API handling when multiple records match query (e.g., duplicate primary e-mail addresses)

Sean Downing

Many Constituent API calls that query C360 return an error when multiple Convio records match the request. For example, the getUser API call will return Error Code 8 if I send in e-mail=<email_address> and that email_address exists as 'primary e-mail' in two+ Convio records. (Our installation does not enforce unique primary e-mail addresses, yours might.)

As a result, my offline system can't do anything but report "Sorry, there's an error, there are indeed matches for this e-mail address, but I can't actually return any data at all, including how many matches there were, or the Convio IDs of the records..."

Does anyone know a way for APIs to actually gain useful information in these multiple-record cases, such as a list of the Convio IDs, Member IDs or the like? (For example I wouldn't mind it if the first API returns Error Code 8 and then I invoke a second API to get more information, if something like that would work.)

Steve Mook

At present the SRConsAPI:getUser method will return only a single record. As you note, it will throw an error if more than one record matches the primary_email search key.

The Web Services API will return the list of all users with a matching primary email in response to the followig Query operation:

select * from Constituent where primaryEmail='test@convio.com'

Here is an example request:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8' ?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap='http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/'>
  <soap:Header>
    <Session xmlns='urn:soap.convio.com'>
      <SessionId>e5b1...2010-01-25T18:42:38.631Z</SessionId>
    </Session>
  </soap:Header>
  <soap:Body>
    <Query xmlns='urn:soap.convio.com'>
      <QueryString>select * from Constituent where primaryEmail='test@convio.com'</QueryString>
      <Page>1</Page>
      <PageSize>100</PageSize>
    </Query>
  </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

Response:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
   <soap:Body>
      <QueryResponse xmlns="urn:soap.convio.com" xmlns:ens="urnbject.soap.convio.com" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
         <Record xsi:type="ens:Constituent">
            <ens:ConsId>1001001</ens:ConsId>
            <ens:ConsName>
              <ens:FirstName>John</ens:FirstName>
              <ens:LastName>Doe</ens:LastName>
            </ens:ConsName>
            <ens:UserName>johndoe</ens:UserName>
            <ens:MemberId xsi:nil="true" />
            <ens:CreationDate>2010-01-25T16:55:08Z</ens:CreationDate>
            <ens:ModifyDate>2010-01-25T16:55:08Z</ens:ModifyDate>
            <ensrimaryEmail>test@convio.com</ensrimaryEmail>
            <ens:HomeAddress>
              <enstreet1 xsi:nil="true" />
              <enstreet2 xsi:nil="true" />
              <ens:City xsi:nil="true" />
              <enstate xsi:nil="true" />
              <ens:Zip xsi:nil="true" />
            </ens:HomeAddress>
         </Record>
         <Record xsi:type="ens:Constituent">
            <ens:ConsId>1001002</ens:ConsId>
            <ens:ConsName>
              <ens:FirstName>Jane</ens:FirstName>
              <ens:LastName>Doe</ens:LastName>
            </ens:ConsName>
            <ens:UserName>janedoe</ens:UserName>
            <ens:MemberId xsi:nil="true" />
            <ens:CreationDate>2010-01-25T16:56:28Z</ens:CreationDate>
            <ens:ModifyDate>2010-01-25T16:56:28Z</ens:ModifyDate>
            <ensrimaryEmail>test@convio.com</ensrimaryEmail>
            <ens:HomeAddress>
              <enstreet1 xsi:nil="true" />
              <enstreet2 xsi:nil="true" />
              <ens:City xsi:nil="true" />
              <enstate xsi:nil="true" />
              <ens:Zip xsi:nil="true" />
            </ens:HomeAddress>
         </Record>
      </QueryResponse>
   </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

Colin McClure

All of my apps just kick an email to my admin email account when they encounter duplicates. I just include whatever info I was capturing from the user, and go manually dedupe it in the backend. There's no automated way to do it.