Match API v2

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Match and enhance your data v2

Getting started

POST /v2/people/match

The Match API v2 is designed to find exact matches for your data. It uses a different matching technology from Match API v1, and returns only high confidence matches.

Matching to the Places and People databases is supported.

curl https://api.data-axle.com/v2/people/match \
  -H "X-AUTH-TOKEN: ffddaa789012345678901234" \
  -d '{
    "identifiers": {
      "first_name": "Homer",
      "last_name": "Simpson",
      "street": "123 Main St",
      "city": "Springfield",
      "state": "WA",
      "postal_code": "98103"
    }
  }'

The response includes a persistent person_id along with appended attributes:

{
  "document": {
    "person_id": "002293031973",
    "rules": [
      "name",
      "address"
    ],
    "score": "1.0",
    "attributes": {
      "person_id": "002293031973",
      "family_id": "800047540468",
      "first_name": "Homer",
      "last_name": "Simpson",
      "gender": "M",
      "age": 58,
      "city": "Springfield",
      ...
    }
  }
}

GET or POST can be used.
By default, one match is returned. Set the limit option to retrieve multiple matches.
All available fields are included in the output. This can be changed with the fields option.
If a match is not found, a null document is returned.

Parameters

Parameter	Description	Default
identifiers	The set of fields used to find a match for your record.	Required.
required_rule_groups	The set of rules the result must match.	All rules are used by default.
filter	Reduce potential results with the Filter DSL.	All records visible to the user.
fields	The fields returned with the matched document.	Any Data Dictionary fields.
include_labels	Get the labels for encoded fields.	`false`
limit	Return multiple results up to the given limit. Since v2 returns only high confidence matches, setting this parameter above 2 is not likely to have a useful impact.	1
minimum_match_score	Exclude results below a certain match score. May be used to fine tune the returned matches. Lowering it will not lower the quality of the returned matches.	0.85
contract	If multiple contracts are present on an account, you will have to specify a contract ID.	User's current contract if it's the only one.

Identifiers

The fields you can submit for matching are:

Field	Description	Example
reference_id	Optional field used to reference ID's from your system	1cd345b729, User 12567
`person_id`	The unique identifier for the person.	123456789000
`first_name`	The first name of the person.	John, Mary Ann, ...
`last_name`	The last name of the person.	Smith
`street`	The location address of the person.	123 N Main St
`mailing_street`	The mailing address of the person or family.	PO Box 123
`suite`	The unit or apartment number of the person.	A
`city`	The city name for the person.	Seattle
`state`	The state of the person.	WA
`postal_code`	The postal code for the person's address.	98134
`phone`	Telephone numbers associated with the family.	(206) 555-1212, 2065551212, ...
`email`	The email address of the person or family.	someone@example.com
`email_md5`	MD5 encrypted hash of the email address.	16d113840f999444259f73bac9ab8b10
`email_sha256`	SHA-256 encrypted hash of the email address.	72497f475e4f76d0b28f57c73a084ece576...

See the rule descriptions for which fields are required for each rule to match.

reference_id is not used for matching, but is an optional field that can be used to reference requests using an ID from your own system. It will be returned with the results of batch requests.

Rules

The data provided is matched using a series of rules, sequentially, with the rules ordered from high confidence to medium-high confidence. When a match according to the rule is found, that match is returned and the other rules are skipped. Each rule is a combination of one or more matching identifiers. For example, in order for the "Name + Address" rule to be satisfied, the input must match both the name and address.

Rule	Description
person_id	Match by `person_id`. Use this by itself if you already have a `person_id` and would like data appended.
family_id	Match by `family_id`. Will be used if you have a `family_id` in your inputs. In most cases the Head of Family will be returned.
address + name + phone	Match by address, name and phone.
address + name	Match by address and name.
name + phone	Match by name and phone number. Cell phone numbers will also be matched.
address + name + email + phone	Match by address, name, phone and email. Any one of `email`, `email_md5`, or `email_sha256` can be provided.
address + name + email	Match by addres, name and email.
address + email + phone	Match by address, email and phone.
name + email + phone	Match by name, email and phone.
address + email	Match by address and email.
name + email	Match by name and email.
address + name (last name only)	Match by address and last name. First name will not match, therefore this is a lower ranked rule.
email	Match by email. Only exact email matches are returned.
phone	Match by phone.
address	Match by address. This is inherently the lowest confidence rule in the list.

Score

Match scores are provided to make it easier to compare the similarity of the input to the matched record. Records are scored 0-1. No matches with scores below 0.85 are returned by v2.

Match score is relative to the rule that was used to pick the winning match. For example, if the resulting match used address + email rule and scored 1, that means that address and email matched exactly. It does not imply that other inputs, for example name or phone, match the returned output.

API v2 returns only high confidence matches. To select only the absolute best matches, use the minimum_match_score parameter.

{
  "minimum_match_score": 0.96
}

Required Rule Groups

Use the required_rule_groups parameter to specify groups of rules. Only results that match one or more of the groups are returned.

{
  "required_rule_groups": [
    ["address", "name"],
    ["address", "phone"]
  ]
}

In this example, only the following rules will be evaluated:

address + name + phone
address + name
address + name + email + phone
address + name + email
address + email + phone
address + name (last name only)

Note that any rule that does not include address + name or address + phone is skipped:

name + phone
name + email + phone
address + email
name + email
email
phone
address

Filter

The filter parameter reduces results to records matching a specified criteria, using the Filter DSL.

Fields

By default, all fields in the Data Dictionary are included in the output. Use the fields parameter to reduce the number of elements returned:

{
  ...
  "fields": ["city", "date_of_birth", "street", "city", "zip", "first_name", "last_name"]
}

Some contact information, including email addresses, will be used for matching, but will not be included with the matched record. Some data may be suppressed for certain records and will not be returned.

Include Labels

The fields returned within records frequently contain encoded values that reference lookup data. To retrieve the labels for lookups, add the include_labels option:

{
  ...
  "include_labels": true
}

Read the Lookups API documentation for more information.

Limit

By default, one match is returned. Specify a limit parameter to retrieve multiple matches. When limit is specified, an array of documents is returned.

{
  "identifiers": {
    "first_name": "Joe",
    "last_name": "Smith",
    "street": "123 Main St",
    "city": "Seattle",
    "state": "WA"
  },
  "limit": 2
}

Note that the response has a documents property which is an array:

{
  "documents": [
    {
      "person_id": "002293031973",
      "rules": [
        "name + address"
      ],
      "score": 1.0,
      "attributes": {
        "person_id": "002293031973",
        "family_id": "800047540468",
        "first_name": "Joe",
        "last_name": "Smith",
        "street": "123 Main St",
        ...
      }
    },
    {
      "person_id": "200089221963",
      "rules": [
        "email"
      ],
      "score": 0.96,
      "attributes": {
        "person_id": "200089221963",
        "family_id": "800047540468",
        "first_name": "Jamie",
        "last_name": "Smith",
        "street": "123 Main St",
        ...
      }
    }
  ]
}

Bulk Match

Use bulk requests to process large volumes of match requests in a batch:

Create a batch
Add match requests to existing batch
Retrieve results
Request results with appended data to be delivered

Create a Batch

POST /v2/people/match/batch

Start by creating a batch. The initial request can include up to 1,000 match requests:

curl -XPOST https://api.data-axle.com/v2/people/match/batch \
  -H "X-AUTH-TOKEN: ffddaa789012345678901234" \
  -d '{
    "contract": "a86ef85a2ec",
    "minimum_match_score": 0.8,
    "identifiers": [
      {
        "reference_id": "123",
        "first_name": "John",
        "last_name": "Smith",
        "street": "123 Main St",
        "city": "Seattle",
        "state": "WA",
        "postal_code": "98103"
      },
      {
        "reference_id": "125",
        "email": "johnson-family@example.com"
      }
    ]
  }'

The immediate response includes a batch_id and an array of objects containing a match_id. Each match_id is returned in the order the match request identifiers were submitted:

{
  "batch_id": "8a140451fe3f095f1c205cf185efffec",
  "matches": [
    {
      "match_id": "5cbb3b15c8bee0f706239b45cb763fed"
    },
    {
      "match_id": "5f0b1070c3e4761cabf116bbed2b49c4"
    }
  ]
}

Adding Requests

PUT /v2/people/match/batch/:batch_id

Add match requests to an existing batch_id:

curl -XPUT https://api.data-axle.com/v2/people/match/batch/:batch_id \
  -H "X-AUTH-TOKEN: ffddaa789012345678901234" \
  -d '{
    "identifiers": [...]
  }'

Millions of match requests can be added to a batch. However, only 1,000 match requests are allowed per API request.

Viewing Bulk Match Stats

GET /v2/people/match/batch/:batch_id/report

Use the Match Results API with batch_id and report to view match batch stats.

curl https://api.data-axle.com/v2/people/match/batch/8a140451fe3f095f1c205cf185efffec/report \
  -H "X-AUTH-TOKEN: ffddaa789012345678901234"

The match report shows total counts for processed and matched records as well as a breakdown by rule groups and match rates. Matches that are pending will not appear in the results.

{
    "match_request_count": 501,
    "processed_count": 501,
    "matched_count": 489,
    "rule_counts": [
        {
            "group": "Address + Name + Phone",
            "count": 165
        },
        {
            "group": "Address + Name",
            "count": 219
        },
        {
            "group": "Address + Phone",
            "count": 27
        },
        {
            "group": "Name + Phone",
            "count": 8
        },
        {
            "group": "Address",
            "count": 24
        },
        {
            "group": "Phone",
            "count": 46
        },
        {
            "group": "Non-matched Records",
            "count": 12
        }
    ]
}

Getting Bulk Match Results

GET /v2/people/match/batch/:batch_id

Use the Match Results API with the batch_id to fetch completed results for the batch. Matches that are pending will not appear in the results.

curl https://api.data-axle.com/v2/people/match/batch/8a140451fe3f095f1c205cf185efffec \
  -H "X-AUTH-TOKEN: ffddaa789012345678901234"

Use the "status" object to determine batch progress. The batch has completed when processed is the same as requests.

{
  "next_token": "13835315192676945401741312",
  "status": {
    "requests": 500,
    "processed": 223
  },
  "documents": [
    {
      "match_id": "1a221c5c42ca3458ff715378d951801f4d65976d",
      "reference_id": "7",
      "documents": [
        {
          "person_id": "000027083596",
          "rules": [
            "phone"
          ],
          "score": "1.0",
          "attributes": {
            "first_name": "Laura",
            "last_name": "Smith",
            "street": "777 Windy Rd",
            "city": "Chatham",
            "state": "VA",
            "postal_code": "24531-2222"
          }
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "match_id": "e870b9bf4bea74ecac078055c992d1c498863078",
      "reference_id": "6",
      "documents": [
        {
          "person_id": "000017742859",
          "rules": [
            "phone"
          ],
          "score": "1.0",
          "attributes": {
            "first_name": "Wendy",
            "last_name": "Noble",
            "street": "3737 Eastern Rd",
            "city": "North Chesterfield",
            "state": "VA",
            "postal_code": "23234-9191"
          }
        }
      ]
    },
    ...
  ]
}

Scrolling Through Match Results

GET /v2/people/match/batch/:batch_id?since=next_token

Each request returns up to 1,000 results. To read the next set of results, use the next_token from the previous request and append it to the request URL via the since parameter:

curl https://api.data-axle.com/v2/people/match/batch/8a140451fe3f095f1c205cf185efffec?since=13835315192676945401741312 \
  -H "X-AUTH-TOKEN: ffddaa789012345678901234"

Repeat this process until an empty list of documents is returned. Store the final next_token for use in future requests from the same batch:

{
  "next_token": "13835315198738972450972346",
  "status": {
    "requests": 500,
    "processed": 500
  },
  "documents": []
}

Bulk Match Parameters

Parameter	Description	Default
identifiers	The set of fields that are used to find a match for your record.	Required.
required_rule_groups	Rule groups which determine which rules are used.	All rules are used by default.
filter	Reduce potential results with a filter.	All records visible to the user.
limit	Return multiple results up to the given limit count. Max 400 of results.	1

Bulk Match Result Parameters

Parameter	Description	Default
fields	The fields that are returned with the matched document. This overrides any fields that were created with the batch.	All fields in the Data Dictionary
include_labels	Get the labels for encoded fields.	`false`
since	The token of the earliest result you would like to receive.	None - start at the beginning of the batch.
required_rule_groups	Furhter filter the results by these rule groups.	All results.

Bulk Match Result Response

The match result includes the following fields:

Field	Description
next_token	The next token to use when requesting more results.
status	Processing status of this batch.
status.requests	The count of requests in the batch.
status.processed	The count of requests that have been processed. The batch is complete when this number equals the `requests` count.
documents	The documents that matched your identifiers. If there were no matches, this will be an null or an empty array if a `limit` is provided.
documents[n].match_id	The ID of the match request.
documents[n].rules	The rule that provided the best match to your identifiers.
documents[n].score	The score of the match result.
documents[n].person_id	The ID of the matched record.
documents[n].attributes	The fields specified by `fields` in the request or those specified by your contract.

Special Note on Using `Limit`

Please note that using the limit parameter changes how the matched documents are formatted.

Using the limit parameter when calling POST /v2/people/match/batch determines how the subsequent call to GET /v2/people/match/batch/:batch_id formats its results. For example, for a match batch request without specifying limit, such as:

{
  "identifiers": [
    {
      "first_name": "Rosa",
      "last_name": "Sanchez",
      "phone": "4024012938"
    },
    {
      "last_name": "Walker",
      "street": "81 Union Drive",
      "state": "GA",
      "postal_code": "31707"
    }
  ]
}

a call to GET /v2/people/match/batch/:batch_id will always return a single document (or null) for every set of identifiers. Notice how in the example below, each match_id is associated with a single document ({}):

{
  "status": {
    ...
  },
  "documents": [
    {
      "match_id": "4828afa0c77bb282c872be2695a57d5aded36382",
      "document": {
        "person_id": "900859717460",
        "attributes": {
          ...
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "match_id": "1f820be8c349d99bef7fc7764915033dcf44356b",
      "document": null
    }
  ]
}

If, however, a limit is specified:

{
  "limit": 2,

  "identifiers": [
    {
      "street": "8818 N Colton St",
      "postal_code": "77218"
    },
    ...
  ]
}

then a call to GET /v2/people/match/batch/:batch_id will return a list of documents for every set of identifiers. Notice how in the example below, each match_id is associated with an array ([]) of documents:

{
  "status": {
    ...
  },
  "documents": [
    {
      "match_id": "2b1dc5ae81f7bcbad5b4a9777b14efd1e8abf2fc",
      "reference_id": "001",
      "documents": [
        {
          "person_id": "800402483665",
          "attributes": {
            ...
          }
        },
        {
          "infogroup_id": "783747234",
          "attributes": {
            ...
          }
        },
      ]
    },
    {
      "match_id": "621649dd2ac450033afb774e814bdff3c2b15dbb",
      "documents": [
        {
          "person_id": "800555277933",
          "attributes": {
            ...
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Bulk Match Deliveries

Deliveries of the bulk match results as files may be managed using the Bulk Match Delivery API.

Requesting A Delivery

POST /v2/people/match/batch/:batch_id/deliveries

Request a file delivery for a match batch:

curl -XPOST https://api.data-axle.com/v2/people/match/batch/8a140451fe3f095f1c205cf185efffec/deliveries \
  -H "X-AUTH-TOKEN: ffddaa789012345678901234" \
  -d '{
    "contract": "a86ef85a2ec",
    "name": "Delivery for Imogen",
    "fields": ["person_id", "first_name", "last_name", "street"],
    "file_format": "csv",
    "location": "s3://bucket-somewhere-in-aws-s3/deliveries/..."
  }'

The delivery may be requested at any time. If the match batch has not yet completed processing, the delivery will not be generated until after all the requests in the match batch have been processed.

Delivery Request Parameters

Parameter	Description	Example
name	Name for this delivery. Will show up in the status calls and in the UI.	"customers in NC"
fields	List of fields to be included in the delivery.	["street", "city", "state", "gender"]
file_format	Delivery file format.	"csv"`,`"json"`,`"xml"`,`"pipe"
location	May be used to specify a custom AWS S3 URL for this delivery.	"s3://somewhere-in-the-clouds/path/to/delivery"
contract	Contract to be used to look up permissions, allowed fields, etc (optional).	"abcab34134"

Listing Deliveries for Match Batch

GET /v2/people/match/batch/:batch_id/deliveries

Use this API to list all the deliveries that have been built for the given match batch:

curl https://api.data-axle.com/v2/people/match/batch/8a140451fe3f095f1c205cf185efffec/deliveries \
  -H "X-AUTH-TOKEN: ffddaa789012345678901234"

{
  "deliveries": [
    {
      "id": "5df8267b2ce8d9b5",
      "name": "customers in NC",
      "status": "success",
      "type": "match",
      "url": "https://axle-deliveries.s3.amazonaws.com/.../deliveries/5df8267b2ce8d9b5",
      "format": "csv",
      "delivery_time": "2023-10-13T15:55:21Z"
    },
    {
      "id": "5ee78fc3fcf77ec4",
      "name": "triggered from api on 13 Oct 10:26",
      "status": "success",
      "type": "match",
      "url": "https://axle-deliveries.s3.amazonaws.com/.../deliveries/5ee78fc3fcf77ec4",
      "format": "csv",
      "delivery_time": "2023-10-13T15:55:20Z"
    }
  ]
}

Delivery Details

GET /v2/people/deliveries/:delivery_id

Use this API to get the details of the given delivery. Note, the results will include signed links to download the files. All signed links expire after 5 minutes. Avoid storing the signed links in your database.

curl https://api.data-axle.com/v2/people/deliveries/5412f077b97ed005 \
  -H "X-AUTH-TOKEN: ffddaa789012345678901234"

{
  "id": "5412f077b97ed005",
  "name": "triggered from api on 13 Oct 10:46",
  "status": "success",
  "type": "match",
  "url": "https://places.test/api/v1/deliveries/5412f077b97ed005",
  "files": [
    {
      "filename": "triggered_from_api_on_13_Oct_10_46-00000_people.csv.gz",
      "md5": "f5c890ae9eb215281ffee72c29f03303",
      "model": "person",
      "records": 15,
      "size": 1272,
      "url": "https://axle-tmp.s3.amazonaws.com/organizati..."
    }
  ],
  "sample": [
    {
      "filename": "sample_people.csv.gz",
      "md5": "6361898c6b085ef353cfa17f0d711c75",
      "model": "person",
      "records": 10,
      "size": 907,
      "url": "https://axle-tmp.s3.amazonaws.com/organizati..."
    }
  ],
  "format": "csv",
  "delivery_time": "2023-10-13T15:55:21Z"
}

The delivery status API response includes the following fields:

Field	Description
id	Delivery ID.
name	Name assigned to this delivery.
status	Status of this delivery's processing, usually `"success"`.
type	All the match batch deliveries will have this set to `"match"`.
url	UI url showing the details of this deivery.
format	File format.
delivery_time	Time this delivery was built.
files	List of files in this delivery.
files[n].filename	File name (without path).
files[n].md5	MD5 checksum for this file.
files[n].model	Model name. Used to denote nested objects in separate files.
files[n].records	Number of records in the file.
files[n].size	File size.
files[n].url	Signed URL that may be used to retrieve the file.
sample	Sample file for this delivery. Like `"files"`, it is a list with the same detail attributes.