Updating Car Dealer Inventory via the WordPress REST API

In 2018, Inventory Presser retired its vehicle importer plugin that used a combination of WP-Cron, XML files, and FTP transfers to maintain inventories on dozens dealership websites. It hasn’t been replaced with a better importer–the web servers running Inventory Presser no longer need to listen for inventory changes. One hundred percent of dealership sites built on Inventory Presser are now receiving vehicle updates via the WordPress REST API across the web.

The REST API allows remote access and manipulation of data in WordPress sites by an external client. Inventory Presser version 4.2.0 introduced custom REST API endpoints that enabled granular control over vehicles stored by the car dealer WordPress plugin. Using the REST API to update thousands of vehicles means less processing on the server and better site performance, especially when more than one dealership website lives on the same server.

In the months since this launch, we’ve found a great reduction in the amount of time it takes to sync updates to dealership websites in our network. Direct insertions and updates via the REST API are the most efficient way to manage inventories using Inventory Presser, but we also offer a VIN Decoder plugin for dealerships that do not already use an inventory provider. If you’re not sure of the best way to get vehicles into a site running our plugin, read Importing Vehicle Data.

Photo by PollyDot