About Our Car Options Lists
Our interactive Car Options List is provided as a webservice within an 'iFrame' rather than as a direct API.
This is due to the complexity of the rules for configuring individual options for a car, particularly where there are multiple options available for a particular category (e.g. alloy wheels), or where options can be selected individually or within option 'packs'.
Please see our Car Options List API for a simple list of vehicle options (including option rules and default options).
iFrame Contents
The iFrame contents for options are grouped according to general categories such as:
- Driver Convenience (e.g. cruise control, parking assistance etc
- Entertainment (e.g. in-car audio)
- Exterior Features (e.g. sunroof, paints)
- Interior Features (e.g. air-conditioning, steering wheel controls)
- Trim (e.g. upholstery types)
- Technical (e.g. suspension/chassis options)
- Wheels (e.g. by size/design and tyre)
- Option Packs (groupings of options at an all-inclusive pack price)
Within each individual option displayed there will be:
- a checkbox to select the individual option or pack
- a description of the option
- the price of the option (which may be £0 or a value)
Additionally there may be indicators in the form of buttons or text markers allowing the user to view:
- information on the rules applicable to the option
- details on the individual contents of option packs
- a notification that an option rule has been broken and needs to be fixed
Option Configuration Rules
Each option conforms to a series of parameters designating it as:
- a default option (these apply as a 'standard' for the car, normally at no additional cost), or a non-default option (apply only when selected)
- rules based (must be selected with, or instead of, another option(s)), or non-rules based (can be selected as a standalone item)
- exclusive (cannot be selected with certain other options), or non-exclusive (can be selected as a standalone item or in conjunction with others)
- a pack item (is included whenever an option pack is selected), or a non-pack item (can be selected or can/must be de-selected subject to 1-3 above)
The configurator will attempt to reconcile the rules for each option as it is selected/deselected, offering to add or delete options where a conflict arises, or notify the user of a conflict so that they can change their selections.
Option Selection
When an option is selected a pop-up box may appear to indicate that:
- the option belongs to a rules group; and/or
- other options must/must not be selected
The configurator will automatically attempt to correct option selections which break the rules, indicating to the user which options must be selected/deselected.
The configurator will also attempt to automatically remove duplicate selections.
For example, when a wheel type has been checked/selected and then a second type of wheel is then selected the first wheel type will be unchecked/deleted.
Where this isn't possible automatically, the user will be notified of the requirements to fix the rules conflict.
Click on the indicator to see the pack details, view the option rules or find out what's required to fix the broken option rule.
Option Cost
The webservice page will include text tags listing the selected options and their prices and a total price for all the selected options.
The cost of the total options can be used to uptdate the total vehicle price outside the iFrame (as in the example below).
Implementing the iFrame
The iFrame should be placed at a suitable position on the host page, typically central to the page to allow any alert pop-ups to appear within the host page iFrame height/width.
The source URL for the iFrame will be provided to the client upon subscription.
The webservice allows the client to have either:
- a generic page within the frame (the CSS style is our standard format); or
- a customised page (the CSS style can be customised to the client's own requirements using a style sheet).
Car Selection
Vehicles should be selected using either our existing Car Selector or Car Price APIs - the former will produce a CAPID for the chosen vehicle and the latter a CAPID and manufacturer's price and delivery charges which can be updated with the cost of options.
Alternatively, a client generated CAPID can be used (which must be for a current vehicle).
The manufacturer, range and model name are not required to generate a webservice page.
The CAPID must be for a vehicle currently for sale new in the UK - a CAPID for a discontinued model or retired derivative will not return an options dataset.
A dataset will only be provided where CAP-HPI has published a Options list for a vehicle - new vehicle model ranges/derivatives may not return a dataset.
Security
The client's identity and password are required for the webservice request and must accompany each request.
The HTTPS protocol must be used for all requests to the webservice to sustain the option rules and alerts throughout the session - an HTTP request will fail, in part due to the typical modern browser requirements for security in cross site scripting.