTML payload with a snap shot of the vehicle stock.
The web service URL is in the form :
For XML Data
For JSON Data
An API key can be issued on request. Please contact your Project Manager to gain an API key - please note though that requests must come from the DMS Navigator customer for security reasons.
An example of the data that comes in the feed is available on our help pages at : http://v21manual.dmservices.co.uk/vehicle_web_services_2.asp
Images are also available. The feed returns a list of image filenames and these can be individually retrieved using a web service with the URL :-
https://services.dmservices.co.uk/DmsNavigator.NavigatorWebService.svc/GetImage/[API KEY],1,[filename]
The web service feeds should be used to upload the vehicle stock and associated images into a local Web Site database - the data should not be relied on for live display on the dealer's web site.
It is recommended that the stock is polled no more than once an hour - and less frequently the larger the stock database is (ideally once or twice a day shold be sufficient). Every vehicle has a stock no and this should be used as the primary key when matching to the local database. New vehicles will appear in the feed when advertised, and the feed includes all vehicles up to the point they are sold, in which case they will disappear from the feed.
Vehicles need to have advertising details added to them before they appear in the web feed above. To review the options available, please see
https://vimeo.com/412308095/8a3be4905f
Web site enquiries can be sent back into Navigator where they are automatically converted into Sales Enquiries. Navigator Sales People can be organised into Teams (eg Used Sales Team or Contact Centre Team) and enquiries can be automatically routed to the correct team .
There are two ways that an enquiry can be sent back to Navigator :-
The simplest way of sending an enquiry to Navigator is to simply forward an email to a Navigator Email address. An email address can be configured and mapped to a sales team and have an Enquiry Type, Source and Sub-Source attached to it as appropriate. Please discuss this with your Navigator Project Manager to have an email address allocated.
This creates a blank enquiry and requires to Sales Executive to refer to the email itself to create the details on the enquiry.
The most comprehensive way of creating an enquiry is to use a Web Service. This is a RESTful service supporting POST and takes an XML or JSON document which is structured to send the enquiry into Navigator.
The API key used to extract the Vehicle Stock Data above can be used in this Web service call.
For details please refer to :- http://v21manual.dmservices.co.uk/transactional-web-service.asp for generic details on the Web Service process, and http://v21manual.dmservices.co.uk/online-sales-360-contact-form.asp for specific details on the implementation of this web service
The Navigator Online Service Booking allows a web page to host the Navigator Online Service booking so that customers can book themselves into the workshop.
This can either be added as an iframe into the Dealer's own web site or alternatively, Navigator can supply a standalone web page that can be linked from the dealer's web site (or not be linked as it can still be used).
It is also possible to send an Email Service Reminder which has a link to the customer and vehicle in - this will then auto-populate the Online Service Booking with the Customer and Vehicle Details to make it even easier.
To see how the Online Service Booking looks and request configuration, click on this web page
Once the Online Service Booking is configured, Navigator will issue an API key which can be used in an iframe, as well as the url for a standalone web page.
The URL for the Online Service Booking is as follows :-
https://services.dmservices.co.uk/osb2022?branch=[navigator branch]&apikey=[apikey]&id=[customerid]
The id parameter is optional and is supplied by the email link - so the web page linked to from an email may be https://customerwebsite.com/servicebooking?id=xxxx - the iframe will need to then pick up the id from the url. If there is no customer id to supply, then the id parameter must be omitted.
The branch no is the Navigator branch for each dealership workshop. It aligns with the branch setup in Navigator. It will be the web designers responsibility to either create different web pages for each branch, or to have a selection of branch before displaying the online service booking page.
The people behind DMS Navigator are motor trade veterans. We have decades of industry experience, both in running dealerships and delivering excellent software. Our Navigator system is designed to meet the challenges we all face. No wonder we’ve helped so many businesses grow.
