Synchronize Locations with 3rd Party Systems

How to synchronize locations with 3rd party systems by using our REST Location Web Service or XML Location Import. 

Requirements: Any paid subscription

In today's typical corporate environment, there is often a fair amount of data duplicated across IT systems. This is particularly true with dealers, stores, and other location-based data. For example, a sales department may have their own database of dealers and may be using Salesforce or some other CRM. Simultaneously, the marketing team may be using a different set of data for the online store locator.  

By integrating these systems, companies can gain significant efficiency by maintaining one database. They can also more easily present a consistent set of data across all customer touchpoints, thereby creating a better customer experience.  

Bullseye's API was developed with this vision of integration in mind. To accommodate this, we've developed two sets of API tools. 

  1. REST Location Web Service 
  2. XML Location Import

Depending on your needs and the desired workflow, both of these options can be used to accomplish your integration objectives.  

REST Location Web Service

The REST Location Web Service is typically used in a real-time integration environment where you can have actions such as the addition of records trigger updates to your Bullseye Location data. The REST Location Web Service allows you to map system IDs from 3rd party applications and can be used for Adding, Editing and Deleting individual locations.  For technical details and sample code, visit the REST Location Web Service. 

XML Location Import

The XML Location Import is used when a significant amount of data needs to be synchronized between systems. This method works like a data synchronization and supports full imports of data. The import process compares the file with the existing locations in Bullseye. Records that have been modified will be updated, records that are added are added, and records deleted are deleted.

XML Location Import does not currently support the append function. In other words, if you send a file with 5 records, it will assume those are the only ones you want and will remove existing locations that do not match the five you are updating. 

By synchronizing the locations, any data associated with the locations such as geocodes or tracking history is maintained. 

For more information visit the Importing Through the API page in the Quick Start section. 

For details and the XML schema visit the XML Location Import page.