XML Credit Reports

This documentation is intended to be used as guidance for developers that will be integrating Credit Assist XML Services into their own systems and software.

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The Credit Assist XML Service is ideal for any business that would gain from receiving current, easy to understand and accurate business credit information on demand. A business that needs to make credit decisions quickly or a sales and marketing business that needs to identify potential sales prospects would greatly benefit from using the Credit Assist XML Service.

Prerequisites

It is essential that anyone wishing to use the Credit Assist XML Service has sound experience in developing software that uses HTTP and XML. Credit Assist cannot provide any advice and support on developing your own software.

Current service version

The latest version of this service is currently v1.0.

The Credit Assist XML Service exchanges XML over HTTP. Requests are submitted via the HTTP POST method, with a Content-Type of text/xml. Sessions are usually synchronous, with the requested XML data being returned in the response.

The example XML shown in the schemas section illustrate typical requests and responses to and from the Credit Assist XML Service.

A typical transaction looks like this.

Service specific requests and responses are always encapsulated within a common envelope that carries the essential routing and authentication details.

The envelope schema can be found here.

Service URL

All requests to the Credit Assist XML Service are submitted to a single service entry point.

http://xmlserv.creditassist.co.uk/v1-0/xmlservice.cfm

Requests sent to this URL will be logged and the relevant number of points deducted from your account. Under no circumstanses should any tests be carried out against this URL. It is a requirement that you test against our 'UAT' service before we enable you to use the live service. Credit Assist has a seperate URL that can be used for testing and development of customer requests. This URL is:

http://xmluat.creditassist.co.uk/v1-0/xmlservice.cfm

The 'UAT' service will only return reports for pre-defined companies, regardless of what company data has been requested. However, using this service will not use any points from the customer account for XML requests. So for example, UAT searches can be on any business and will return true results; any product availability or product selection requests must be for a pre-defined business. View pre-defined businesses.

Request routing

The content of the request document submitted to the service describes the information being requested. The service uses this information to route the request to the appropriate function once it has carried out some preliminary checks, such as authentication details.

Any changes made to the Credit Assist XML Service will be made under a new version number. The latest version of the service in use on the live server will be stated in the online documentation.

New versions will utilise a new URL for calling the service, which enables customers to continue using the previous version until they are ready to move onto the new version. Support for the Credit Assist XML service will always be based upon the latest version of the service.

All errors are returned with the Class element in the XML envelope specified as Error. Error codes and descriptions will be provided in the XML document. The error schema can be found here.

View error messages

On receiving any post we will go through several stages of checking what is being sent and authenticating the sender. In all cases an XML response will be sent (even if the initial post wasn't XML). Authentication will be performed through a combination of a SenderCompany, SenderID, Password and TransactionID. You will send your SenderCompany (e.g. CreditAssist), your SenderID (e.g. CaSenderID), a TransactionID (1-32 digits, Numeric) and an ascii MD5 hash of the concatenation of your SenderCompany, SenderID, Hashed Password and TransactionID.

Our system will retrieve the password associated with your SenderCompany & SenderID and calculates the same MD5 hash based on the SenderCompany, SenderID and TransactionID sent and the Hashed Password retrieved from our database. The two MD5 hashes are then compared to authenticate the sender.

For example, if we setup a SenderCompany of CreditAssist, a SenderID of CaSenderID and a Password of CaPassword (which when hashed is A0038573610A7DE2EB21605088460964), and your TransactionID is 1 you would require a hash of CreditAssistCaSenderIDA0038573610A7DE2EB216050884609641 to be authenticated, which is E9946DE1F1F9EEDB71AA6D126BC0F33A.

The ability to add businesses to monitoring is available.

The XML services encompasses the following functions:

Business Search

This component provides a search of incorporated and unincorporated companies. Searches can be done using company name, registration number, postcode or phone number. The message envelope class to use when invoking this component is businessSearch.

Business Search Schema
Example Request
Business Search Response Schema
Example Response

Product Selection

This component will return either report data and/or a link to an associated document. The message envelope class to use when invoking this component is productSelection.

Product Selection Schema
Example Request
Product Selection Response Schema
Example Response

Monitor Status

This component provides a facility to add or remove a business to/from monitoring and obtain the monitoring status of a business. The message envelope class to use when invoking this component is monitorStatus.

Monitor Status Schema
Example Request
Monitor Status Response Schema
Example Response

Monitor Notices

This component will return a list of notices for a given period of time either for all businesses in customer monitoring or for a specified business ID. The message envelope class to use when invoking this component is monitorNotices.

Monitor Notices Schema
Example Request
Monitor Notices Response Schema
Example Response

Customers should contact us on 01604 217333 for help and any other information on XML service updates.