Navigation •
Home • Managing Your Stock • Vehicle Properties
Vehicle Properties
A vehicle is made up of a number of properties. We could easily just stick with a vehicle description and leave it at that however to do that would be to stop your visitors being able to search for a vehicle that matches their requirements. Therefore SleepingSalesman asks for some specific information regarding each vehicle you store in the database.
We'll take a look at what each of these properties means - although they should be fairly self explanatory.
Caption
This is the headline description of the vehicle. This is displayed at the top of each vehicle in the main search window as well as the headline on the vehicle details page.
The values in this field are searched whenever a visitor performs a keyword search.
Description
This is the formatted description of the vehicle. You don't need to worry about knowing the programming code to do the formatting as an integrated editor will take care of this for you. You can find help on what each of the control icons in the editor means by clicking the help button on the toolbar 
.
The description is generally the features of the vehicle. You can include the same information as is shown in the rest of the vehicle properties. The choice is yours.
The values in this field are searched whenever a visitor performs a keyword search.
Make
This is the vehicle manufacturer. You have to set this so your visitors are be able to find a given vehicle by make.
If a make is not available in the drop down list then you can add it. See here for more information on adding new makes.
The make is displayed in the "Key Points" section of the vehicle details.
Type
This is the body style of the vehicle. You will have to set this so your visitors can search based on the type of body style the want.
If a type is not available in the drop down list then you can add it. See here for more information on adding new types.
The type is displayed in the "Key Points" section of the vehicle details.
Price
This is the price of the vehicle. You can keep to whole £ or include pence if you see fit. You shouldn't include the currency in this box.
SleepingSalesman automatically adds the currency character to the display of the vehicle. You can change the currency character used by SleepingSalesman in the Miscellaneous options within the SleepingSalesman configuration.
Year
This is the year of registration of the vehicle. When your visitors search for vehicles and order by "age" then this value is used in the sorting. The suggested format of: -
<Year> (<Plate>) is highly recommended as the sorting is alphabetical. E.G. 2000 (W)
The year is displayed in the "Key Points" section of the vehicle details as well as along the headline of the vehicle itself.
Mileage
This is the current mileage for the vehicle. You can set this value to -1 for it to be ignored however when a visitor wishes to view vehicles within a certain mileage then any items with a mileage of -1 will not show in the results.
The mileage is displayed in the "Key Points" section of the vehicle details if it's not set to -1.
Colour
This is is the colour of the vehicle. How you word this is up to yourself. If you wish to describe the vehicle as "Electric Pink with a touch of 'Ew!'" :) then that is up to yourself. Be aware however this field is searched when the customer does a keyword search. You don't have to fill in this field.
Colour is displayed in the "Key Points" section of the vehicle details if a value is set.
Transmission
The vehicle transmission is described here. If the transmission you require is not present then you can add one to the transmission list. See here for more information on this.
The transmission is displayed in the "Key Points" section of the vehicle details.
Fuel Type
This is the type of fuel the vehicle runs on. This field allows your visitors to search based on a preferred fuel type.
This information is displayed in the "Key Points" section of the vehicle details.
Active
By un-ticking the Active flag, this allows you to temporarily stop the vehicle from displaying to your visitors. This is useful for situations where you take a deposit for a vehicle but the sale falls through. By un-ticking the "Active" option you can remove the vehicle from view without actually deleting any of the content.
Sold
This allows you to mark a vehicle as being sold. This disables the "Enquiry" option for this vehicle and hides the price from visitors.
Website and SleepingSalesman System © 2005-2007 opcs