If you know of a company that may need an API lookup service for Car number plates, then we now offer an affiliate program where we can pay back 10% of payments made by the referred party to you.

It is open to all account holders, on www.regcheck.org.uk – and is done simply by sharing a link, that is available on your dashboard. You can email this link to your contacts, or simply just share it on your website or social media.

If you have connections in the motor trade, or other companies that might be interested in using our service, then you can get paid whenever a company you refer makes a payment into their account. We pay 10% of revenue from referred sales to the affiliate. With a minimum payout of GBP £10 / USD $15.

With this link, we can track the referral, and we will contact you as soon as the first payment is made in order to arrange payment.

Lets encrypt is a great service, it offers free SSL certificates, that are properly signed to a root-CA called IdenTrust , a banking consortium of over 60 banks.  It’s not the self signed rubbish, but on first glance the system looks daunting, but with the right tools, then it works a charm.

That’s when I discovered “Certify” at http://certify.webprofusion.com/ , If you have IIS 8.5, – you need SNI  for multi-certs per IP. You just install it on your server, Enter in an email address. And then just select the domain you want to secure. It even configures IIS for you, all in seconds.

I’ve set this up now on https://httpsimage.com– a secure SSL free image hosting service.

Keeping your API relevant to your customers is something that makes can sometimes take your service in a directions that you never knew existed. This morning, I didn’t know what a CNIT number was, this afternoon, it looks like we’ve now got the only commercially available CNIT API available outside of the French government,

A CNIT number or “Code national d’identification du type“, has been used since 1998 and consists of 12 characters that can succinctly define the essential characteristics of a vehicle. For example: the fourth character defines the fuel type and transmission (0-9), the fifth defines the engine power (0-9), and the seventh code defines the body style (0-7). The CNIT is more general than the type Mines, but does not allow to know the level of equipment of a vehicle. Recently, the CNIT can contain 15 characters.

Our VIN lookup service now includes a JSON segment that contains the CNIT and TVV values of a car, in the following format

<Vehicle xmlns:xsi=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance“ xmlns:xsd=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema“ xmlns=”http://regcheck.org.uk“>

<vehicleJson>

{“Cnit”:{“Make”:”VOLKSWAGEN”,”Model”:”GOLF”,”Variant”:”GOLF”,”Designation”:”GOLF 5P TDI (90ch)”,”Fuel”:”Gazole”,”Box”:”M 5″,”CNIT”:”MVW52C2KE752“,”TVV”:””,”Hybrid”:””,”Fiscal”:”5″,”KW”:”66″,”CV”:”90″}}

</vehicleJson>

<vehicleData>

<Description>Volkswagen Golf  TDI</Description>

<RegistrationYear>2007</RegistrationYear>

<CarMake>

<CurrentTextValue>Volkswagen</CurrentTextValue>

</CarMake>

<CarModel>Golf / TDI</CarModel>

<EngineSize>

<CurrentTextValue>Unknown</CurrentTextValue>

</EngineSize>

</vehicleData>

</Vehicle>

Our French API is accesible via this website: http://www.immatriculationapi.com/

Like the UK’s companies house, you can access basic information about Irish companies using an API that is free to use (mostly), and quite easy to implement.

I say mostly, because unlike the UK version, they charge €2.50 for document downloads.

Here’s the code example (without my credentials) in c#

var strUrl = “https://services.cro.ie/cws/companies?company_num=389820&htmlEnc=1&#8221;;

string userName = “** An email address **”;
string password = “**A GUID**”;
WebClient client = new WebClient();
string credentials = Convert.ToBase64String(Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(userName + “:” + password));
client.Headers[HttpRequestHeader.Authorization] = string.Format(“Basic {0}”, credentials);
client.Headers[HttpRequestHeader.Accept] = “application/json”;
string strJson = “”;
try
{
strJson = client.DownloadString(strUrl);
}
catch (WebException exception)
{

if (exception.Response != null)
{
var responseStream = exception.Response.GetResponseStream();

if (responseStream != null)
{
using (var reader = new StreamReader(responseStream))
{
strJson = reader.ReadToEnd();
}
}
}
}

Console.Write(strJson);

Our RegCheck API was limited initally to Cars and Vans, but now we’ve added Motorbikes, via a seperate endpoint. – It won’t fall through to return a motorbike unexpectedly, if you’re expecting a car.

If the registration number of the vehicle you are checking is a MotorBike, rather than a car or van, then you should call the “CheckMotorBikeUK” endpoint instead. This returns some basic information about the motorbike, and you can use this data to call the UKMOT endpoint, for further information, if required. The basic data are:

• Make and Model
• Year of Registration
• Engine Size
• Variant
• Colour

Sample JSON:

{“Description”:”KAWASAKI KLE 500 B1P”,”RegistrationYear”:”2005″,”CarMake”:{“CurrentTextValue”:”KAWASAKI”},”CarModel”:{“CurrentTextValue”:”KLE 500 B1P”},”MakeDescription”:{“CurrentTextValue”:”KAWASAKI”},”ModelDescription”:{“CurrentTextValue”:”KLE 500 B1P”}, “EngineSize”:{“CurrentTextValue”:”498cc”},”Variant”:”n/a”,”Colour”:”BLACK”}

Western Australia is home to 2.5 Million people, with it’s capital city Perth, comprising 1.8 Million of those.

Up until now, it was a missing part of our Australian Car registration API, at http://www.carregistrationapi.com  – which supported every other state in Australia, apart from WA, but now the picture is complete, and the API now covers all of Australia.

Like other states in Australia, the data returned depends on where the car is registered, but Western Australia is quite generous with the data;

WA (Western Australia)

• Description
• Make
• Model
• Registration Year
• Colour
• Body Style
• VIN number
• Engine size
• NVIC (National Vehicle Identification Code)
• Transmission

Sample Json:

{“Description”:”MITSUBISHI Triton Double Cab Utility GL-R (4×4)”,”RegistrationYear”:”2011″,”CarMake”:{“CurrentTextValue”:”MITSUBISHI”},”MakeDescription”:{“CurrentTextValue”:”MITSUBISHI”},”BodyStyle”:{“CurrentTextValue”:”Gl-R (4X4) 4-Speed Auto”},”Colour”:””,”VechileIdentificationNumber”:”MITTRIGN1125KWW2011A”,”Engine”:”2.5 litre, 4 cyl diesel turbo, MN MY11″,”extended”:{“nvic”:”KWW11A”,”driveType”:”DOUBLE CAB UTILITY”,”family”:”TRITON”,”variant”:”GL-R (4×4)”,”model”:”Triton Double Cab Utility”,”colour”:””,”code”:”MITTRIGN1125KWW2011A”,”make”:”MITSUBISHI”,”fuelType”:””,”capacityValue”:”2.5″,”series”:”MN MY11″,”engineDescription”:”2.5 litre, 4 cyl diesel turbo, MN MY11″,”bodyDescription”:””,”bodyType”:”Gl-R (4X4) 4-Speed Auto”,”cylinders”:”DT4″,”year”:”2011″,”capacityUnit”:”L”,”transmissionType”:”Auto”},”State”:”WA”}

With a population of 9 Million, and a GDP of over 400 billion, It’s the seventh wealthiest country in the world per capita, after it’s neighbour Qatar, which is the richest.

We’re hopeful that developers wishing to target the automotive industry in Dubai will want to use or new Car Registration API, which allows you to to determine the make and model of a car from its number plate, if registered in the UAE.

The website for this new API is at https://www.carregistrationapi.ae/  – which is currently in English, but we hope to offer it in Arabic shortly.

Car registration plates in the United Arab Emirates (Dubai ,Abu Dhabi, Ajman , Fujairah , Ras Al Khaimah ,Sharjah and Umm Al Quwain)  use the /CheckUAE endpoint and return the following information:

• Make  &  Model

Sample Json:

{“Description”:”MITSUBISHI CANTER “,”CarMake”:{“CurrentTextValue”:”MITSUBISHI”},”CarModel”:{“CurrentTextValue”:”CANTER “},”MakeDescription”:{“CurrentTextValue”:”MITSUBISHI”},”ModelDescription”:{“CurrentTextValue”:”CANTER “}}

Support for other UAE Emirates, (Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al-Quwain, and Fujairah), and with much more vehicle data (incl. VIN), is available via a different API, but this API requires the EmiratesID of the owner of the vehicle. Please contact us for information on this API. Which is available at this endpoint:

https://www.carregistrationapi.ae/api/private/uae.asmx?op=CheckUAE

Data sourced directly from KEKKH, this API allows users look up the details of cars in Hungary using its number plate.

This is ideal for used car sales websites, insurance sites, and even helping consumers ensure that the car they are buying matches the plate.

The website is at http://www.rendszám.com/ which means “Number plate” in Hungarian.

Car registration plates in Estonia use the /CheckHungary endpoint and return the following information:

• Make & Model
• Engine Size
• Registration Year
• Engine power in KW

Sample Json:

{
“Description”:“BMW X3 2.0D X83”,
“CarMake”:{
“CurrentTextValue”:“BMW”
},
“CarModel”:{
“CurrentTextValue”:“X3 2.0D X83”
},
“MakeDescription”:{
“CurrentTextValue”:“BMW”
},
“ModelDescription”:{
“CurrentTextValue”:“X3 2.0D X83”
},
“EngineSize”:{
“CurrentTextValue”:“1995”
},
“RegistrationYear”:“2008”,
“Power”:“130”
}

In Google Canary (Version 52.0.2734.1 canary SyzyASan), which is two versions ahead of the official Google Chrome (Version 50.0.2661.102 m) , there’s been an important change in how Chome handles IDN domains.

An IDN domain one with non-latin charachters in it, like www.sõiduk.com – In Google Chrome (v50 and below), if you click on this link, then the domain appears as punycode in the address bar, like this  http://www.xn--siduk-dua.com/ – which is the same domain, but translated into a format that is compatible with the DNS system. To end users though, they will no longer recognise the domain, and it looses trust and branding. – As a consumer, this looks like a phishing site now.

However, in Google Chrome Canary, which is Google’s beta version of Chrome, which gives a good preview of future versions of Google, then if you click on an IDN domain then the IDN representation still remains in the address bar, so you see the www.sõiduk.com domain there. This helps re-assure consumers that they are on the website they wanted to be on, and helps branding.

PhantomJSCloud is a online service, where you can emulate a browser action using a REST API. Great stuff, but unfortunately they charge, and if you’re on a low budget, or you intend to scale too much, then you might be put off by the fees.

However, PhantomJS can be downloaded for free, and it can be run from a asp.net page with no extra permissions set in IIS, and you can customise it to your needs, by making your own web based PhantomJS host with a few lines of code, thanks to NReco.PhantomJS

So, step 1

Install-Package NReco.PhantomJS

Then step 2:

var strUrl = Request.QueryString[“url”];
var strArgs = Request.QueryString[“args”];
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(strUrl) || string.IsNullOrEmpty(strArgs))
{
Response.Write(“url and args are required”);
return;
}
var wc = new WebClient();
var strJS = wc.DownloadString(strUrl);
var phantomJS = new PhantomJS();
phantomJS.OutputReceived += (a, b) =>
{
Response.Write(b.Data);
};
phantomJS.RunScript(strJS, new[] { strArgs });