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Standard Request Fields Description

last updated:  06/06/01

version: 1.0 

 This is a description of each of the request parameters that are standard for all requests
 Variations are described in the Request Description of each different request
<user_firstname> OPTIONAL - if company account then leave this tag blank and enter company name in  user_lastname

DESCRIPTION : 

  • First name that you would like to be on user account
  • Will be used to set up an account  
  • Defines different levels of access such as retail or wholesale   

FORMAT : 

  • Tag case must be lower
  • Data case does not matter 
  • Any combination of letters, numbers, and/or punctuation 
  • Maximum length of 50 characters 
  • Leading and trailing spaces ignored

EXAMPLE : 

<user_firstname>John</user_firstname>
<user_lastname> REQUIRED

DESCRIPTION :

  • If company account, enter company name that user would like to be on account
  • If user account, then last name that user would like to be on account
  • Used to set up user account
  • Later used for validation
  • Defines different levels of access such as retail or wholesale  

FORMAT :

  • Tag case must be lower
  • Data case does not matter
  • Any combination of letters, numbers, and/or punctuation 
  • Maximum length of 50 characters 
  • Leading and trailing spaces ignored

EXAMPLES : 

<user_lastname>Doe</user_lastname>

<user_lastname>BrickSoftwareInc</user_lastname> 
<password> REQUIRED - required except for in GetNewUserPassword

DESCRIPTION :

  • The password that was given to the user upon signing up
  • Used in validation by the server 
  • Protects user data and privacy

FORMAT :

  • Tag case must be lower
  • Data case does not matter
  • Any combination of letters, numbers, and/or punctuation 
  • Minimum length of 6 characters, maximum length of 20 characters 
  • Leading and trailing spaces ignored
  • Cannot have embedded spaces

EXAMPLE : 

<password>testpw1</password>
<operating_system> OPTIONAL  

DESCRIPTION : 

  • The operating system for the client computer
  • Helps us determine what our customers are using for future development 

FORMAT : 

  • Tag case must be lower
  • Data case does not matter 
  • Any combination of letters, numbers, and/or punctuation 
  • Maximum length of 30 characters 
  • Leading and trailing spaces ignored

EXAMPLE : 

<operating_system>Win98</operating_system>
<software_used> REQUIRED

DESCRIPTION :

  • This is the name of the application sending the request
  • Used to determine compatibility
  • Checks to see if there are upgrades available for client software

FORMAT :

  • Tag case must be lower
  • Data case does not matter
  • Any combination of letters, numbers, and/or punctuation 
  • Maximum length of 50 characters 
  • Leading and trailing spaces ignored

EXAMPLES : 

<software_used>QuoteMonkey</software_used>
<software_version> REQUIRED

DESCRIPTION :

  • This is version of the software being used
  • Checks to see if there are upgrades available for client software
  • Needed to support older versions

FORMAT :

  • Tag case must be lower
  • Data case does not matter
  • Any combination of letters, numbers, and/or punctuation 
  • Maximum length of 50 characters 
  • Leading and trailing spaces ignored

EXAMPLES : 

<software_version>1.0<software_version>
<response_compression> OPTIONAL - Defaults to 'none' if not provided.

DESCRIPTION :

  • This is how to specify whether or not the data response should be compressed
  • Data can be compressed for faster downloads
  • Possible response compression types are 'zip' or 'none' 

FORMAT :

  • Tag case must be lower
  • Data case does not matter
  • Maximum length of 10 characters 
  • Leading and trailing spaces ignored

EXAMPLE : 

 <response_compression>none</response_compression>
<response_format> OPTIONAL - Defaults to 'xml' if not provided.

DESCRIPTION :

  • Determines the format of the response you will receive

Choices:

FORMAT :

  • Tag case must be lower
  • Data case does not matter
  • Maximum length of 10 characters 
  • Leading and trailing spaces ignored

EXAMPLE : 

 <response_format>xml</response_format>
<request_name> REQUIRED

DESCRIPTION :

  • This field specifies the data service requested
  • Used to determine what data response is requested
  • This is the name of the service being used

FORMAT :

  • Tag case must be lower
  • Data case does not matter
  • Maximum length of 50 characters
  • Leading and trailing spaces ignored

EXAMPLE :  

<request_name>GetQuotes</request_name>
<requestparam_format> OPTIONAL - Defaults to 'xml' if not provided.

DESCRIPTION :

  • Describes the format that the request parameters are being sent in
  • Used to tell our program how to interpret the incoming request parameters
  • Not all data requests have optional request parameter formats
  • See specific request description for request parameter formatting options

Choices:

  • Tab delimited - text separated by tabs
  • Comma Separated Values (CSV) - text separated by commas
  • XML - xml format using tags to delimit fields

FORMAT :

  • Tag case must be lower
  • Data case does not matter
  • Maximum length of 10 characters
  • Leading and trailing spaces ignored

EXAMPLE :  

<requestparam_format>tab</requestparam_format>
<request_parameters>

REQUIRED 

DESCRIPTION :

  • This is where you send the parameters for the response you want
  • The parameters are different for each service
  • See the specific request description for the request parameters necessary

FORMAT :

  • Must be in exact format as seen below in example
  • Tag case must be lower
  • Embedded tags must be lower case
  • Embedded data case does not matter
  • Data case does not matter

EXAMPLE :  

    <request_parameters>
      <mailingaddr>1234 Sycamore Dr.</mailingaddr>
      <mailingcity>Chicago</mailingcity>
      <mailingstate>IL</mailingstate>
      <mailingzip>98745</mailingzip>
      <phone>909 365-4589</phone>
      <plan>plan1</plan>
      <creditcardname>Jonathan Q. Doe</creditcardname>
       <creditcardnumber>0000843584030586</creditcardnumber>
      <creditcardtype>visa</creditcardtype>
      <creditcardexpdate>2004-06-30</creditcardexpdate>
      <creditcardstate>1234 Sycamore Dr.</creditcardstate>
      <creditcardcity>Chicago</creditcardcity>
      <creditcardaddr>IL</creditcardaddr> 
      <creditcardzip>98745</creditcardzip>
    </request_parameters>  
<request_version>
 REQUIRED 

DESCRIPTION :

  • Determines the version of the request format
  • Used to make sure we handle the request properly if it is an older version

  • All request versions are currently 1.0

FORMAT :

  • Tag case must be lower
  • Data case does not matter
  • Any combination of letters, numbers, and/or punctuation 
  • Maximum length of 10 characters
  • Leading and trailing spaces ignored

EXAMPLE : 

 <request_version>1.0</request_version>
<response_format> OPTIONAL - Default is 'xml' if not given

DESCRIPTION :

  • Determines the format of the response you will receive.
  • Used to determine the response format

Choices:

FORMAT :

  • Tag case must be lower
  • Data case does not matter
  • Fields must be chosen from list of choices defined above

  • Maximum length of 10 characters.

EXAMPLE :

<response_format>tab</response_format>