ADF/XML mapping

The Auto-lead Data Format (ADF/XML) has been the de-facto standard for delivering leads to dealer CRMs for over two decades. AAP's lead.submit request is designed to translate losslessly to ADF/XML so a dealer's existing pipeline accepts the lead unchanged.

This page documents the field-by-field translation. The dealer agent (or the dealer's CRM adapter) generates the XML; the buyer agent only sends AAP JSON.

Mapping table

AAP field (lead.submit.request)	ADF element / attribute	Notes
customer.first_name + customer.last_name	<customer><contact><name part="full">{first} {last}</name></contact></customer>	ADF expects a full-name node; AAP keeps first/last separate. The mapper concatenates with a single space.
customer.email	<customer><contact><email>...</email></contact></customer>	RFC 5322 email.
customer.phone	<customer><contact><phone>...</phone></contact></customer>	E.164 phone (e.g. +14155550123). ADF allows free-form phones; AAP normalizes to E.164.
customer.address.address_line_1 / _2	<customer><contact><address><street line="1">...</street><street line="2">...</street></address></contact></customer>	Optional.
customer.address.city	<customer><contact><address><city>...</city></address></contact></customer>	Optional.
customer.address.state	<customer><contact><address><regioncode>...</regioncode></address></contact></customer>	Optional. ADF uses <regioncode>; AAP uses state.
customer.address.zip	<customer><contact><address><postalcode>...</postalcode></address></contact></customer>	Optional. ADF uses <postalcode>; AAP uses zip. The ADF mapper writes <country> from customer.address.country when provided, defaulting to US otherwise.
vehicle_of_interest.year / make / model	<vehicle interest="buy"><year>...</year><make>...</make><model>...</model></vehicle>	The required ADF trio. Provided either directly on vehicle_of_interest or by VIN-decoding the dealer-side listing.
vehicle_of_interest.trim	<vehicle interest="buy"><trim>...</trim></vehicle>	Optional.
vehicle_of_interest.vin	<vehicle interest="buy"><vin>...</vin></vehicle>	Optional but recommended.
vehicle_of_interest.stock	<vehicle interest="buy"><stock>...</stock></vehicle>	Optional.
vehicle_of_interest.condition	<vehicle interest="buy" status="..."> (one of new, used)	ADF accepts only new or used. AAP cpo MAPS TO status="used" AND a free-text <comments>certified pre-owned</comments> on the vehicle.
vehicle_of_interest.body	<vehicle interest="buy"><bodystyle>...</bodystyle></vehicle>	Optional.
vehicle_of_interest.transmission	<vehicle interest="buy"><transmission>...</transmission></vehicle>	Optional. ADF expects A or M; the mapper folds automatic/manual (and variants like 8-speed automatic) accordingly.
vehicle_of_interest.mileage	<vehicle interest="buy"><odometer units="mi">...</odometer></vehicle>	Optional; typical for used.
vehicle_of_interest.price	<vehicle interest="buy"><price type="quote" currency="USD">...</price></vehicle>	Mapped from the AAP integer dollar amount (whole US dollars).
appointment.appointment_type	Implicit on the parent vehicle's interest: test_drive → <vehicle interest="test-drive">; trade_in → the <vehicle interest="trade-in"> block; sales / service → the appointment lives in <comments> of the customer block.	ADF predates structured appointments.
appointment.appointment_at	<customer><comments>Requested appointment: 2026-05-03 11:00 PT</comments></customer>	Free-text in <comments>; CRMs route to the appointment desk.
submitted_at	<requestdate>...</requestdate>	ISO 8601 (e.g. 2026-04-30T10:15:10Z).
message	<customer><comments>...</comments></customer>	Free-text user message.
source_agent	<provider><name part="full">{source_agent}</name></provider>	Identifies the buyer-agent provider (e.g. chatgpt-shopping).
Dealer name (from the dealer.information rooftop name)	<vendor><vendorname>...</vendorname></vendor>	Dealer agent fills this from its own profile, not from the buyer agent.
trade_in.year / make / model / trim	A second <vehicle interest="trade-in">...</vehicle> block with <year>, <make>, <model>, <trim>	Trade-in vehicle goes in its own ADF <vehicle> block.
trade_in.mileage	<vehicle interest="trade-in"><odometer units="mi">...</odometer></vehicle>	Strongly recommended; ADF <odometer>.
trade_in.condition	<vehicle interest="trade-in"><condition>...</condition></vehicle>	excellent, good, fair, poor map directly to ADF's <condition> enum.
trade_in.vin	<vehicle interest="trade-in"><vin>...</vin></vehicle>	Optional; recommended for accurate appraisal.

Nothing in consent is part of ADF (the format predates structured agent consent). AAP's ConsentGrant is preserved alongside the lead in the dealer CRM as an audit record. AAP-specific fields without an ADF equivalent (customer.preferred_contact, vehicle_of_interest.vehicle_id, vehicle_of_interest.msrp/list_price/offered_price/zip) MAY be persisted as CRM extension fields or in <comments>.

Concrete worked example

Given a lead.submit request bundling a vehicle of interest, a trade-in, and a test-drive appointment:

{
  "type": "lead.submit.request",
  "customer": {
    "first_name": "Anna",
    "last_name": "Lee",
    "email": "anna@example.com",
    "phone": "+14155550123",
    "preferred_contact": "email",
    "address": {
      "address_line_1": "200 Folsom St",
      "city": "San Francisco",
      "state": "CA",
      "zip": "94105"
    }
  },
  "consent": {
    "granted_at": "2026-04-30T10:15:00Z",
    "allowed_channels": ["email", "phone"],
    "consent_text": "I agree to share my contact info with Demo Toyota about this 2022 Honda Civic, my Sunday test drive, and my Toyota Corolla trade-in.",
    "source_agent": "chatgpt-shopping",
    "scope": ["lead_submission"]
  },
  "vehicle_of_interest": {
    "vin": "1HGCV1F30KA000001",
    "year": 2022, "make": "Honda", "model": "Civic", "trim": "EX",
    "condition": "cpo",
    "body": "sedan",
    "transmission": "automatic"
  },
  "trade_in": {
    "year": 2014, "make": "Toyota", "model": "Corolla",
    "condition": "good",
    "mileage": 96000
  },
  "appointment": {
    "appointment_type": "test_drive",
    "appointment_at": "2026-05-03T18:00:00Z"
  },
  "message": "Interested in this Civic; can you confirm availability and best price with my trade?",
  "source_agent": "chatgpt-shopping",
  "submitted_at": "2026-04-30T10:15:10Z"
}

The dealer-side ADF/XML payload is:

<?adf version="1.0"?>
<adf>
  <prospect>
    <requestdate>2026-04-30T10:15:10Z</requestdate>

    <vehicle interest="test-drive" status="used">
      <year>2022</year>
      <make>Honda</make>
      <model>Civic</model>
      <trim>EX</trim>
      <vin>1HGCV1F30KA000001</vin>
      <bodystyle>sedan</bodystyle>
      <transmission>A</transmission>
      <comments>certified pre-owned</comments>
    </vehicle>

    <vehicle interest="trade-in">
      <year>2014</year>
      <make>Toyota</make>
      <model>Corolla</model>
      <condition>good</condition>
      <odometer units="mi">96000</odometer>
    </vehicle>

    <customer>
      <contact>
        <name part="full">Anna Lee</name>
        <email>anna@example.com</email>
        <phone>+14155550123</phone>
        <address>
          <street line="1">200 Folsom St</street>
          <city>San Francisco</city>
          <regioncode>CA</regioncode>
          <postalcode>94105</postalcode>
          <country>US</country>
        </address>
      </contact>
      <comments>Interested in this Civic; can you confirm availability and best price with my trade? Requested test-drive: 2026-05-03 11:00 PT.</comments>
    </customer>

    <provider>
      <name part="full">chatgpt-shopping</name>
    </provider>

    <vendor>
      <vendorname>Demo Toyota</vendorname>
    </vendor>
  </prospect>
</adf>

Note:

• condition: "cpo" becomes <vehicle status="used"> PLUS <comments>certified pre-owned</comments>. Plain ADF has no certified value.
• appointment.appointment_type: "test_drive" becomes interest="test-drive" on the vehicle_of_interest block. AAP trade_in maps to a second <vehicle interest="trade-in">.
• appointment.appointment_at is folded into the customer <comments> since ADF has no native appointment element.
• The dealer name Demo Toyota is filled from the dealer agent's own profile, not from the buyer agent's request.
• The user message and the appointment time land in customer <comments>.

What does NOT map to ADF

The ADF format predates structured agent consent. AAP's consent (ConsentGrant) is preserved alongside the lead in the dealer CRM as an audit record but does not have an ADF equivalent. Dealers typically:

• Persist the full ConsentGrant JSON in a separate consent table or audit log.
• Surface consent.allowed_channels to the dealer's BDC or CRM rules engine to decide which channels to actually use for follow-up (and to refuse unauthorized channels).

consent MUST NOT be silently dropped on the dealer side; it is a regulatory requirement that the buyer agent passes through.

ADF compatibility flag

AAP defines lead.submit as ADF-compatible. When the request includes vehicle_of_interest, the lead carries enough context to populate ADF's required <vehicle> trio cleanly. When the request is customer-only (no vehicle_of_interest), it is forwarded into the dealer CRM as an ADF lead with a synthetic placeholder vehicle (e.g. omitted or left as a generic inquiry record), per the dealer's CRM conventions.

For implementation guidance on the receiving side, see your CRM vendor's ADF documentation; AAP does not specify wire-level ADF transport (FTP, SMTP, HTTP POST), only the field-level translation.