GM CIS (Campaign Information Systems) is an online solution providing Vauxhall and Opel dealers with fast access to the latest technical information and services. GM is able to provide outstanding campaign information directly to the Dealer Management System (DMS) via a web service, SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol).
As you put a vehicle onto a WIP in Point-of-Sale, the web service is called by passing the chassis number. Any campaigns bought back will have a code and description. These can then be added to the WIP as a labour line. In addition to the campaign information, the web service also returns vehicle information that can be used to update the Marketing vehicle record.
HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol): A communication protocol for transferring information (data) around the internet. HTTP is a request/response protocol between a client and a server. The client making an HTTP request (such as a web browser or the GM CIS software running on Autoline). The server stores data, HTML, images etc and is used to respond to requests from clients.
A client will make a request by connecting to a particular port on the server. Generally this is port 80 for HTTP. When the listener receives a request from the client, it will send the appropriate response. This could be XML, HTML, images and so on.
HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol or Secure Socket Layer): HTTPS offers the same functionality as HTTP with the notable difference of the Secure Socket Layer (SSL), also referred to as Secure HTTP. HTTPS uses port 443 and enables secure transfer of data over the internet with data encryption and user authentication. This provides a safer method of sending sensitive data over the internet.
POS: Autoline Point of Sale application.
SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol): A protocol for exchanging XML-based messages over computer networks, normally using HTTP/HTTPS.
Stunnel: Stunnel is a free multi-platform computer program, used to provide universal TLS/SSL tunnelling service. Stunnel can be used to provide secure encrypted connections for clients or servers that do not speak TLS or SSL natively. It runs on a variety of operating systems, including most Unix-like operating systems and Windows. It relies on a separate library such as OpenSSL or SSLeay to implement the underlying TLS or SSL protocol.
Stunnel uses Public-key cryptography with X.509 digital certificates to secure the SSL connection. Clients can optionally be authenticated via a certificate too.
Web service: A web service (sometimes referred to as an application service) is effectively a daemon (listener) that runs on a web server and accepts incoming requests and returns an appropriate response. Messages are sent in XML format and can be encrypted in various ways such as Stunnel or OpenSSL.
WSDL (Web Service Description Language): This is an XML based document that describes the features of a web service. The document is used by KCML to determine the methods (subroutines) that can be called, the parameters that each method accepts as well as the network endpoint (the URL where the web service is located).