The Outdoor Power Equipment Institute
Web Services Project

This web site is dedicated to information about the OPEI Web Service Standards Project. It provides complete information regarding the project and the standards for purposes of research and implementation. It is also designed as a repository for downloading standard documents for pre-loading or runtime transactions. General information about the OPEI may be found at the OPEI Home page.

Web Services Project

Recognizing the potential of the Internet for real time business transactions, the OPEI e-Commerce Committee developed a strategy to capitalize on this technology. With more and more manufacturers and distributors building interactive capability into their web sites, the committee proposed converting existing e-commerce standards into Web Services standards.

Web services are a means of using a web site to achieve computer to computer interactions equivalent to EDI, but more immediate in their results. With web services, a dealer or distributor need not even be at the computer during the communication process since it can be completely automated. The dealer's computer can submit information at any time, receive a disposition, and prepare a report for the dealer to read later. This is a significant improvement over the current practice of dealers manually entering data into manufacturer web sites.

The committee appointed a Warranty Work Group to develop specifications for the first Web Service. These Warranty Web Service standards were completed in March 2004, and successfully tested by Ariens Co. and C-Systems (Dealer Business System Vendor). The committee continued developing standards for additional web services throughout 2004 and into 2005. The Warranty Work Group went on to develop a Product Registration Web Service. The Supply Chain Work Group that had done most of the committee's early work with XML standards, was reactivated and it developed standards for purchasing and inventory inquiry web services.

As the committee established a base of knowledge and experience with web service implementation, testing, and standards management, many issues became more clear. The committee also was alerted to the development of web service standards by the Power Sports Industry, specifically by the Motorcycle Industry Council. A lengthy investigation coupled with several meetings and mush evaluation led to a survey of OPEI members concerning the potential adoption of the MIC standards program. Due to cost factors, limited control, and complexity concerns, the membership requested the OPEI e-Commerce Committee to continue development of OPEI standards.

Ironically the effectiveness of sophisticated web sites and other technology based solutions has held up expected implementation of web services within the industry. The OPEI standards are being used by a small number of suppliers and dealer business systems, but additional use is needed in order to provide significant benefit to the industry. Due to this slowness of implementation, the e-Commerce committee decided in 2007 to focus on enhancement of the four web services already developed, rather than to standardize more business transactions.

The enhancements, which are now completed include development of business rules, and the creation of a fifth web service to support automated "discovery". This is the term for the acquisition of technical requirements for a given supplier's web service without any human intervention. A discovery web service allows a dealer's business system to contact any web service host and request the latest technical requirements for use of its web services. The dealer's computer can then update itself and begin using the latest services offered by that supplier. Business rules allow suppliers to specify their own custom rules for certain data submitted through web services.

Finally, the committee created this web site for the retention of all web services standards and specifications. It includes all related documents such as programming specifications and standard documents for use by implementers. It can also be used by industry members' computers to automatically obtain the latest standards and web service host addresses.

Having completed this first phase of web services standards development and testing, the e-Commerce Committee adjourned in early 2008 awaiting an industry request for additional standards or enhancements to the existing ones. Committee Chairman, Tom Murphy of The Ariens Company offered the following statement;

"The e-Commerce Committee has worked hard for many years and achieved excellent results. The web service standards we have completed are simple and cost effective to implement, and they work very well. I am proud of all the industry members who participated in this valuable work, and on behalf of the industry and OPEI, I thank them sincerely. The committee will stand adjourned until additional standards are requested by implementers, or a clear need for change is evident."

Anyone interested in additional information about the standards or the committee's work may contact Jean Hawes at the Outdoor Power equipment Institute; 703-549-7600.

Web Service Standards

The Discovery Web Service standards provide computer access to the technical details required to utilize the web services of any supplier. The starting point is the downloading of the EndpointFile located in the Discovery directory of this web site. Properly programmed computers can download and read this file for later reference. Then to consume the web services of a specific supplier, the computer will use the address downloaded on the EndpointFile to contact the Discovery Web Service of that supplier. Once the supplier's Discovery Web Service is contacted, the user can obtain all the pertinent details for doing e-commerce via the web services of that supplier.

The Warranty Web Service standards provide the specifications for dealer and distributor business systems to electronically submit a warranty claim to a manufacturer's web site and immediately receive a disposition or simple response. This technique allows for manufacturers to immediately process a warranty claim on-line and provide a disposition within seconds or simply to acknowledge receipt of the claim for later processing and disposition.

The warranty web service standards were approved by industry ballot and published as Version 1.0 in 2004. After discovery of structural deficiencies within the standards, corrections were made and they were re-published as Version 1.1 in March of 2005. In addition, changes to the WSDL file were required for successful testing by Ariens. The changed WSDL file is currently offered only as a "model" for testing purposes while the Infrastructure Work Group works on a new proposed standard WSDL file.

The Product Registration Web Service standards provide specifications for the electronic submission of product registrations directly from the dealer business system. The standards support a seamless two-way communication where the manufacturer can accept a registration and immediately provide an acknowledgment to the dealer. The following proposed standards are in draft status for balloting purposes. The ballot process expires in May 2005, at which time proposed changes may be considered to accommodate the needs of voting industry members.

The Purchase Order Web Service standards support the automated submission of a purchase order for parts or wholegoods. They also provide for the immediate return of an acknowledgement that can include shipping, delivery, and backorder information, as well as correction of errors in the original order. The following proposed standards are in draft status for balloting purposes. The ballot process expires in May 2005, at which time proposed changes may be considered to accommodate the needs of voting industry members.

The Inventory Availability Web Service standards define the specifications for an automated inquiry to a manufacturer or distributor as to the availability of a given quantity of an item. It supports an immediate response, which provides assurance of the availability of the product, or a projection of when the specified quantity will become available. The following proposed standards are in draft status for balloting purposes. The ballot process expires in May 2005, at which time proposed changes may be considered to accommodate the needs of voting industry members.

Code Lists

The committee has developed data element code lists for use in the web service schemas for purposes of standardizing data input and ensuring machine readability. In some cases codes will limit data choices to those in actual use and simplify data entry. In other cases, codes are used to standardize the input and ensure a computer will recognize the data and process it correctly. The following code lists are currently in use for the above web services.