The viesapi-cli.exe client application allows for quick and automatic checking of entities (contractors) from the command line level (CLI / CMD) in terms of their current status in the VIES system. The application also allows you to save the downloaded data to a file in 3 formats:

• JSON
• PROP (list of properties in form of key = value)
• XML

Application has been successfully tested in the following versions of MS Windows: XP, 7, 10 and 11. The latest version of the application is always available for download from the Download page.

The full functionality of the application can be checked – without the need to create an account – using the provided Test API

To use the add-in in the production API, you need to set up an account on the viesapi.eu website, purchase a minimum of the Business plan and generate an API key and API key identifier.

The process of registering and setting up an account as well as generating keys has been described on the Documentation website.

Activation

The shared executable program viesapi-cli.exe does not require installation and does not have to be run under an account with administrative privileges. To run the program, select the Command Prompt application from the Start menu or type cmd in the Search programs and files field and press Enter:

After starting the console, go to the directory where the zip file with viesapi-cli.exe was downloaded and unpacked.

Starting the program without specifying parameters displays the help window.

Configuration

Launching the viesapi-cli.exe application without specifying the API key ID and API key allows you to query the test environment (more details on the Test VIES API page).

In order to connect to the production environment, it is necessary to call out the viesapi-cli.exe application with the authentication parameters, which are:

• keyid – the parameter should contain the API key identifier (ID) generated on the account on the viesapi.eu website,
• key – the parameter should contain the API key (Key) generated on the account on the viesapi.eu website.

Details on generating the identifier and key are described on the Documentation page. Below is an example of calling the application with authentication parameters (keyid and key):

viesapi-cli.exe -keyid XXXXXXXXXXXX -key YYYYYYYYYYYY -vies -format xml

Calling syntax

Syntax of calling the viesapi-cli.exe program:

viesapi-cli.exe <action> [options]

Available actions:

-help – description of program calling parameters
-vies – current VIES system status
-account – current account status
-data – get company data from VIES
-data-parsed – get company data from VIES with parsed data
-batch-upload – upload batch of VAT numbers and get batch token
-batch-download – check batch result and download data

Available options:

-keyid string – API key identifier
-key string – API key
-euvat number – EU VAT ID number with country prefix
-token string – batch token value
-format type – output format type (json, prop, xml), default: json
-file-in path – input file path
-file-out path – output file path
-proxy url – HTTP proxy configuration (as URL http://user:password@hostname:port)

Examples

ATTENTION! The following examples are adapted to the data collected in the test environment. To perform checks on the production environment, add the –keyid and –key parameters with the appropriate values to each query.

1. Checks the current VIES system status and displays the result as XML:

viesapi-cli.exe -vies -format xml

2. Checks the current account status and saves the result to a JSON file:

viesapi-cli.exe -account -file-out result.json.

3. Downloads company data from VIES and displays the result as PROP:

viesapi-cli.exe -data -euvat PL5213003700 -format prop

4. Downloads company parsed data from VIES and saves the result to a JSON file:

viesapi-cli.exe -data-parsed -euvat PL5213003700 -file-out result.json

5. Uploads a batch file (one number per line) and receives a batch token for result checking:

viesapi-cli.exe -batch-upload -file-in numbers.csv

6. Checks the current batch status and saves the result to a JSON file:

viesapi-cli.exe -batch-download -token 1fd853a5-ac9e-490c-81a1-d4900a9c906c -file-out result.json