To get live API access, your integration must pass certain tests. This will make sure that it meets our technical standards and best practices.
For each capability, the tests cover Essential and Enhanced functionalities. Your integration must pass at least one of the Essential functionality tests to get live access.
We recommend using the Enhanced functionalities to allow dealers to get the full benefits of the service.
We'll cover the tests for the following functionalities:
- Vehicle lookup features (Essential)
-
- Factory fitted features (Enhanced)
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- Taxonomy features (Essential)
There are three ways we check that tests are successful:
- Demonstration - We will expect you to show us your code or your UI
- Call log validation - We will check your API calls to our service to make sure the call is made correctly
- Database check - We will check our database to see whether the correct attribute has been updated
Vehicle lookup features (Essential)
When looking up a vehicle’s features via the Vehicles API, add the features=true query string parameter to your vehicle lookup call.
This will give all of the possible features for that vehicle in an array in the response of the API call.
Most of our vehicle data that’s available in production will be available in sandbox for you to test with. But, newer vehicles and recent plate changes may not be.
| Test | How we'll check it |
|
Able to fulfil mandatory checks in the Vehicle registration lookup functionality in the Vehicle Taxonomy capability Go Live checks |
|
| Successfully get feature details for a registration via the Vehicles API | Call log validation |
| Detect failed look-ups and do not retry on a schedule, e.g. hourly or daily | Demonstration |
Auto Trader data has great coverage but, like any service, there are instances where we may not be able to provide full data or any data at all for a vehicle.
Below are some registrations that you can use in your testing:
|
Test case |
Response code | Test VRM(s) |
| No derivative ID found | 200 | ZZ01ABC |
| No first registration date found | 200 | ZZ02ABC |
| Not full vehicle data | 200 |
ZZ03ABC ZZ04ABC (S) ZZ05ABC (N) |
| Malformed registration | 400 | A1B2C3D4 |
| Not found | 404 | ABC125 |
Factory Fitted Features (Enhanced)
For some manufacturers, we have been provided data about which features were fitted at the factory for certain vehicles.
This will allow you to use this data to present back to the dealer which features were fitted at the factory (VIN Spec), or automatically use them, such as doing a feature-adjusted valuation.
| Test | How we'll check it |
|
Able to identify factory-fitted features returned via the Vehicles API, and present these back to the user |
Demonstration |
To help with testing, here are a couple of examples that you may wish to use.
| Test case | Response code | Test VRM |
| VRM with factory-fitted features | 200 | AU68XJV |
| VRM without factory-fitted features | 200 | GU61YHH |
Taxonomy features (Essential)
Alternatively, if you get a derivative ID from our Taxonomy API, you can also access the possible features for that derivative ID from the features endpoint on the Taxonomy API.
| Test | How we'll check it |
|
Able to fulfil mandatory checks in the Taxonomy lookup functionality in the Vehicle Taxonomy capability Go Live checks |
|
| Able to call features endpoint in the Taxonomy API to get features for a derivative ID | Call log validation |
| Using the effectiveDate parameter in the correct format of YYYY-MM-DD | Call log validation |
| This endpoint is only successfully called once per vehicle, and calls are not repeated on a schedule | Call log validation |
To help with testing, here are a couple of examples that you may wish to use.
Please note: One example will allow you to get features. The other will not have any features as we don't have the data. Make sure your system handles this and prompts the user accordingly.
| Test case | Expected result |
|
Derivative ID: 19bcd23215e849068113851019593c19 Effective date: 2021-09-01 |
Feature data present |
|
Derivative ID: 7faf793ab8984979a5963bb1e15d0db4 Effective date: 2021-09-01 |
No features available |