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

Sean Downing · January 2010

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 · January 2010

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 · February 2010

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.

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

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