skizmo – PullMonkey Blog

VIN API – ignore checksum validation

charlie — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 15:55:35 +0000

It's been mentioned a few times that there should be a way to skip the checksum validation. This means if the check digit calculation generally fails, VIN API will continue to process the VIN to see if there is a "like" VIN match. So here it is:

Vin API – Phase II

charlie — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 22:42:14 +0000

We've just finished adding A LOT more details to VIN API's result set. This time we've added things like MPG, MSRP, cargo room/volumn, etc. See the full list below, it is very comprehensive.

If you use ruby (look for a future post with .NET and PHP examples), and want the complete dataset, you would setup your ActiveResource like this:

And then call our API like this:

The only change (for those of you who have already implemented phase I) is to send in a "complete" parameter with value of "true" ... upon doing so, VIN API will send you the complete dataset versus the basic (and default) dataset.

The results would look like this (in XML) and be prepared because it is lengthy:

That's it, just thought I'd share VIN API's Phase II.

VIN API – VIN Decoder for anyone

charlie — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:45:11 +0000

UPDATES:
See Phase II details for complete dataset information.
Take a look at the PHP examples and the .NET examples.
And ... while it's been great being able to give this information away freely for about a year now, we have to share some of the cost with our users, so please read about our pricing model.
END UPDATES

VIN API came about through lots of work on a current project of ours - Mr. Quotey. We are dealing with auto insurance and wanted a way to decode VINs. The other solutions we found (API-wise) were too expensive for our small, unfunded startup. So like the way most great things come about, we decided to build our own VIN decoding API.

Using VIN API:

This is explained in detail at VIN API's site, but I will give you a look at what it does here.

If you use Ruby on Rails like I do, then you have the option to use ActiveResource:

Then you can use it like this:

Current Limitations:

Right now each account is limited to 20 VIN requests a month, we are looking to take it slow and prevent abuse. If you do need more VIN decodings a month, feel free to let us know at Mr. Quotey, we'd be happy to up the max for your account.

Where to next?:

It is too soon to really tell. We'd like your feedback and to know if this service is useful. If it gets enough buzz, we would probably pursue it a bit more and drop the monthly limitations.

Using Tumblr as a CMS

charlie — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:39:31 +0000

Thought you all might like this - http://blog.skizmo.com/post/308406755/use-tumblr-as-your-cms

It is something we sort of dreamed up and it works great as a partial CMS - very much like SimpleCMS where you can specify what exactly on the page needs to be managed by a CMS. This allows you to mix your CMS static content with your dynamic content.