Main Page
Welcome
This wiki describes how to access the Car and Driving editorial and video data through our webservice.
An Example Site
You can see an example site, here - www.caranddriving.com.
This site showcases all our data, and is driven completely by the webservice - all data on show here is accessible from the webservice.
Logging In
Click here for information on Logging In to our services.
What Videos Are Available
You can see our current new car videos here: https://www.caranddriving.com/cdadmin/info.aspx
Our list of used car videos (i.e. videos of models no longer in production)here: https://www.caranddriving.com/cdadmin/infoused.aspx
For a list of which videos we have recently added to our library, please see here: https://www.caranddriving.com/cdadmin/inforecent.aspx
We also have a separate list of our van videos
You can see our current new van videos here: https://www.caranddriving.com/cdadmin/info.aspx?van=1
Our list of used van videos (i.e. videos of models no longer in production)here: https://www.caranddriving.com/cdadmin/infoused.aspx?van=1
For a list of which van videos we have recently added to our library, please see here: https://www.caranddriving.com/cdadmin/inforecent.aspx?van=1
Recommended Approaches
There are three ways of integrating our data and videos on your site:
- Searching the Webservice - We have a fully functional webservice that can be integrated into your site. Videos are displayed using The Video Player in an iframe.
- The Helper Page - If your website does not support webservice integration, we have a 'helper' page which provides much of the functionality of webservice powered sites, and which can be controlled by querystrings passed to it.
- Adding Videos to Blogs and News Pages - If you want to put our videos on a blog, or similar content management driven website, they can be embedded in a similar way that you might embed a youtube video. GForces and Wordpress sites are supported, as are general content management systems - in general, if you can embed a youtube video, you will be able to embed our video.
If you just want the video player, this page shows you all the settings to customise it:
- The Video Player. The video player can be used in 2 ways; fixed width and responsive; there is more information on how to use the responsive version of the player here: Responsive Videos.
Please do not try and call the video player directly without either getting a recent URL or review id from the webservice, or using the helper page. Videos are retired and replaced when new versions of models are released, and sometimes reappear under a different review when relinked to a used car review.
In all cases, we need to setup an account for you and give you a user_id; please let us know your needs and we'll get you setup. For webservice integration (only) we need to know the IP address of any server calling our webservice when setting up your account; for the other methods, we don't need to know that - just tell us that you want to use our helper page or embed code.
The Webservice
Our main webservice can be reached at:
A041 is the version number; this changes with each new release, keeping the previous version of the webservice intact. In this way, current users can be confident the webservice won't change unexpectedly as it is upgraded - simply point your application to the new webservice when you are ready to upgrade.
The webservice is protected by a user_id that is unique to each user, and can be locked to an IP Address or a range of them. You must quote your user_id on every webservice call, or you will receive a 'IP address not authorised' error.
If you visit the webservice in a web browser, you will get a list of all the available functions, together with a set of test forms that you can use to try out your searches.
Please read Searching the Webservice for more detail, and The Video Player for details on how the video's appearance can be customised. The Helper Page and Adding Videos to Blogs and News Pages document an alternative way of using the webservice that allows embedding videos on blogs or static pages.
Car Sales Prospecting System
We have a page dedicated to this here:
Read More
- Searching the Webservice - hints and tips on which webservice functions are likely to be the most useful.
- The Video Player - how to customise the video player.
- Firewall Information - for those with corporate firewalls.
- Watermarked Video Generation - videos for social media use, automatically verlaid with your watermark.
- The Helper Page - a ready built webpage that accesses the webservice for you; for use when direct webservice integration is difficult.
- Adding Videos to Blogs and News Pages - for when you simply want to reference a single video in a website blog or news article.
- AutoExpert Implementation - information on how to implement AutoExpert on your website.
- Responsive Videos - how to implement a responsive (auto resizing) video.
- Performance Optimisation - tips on how to make your implementation as fast to load as possible.
- Supporting HTTPS - how to avoid security warnings if playing our videos over https.
- Teaser Films - customer specific bespoke films designed for youtube use.
- Example Code - an example project, written in Microsoft Visual Studio 2010.
- Reporting and Google Analytics - reporting video stats.
- Additional Services - additional services available only by special arrangement with our office.
- GDPR Information - how we handle your data.
- Random and Obscure Hints - mostly for in house use; you probably won't need to read these.