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Convermax Docs

Setting up VIN search

VinSearchPlugin

To enable VIN search for any store, you need to add VinSearchPlugin to the list of plugins

SearchBox placeholder

It also makes sense in the store, for which the plugin is enabled, to change the SearchBox placeholder, adding a mention that you can search by VIN on the site as well

You can change the placeholder in two ways:

  • either directly in the replacements.js file by changing SEARCH_BOX_PLACEHOLDER
  • or, if the store inherits scripts from any theme, specify the text in the window.Convermax.config.searchBoxPlaceholderText

How it works

A VIN is a unique serial number of a vehicle (every vehicle has its own VIN). Among other things, it encodes information about the manufacturer, brand, model, year of manufacture, engine model, etc.

The user enters the VIN of their vehicle in the search box on the website; the VinSearchPlugin plugin sends this VIN to a third-party VIN decoder service (we use DataOne) - in response, the plugin receives a list of vehicles for this VIN in VCdb format (the decoder cannot always unequivocally state which specific model is encoded in a particular VIN). The first vehicle is taken from the list, its YMME is decoded through VCdb, and they are substituted as selected values in the corresponding dropdowns:

https://burkkenautoparts.com/search/?query=3VWDF71K66M630519

A good database of real American vehicles with their full VINs: https://americamotors.com/auction/ - you can use it to test our resulting search: find a vehicle, take its VIN, try searching on our client’s site.