Introduction

Jobs (Vehicle breakdown incidents) are traditionally passed from the Work Providers to the Recovery Operators electronically using the ANS network in the format described in the ANS Data Transmission Standard.

Each connection to the ANS network is identified via a unique 7-digit numeric code known as an ANS Node. Some organisations have multiple ANS node IDs to allow their systems to split out jobs to different departments.

There is no validation on the data sent through ANS. Therefore, developers looking to integrate with ANS should not assume everything will be received exactly as defined in the standards. Additionally, developers should not assume that all fields are implemented for all sender and recipient systems; check with the software provider if unsure.

Glossary Of Terms

  • Job – A request from one organisation to another to perform a service, typically on a vehicle at a remote location.

  • JO – Job Originator. The sender of a Job, who is requesting a service to be carried out.

  • JR – Job Recipient. The recipient of a Job, who has been asked to carry out a service. Not necessarily the organisation who will be performing the Job, either through refusal or subcontracting to a third party.

    • When subcontracting, the JR becomes the JO of the new subcontracted Job, but remains the JR of the original Job.

  • Technician – The employee of the JR to attend the Job, typically in a vehicle specialised for the service they aim to provide (eg a recovery truck). Multiple Technicians may attend the same Job.

  • Vehicle – The target of the Job that requires attending, typically a stricken vehicle requiring roadside assistance or recovery to a new location.

  • Member – The person responsible for the Vehicle to be attended for a Job, typically the Vehicle’s driver or owner.

  • Roadside – A service provided at the scene of the Job, usually with the intent of repair.

  • Recovery – A service involving transporting the Vehicle to a new location, typically a repair centre or the customer’s address.

  • Message – Any transmission of data across the ANS Network in a set of key-value pairs.

 


Message Format

Connection to the ANS network is usually via the AutoConnect Client, a software application provided by Apex Networks.

The ANS data transmission format is text file based, with the AutoConnect client simply reading text files on the local machine then sending them to their destination where the files are reconstituted by another AutoConnect client at the other end.

It is up to the JO or JR system to read and write the files, although Apex do provide a managed code interface that can read and write the files in the correct format.

Each message sent over ANS must specify a source and destination ANS node ID and the message contents. The message contents consist of a number of fields identified by a 4-digit numeric code.

An example message is:

SOURCE=2000001
DEST=2000002
MESSAGE="9100,TERM-MESS"
"1220,This is a terminal message type message"
"9999,2"


Newlines are recommended between fields, as this makes the message much more readable for development and diagnostics, but a single line is valid too:

SOURCE=2000001 DEST=2000002 MESSAGE="9100,TERM-MESS""1220,This is a terminal message type message""9999,2"


Notes on sending and receiving data using this standard:

  • The standard is not designed to be read line by line; the fields are individually identified as being enclosed in quotation marks.

  • Carriage returns within fields are to be represented by caret symbols (^).

  • The source and destination fields identify the ANS node ID that this message comes from and is going to.

    • The Autoconnect Client can assume the sender if there is only one Node on the account, but this will cause problems if a second Node is added later.

  • The first field within the Message is the “Message Type” field (9100) and is mandatory. A list of message types can be found in the standards document.

  • The last field in the message (9999) denotes the number of preceding fields in the message.

  • All text is encoded is UTF-8 format.

  • Records should be encapsulated in double quotes (&H22).

  • End of lines should be represented as CR-LF (&H13 &H10).

  • There is no limitation to the size of message transmitted by either JO or JR.