Reseller Portal SOAP Web Service

This SOAP web service allows a reseller to:

  • Create customer account, under your reseller account, with instant 30 day evaluation access to our address data
  • Edit customer accounts record owned by the reseller
  • Purchase Internal use, user licenses for customers
  • Purchase Internal use, credit packs for customers
  • Purchase External use, credit packs for customers
  • Reset test purchases on an account
  • Get the current price of the above licenses
  • Get the status of a customers license/licenses

Thus allowing zero administration for the reseller.

SOAP Service URL:

https://www.simplylookupadmin.co.uk/WebServiceCustomerPortal.asmx

Important  Please Note:

When using the Reseller Portal we require the following:

  • This must be enabled by us, please e-mail support at simplypostcode.com, after creating a reseller account.
  • The reseller is responsible for invoicing the customer and must make an immediate payment into our bank account for any purchases. An invoice is emailed to the reseller for any purchases less the reseller commission.
  • Please put the customer's account number, for purchases postcode software, in any bank transactions for us to reconcile easily

Reseller Customer Portal contents:

Reseller Customer Portal contents:

Example program and functionality walkthrough

Included as part of the example code download is a VB.NET example program, in the "reseller" directory, which demonstrates the functionality of the “Reseller Customer Portal”.

The following section discusses this:

Example Program

Screen shot of example program:

Reseller Portal test program

First, enter your Reseller ID and account password in the top part of the window. The program will remember this data.


Managing Accounts

Step 1 Create an account for instant 30-day evaluation

This should typically be done when a customer opens an account on your system

Enter Company name

Reseller Portal 30 day eval

For the purpose of this example, we have simply filled in example company details. Of course, if this was a fully implemented system then the full address would be required. We require Company name and Full address to return to the royal mail. This is part of our Terms and Conditions.

Now press the [Create] button. The Customer Portal will now create a customer record under your Reseller Account. This new account is marked as a test account, which allows you to use the reset function to clear any purchases of postcode software.   We also ignore any purchases on the accounts marked as a test account.

See “Customer Record” for more information

Reseller Portal enter data key

The Portal now returns a customer ID, which we use to update/identify the account in later operations.    Also, the DataKeys are returned, which are used by our standard address calls (SOAP, COM and HTTP/XML) to identify the user of the data.   These should be stored in your database.

The one beginning with “I” should be used for internal use, for employees of a company, and “W” for public-facing web sites.  These should be used for address queries to be fired to our server.

See “Create Customer” and “Customer Record” for more information

Step 2 Get and Update Accounts

This should typically be done when the customer amends their details in your database to make sure our details are up to date.

Use the [Get] and [Update] buttons to demonstrate this.

See “Update Customer”, “Get Customer Details” and “Customer Record” for more information

Step 3 Reset an Account

This can be used for testing, to remove any purchases against the account. This is covered later in walkthrough.

Step 4 Get License details

The [Get license details] button will show any purchases/licenses the customer has purchased. This is covered later in walkthrough.

The lower part of the window demonstrates the get pricing and purchasing functions.

Reseller Portal Get licence details

   Please Note:

  • In a typical implementation you would be selling either Internal use or External Use licenses, these are therefore covered by the next two sections.

Get internal license prices

   Please Note:

  • These licenses can be used within an organisation for capturing address information for the purpose of populating a database or to send/provide Goods/Services.

When using our programming interface, you must use the DataKeys prefixed with "I" to access the data. This key is returned in the customer record we saw earlier.

Reseller Customer Portal functionality will allow requests for the current Internal license pricing.

The lower part of the example program demonstrates the internal user license and credit packs purchases.

Reseller Portal internal License

Example 1 Get prices for internal users:

Having pressed [Get prices for Internal USERS] shows a demo window:

Reseller Portal Get user prices

Enter 3 users and press one of the buttons in the middle of the window to get the appropriate prices.

The suggested price to the customer and the price to you is shown in the lower part of the window.

See “Get Price Internal Users function” for more information

Example 2 Get prices for internal users for specific postcode areas only:

Having pressed [Get prices for Internal USERS] the following window appears:

Reseller Portal Internal areasEnter 3 users, 2 areas and press [Get price for Full Address] button to get the appropriate prices.

The suggested price to the customer and the price to you is shown in the lower part of the window.

See “Get Price Internal Users function” for more information

   Please Note:

  • This facility applies to Full Address only.

Example 3 Get prices for internal credit packs

Having pressed [Get prices for Internal CREDITS] the following window appears:

Reseller Portal get Internal credit packs

Enter the number of credits you want a price for. In this example 500. The packs are available in 500 and 5000 credits.

The suggested price to the customer and the price to you is shown in the lower part of the window.

See “Get Price Internal Credit Packs” for more information


Purchase internal licenses

Having created an account, the customer can purchase during or after the 30 day evaluation period, via the functionality of the Reseller Customer Portal.

Example 1 Purchase Internal user licenses

Having pressed [Buy Internal USERS License] the following window appears:

Reseller Portal buy Internal license

If we enter 2 users, and press [Purchase Full License], then the system will purchase a 2 user license.  The function returns the reseller discounted price we expect to be transferred to our bank account, including VAT.

Please put the Customers License ID in the reference of any payments for the reconciliation process.

After a year this would need renewing.  

   Please Note:

  • It is the reseller’s responsibility to renew annual licences prior to the expiry date.  See “Purchase User license” for more information

On the first purchase of user license, the reseller needs to store an event trigger for 12 months in the future, to purchase another license (with the renewal flag set), charge the customer and pay simply postcode. After the purchase, the event trigger would need moving on 12 months, for the next renewal.

The reseller should also be able to handle more than one license for the customer, as the customer may purchase another license. Thus end up with two, or more renewal dates.

The license will be immediately available for use. Calling for the License details using the [Get License Details] button on the previous window will result in:

“System fully functional. Order in progress“ is returned at end of license details until we have reconciled the payment.

See “Account License Information” for more information

Use the [Reset Account] button, on the previous window, to clear any purchases during testing. See “Do Command function” for more information

This demo program can be used to reset test data while testing, etc.

Example 2 Purchase Internal user licenses for certain postcode areas:

First, we need to update the customer record with a list of Postcode areas the customer requires.

Reseller Portal buy for areas

Enter two postcode areas, in the box shown above. Then press [Update]. This will now apply an area filter on the customer's account.

The [Get Adjacent Areas] button will show adjacent postcode areas:

Reseller Portal postcode adjacent areas
See “Get Adjacent Postcode Areas” for more information

Having pressed [Get prices for Internal USERS] the following window appears:

Reseller Portal

If we enter 2 users, and press [Purchase Full License], then the system will purchase a 2 user license, for 2 postcode areas.  The function returns the reseller discounted price we expect to be transferred to our bank account, including VAT.

Please put the Customers License ID in the reference of any payments for our reconciliation process.

After a year this would need renewal.  It is the reseller's responsibility to renew annual license’s prior to the renewal date.

See “Purchase User license” for more information

The license will be instantly available. But calling for the License details, using the [Get License Details] button on the previous window will result in:

Until the payment has been reconciled. See “Account License Information” for more information

Use the [Reset Account] button, on the previous window, to clear any purchases during testing. See “Do Command function” for more information

Example 3 Purchase Internal credit packs:

Having pressed [Buy Internal CREDITS] the following window appears:

Reseller Portal

If we enter 500 credits, and press [Purchase Full Credits], then the system will purchase a 500 credit pack.   If we enter 1500, then it will purchase 3 packs of 500.  The function returns the reseller discounted price we expect to be transferred to our bank account, including VAT.

Please put the Customers License ID in the reference of any payments for our reconciliation process.
The level of these credit packs can be monitored easily, as the current balance is returned with every address query.

See “Purchase Internal Credit packs” for more information

The license will be instantly available.  Using the [Get License Details] button on the previous window will result in:

Reseller Portal

“System fully functional. Order in progress…” is returned at end of license details until we have reconciled the payment.

See “Account License Information” for more information

Use the [Reset Account] button, on the previous window, to clear any purchases during testing. See “Do Command function” for more information


Get External Use credit pack prices

   Please Note:

  • These licenses can ONLY be used on public-facing websites to capture customer address, entered by the customer, on web page to provide services or goods.
  • Must not be used by employees of your company

When using our programming interface, you must use the DataKeys prefixed with "W" to access the data.

This key is returned in the customer record we saw earlier.

Reseller Customer Portal functionality will allow requests for the current Internal license pricing.
The lower part of the example program demonstrates the internal user license and credit packs purchase.

Reseller Portal Public facing web site

Example Get Price of Web Credit Packs:

Having pressed [Get prices for web CREDITS] the following window appears:

Reseller Portal credit pack prices

Because the web credit packs are sold in different sizes, then the function returns a series of pack sizes and suggested prices to the customer.  Note the Pack size and Prices are tagged with and so the returned data can be parsed, or simply displayed.

When making a call to purchase a pack, simply supply the line number for the appropriate pack.  Thus to purchase 5,000 credits, the line number would be 3.   See “Get Price of External Use Packs” for more information.


Purchase Web Credit Packs

Example Purchase 5,000 Web Credit Pack:

Having pressed [Buy web CREDITS] the following window appears:

Reseller Portal purchase web packs

If we enter 3, which corresponds to the 3rd line returned by the function of the price, see get price walkthrough in the previous section.

Press [Purchase Full Credits], then the system will purchase a 5,000 full address credit pack.  The function returns the reseller discounted price we expect to be transferred to our bank account, including VAT.

Please put the Customers License ID in the reference of any payments for our reconciliation process.

The level of these credit packs can be monitored easily, as the current balance is returned with every address query.

See “Purchase Web Credit Packs” for more information

The license will be instantly available.  Calling for the License details, using the [Get License Details] button on the previous window will result in:

Reseller Portal

“System fully functional. Order in progress” is returned at end of license details until we have reconciled the payment.