Member Avatar for dandixon

Hi Just wondering if someone could give me an idea of the best way around this problem. Ive been asked to come up with a solution for a site a little like the confused insurance comparison website. Basically i have a range of products that i need many companies to qoute for without having direct access to their database. My initial thoughts are the customer will logon > enter the details and click qoute > this will then search the database for the matching companies that i have created before hand and then email these companies the required fields that need to be qouted (the customer will recieve a message saying check back in 1hour etc). The company will logon to the website, input the reference code and the qoute which will store back into the qoute db.

Customers will then be able to check back after the alloted time to check what qoutes have come through.

I dont think i explained this very well but if someone does understand then that would be great

Regards
Dan

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Member Avatar for rch1231

If depends on the companies you are querying but look into XML coding. It lets you send a mini data file with assigned fields that can be returned with additional fields that can then be imported to a database.

http://www.w3schools.com/xml/default.asp

Member Avatar for dandixon

im not into javavscript much so i think i might find this difficult, is this the only way

Member Avatar for rch1231

It's not java but a simple text file that can be a one record file used to transmit regular blocks of records. It can be this simple:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<note>
    <to>Tove</to>
    <from>Jani</from>
    <heading>Reminder</heading>
    <body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>

And I bet you will find the companies you are dealing with are already familiar or have a standard format for you to send data in. It gives you and them the ability to automate the process of getting the quote information.

Member Avatar for dandixon

Thanks for this, i understand what you mean now but the companies im dealing with are certainly not going to have databases that are accessible or xml but i think i may have cracked it, im going to try it out tonite

thanks for your help

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