DV ("Doorlinken Voorraad") is a system that enables end users to publish their stock (cars, motorcycles, caravans, trucks, heavy machinery, parts, etc.) on various sites (platforms like occasion websites, own website, etc.) in an automated and easy way. DV has no front-end application for users to enter their stock; instead they send their vehicle data from an external inventory management system to Hexon. The vehicle data is then stored in the DV database and from there distributed to the desired sites.
The main goal of DV is to allow end users to enter their data only once using their existing (and familiar) inventory management system. DV converts, formats and distributes the data anywhere where the end users wants their data to be, thus avoiding having to enter the same data several times.
Once the vehicle data has been received by DV, it is converted into an internal data format. This conversion structures the data so that it can be used universally for advertising. Data does not get enriched; DV only works with the data that is supplied by the inventory management system. Some intelligent mappings do take place though. For instance, if a vehicle with climate control has been uploaded and a site only supports airconditioning, the system knows climate control implies airconditioning and can be communicated as such, thus allowing the vehicle to be found when potential buyers searches for vehicles with airconditioning on the site.
This part of the system is described in II. Sending objects to DV.
Once the vehicle has been stored in the DV database, the system checks where the end user wants this vehicle to be advertised. For each site, the vehicle undergoes a series of checks. Have all the required permissions been issued? Does the vehicle meet the requirements of the site?
If the validations finished successfully, the data is distributed to the desired site and DV waits for feedback from the site. If the result is positive, the vehicle has been successfully advertised. If it failed, the system will automatically try again later.
See the III. Receiving advertisements from DV section for more details.
An important aspect of DV is the two-way communication (as denoted by the double arrows in the picture above). Feedback is generated along each step of the process to keep every side of the chain informed about the current status. So if a vehicle cannot be advertised on a site for some reason, the end user will know. The system returns what went wrong and how it can be fixed. For instance, if a site requires an advertisement to have at least one image and no images were supplied, the feedback returned to the end user will show he needs to add one or more images.
More details about the feedback can be found in sections II.4. Feedback and III.4. Feedback.