Quickstart Guide
Personator November 2022 Advisory
Beginning November 15, 2022, as Melissa continues to make further improvements to the Personator Web Service, we are introducing the addition of 2 new output fields to the API:
Melissa Identity Key
The Melissa Identity Key (MIK) is a unique and persistent identifier for all individuals across the US, allowing for better indexing of your records. Due to the persistence of MIK numbers, individuals who’s changed their addresses due to moves, will continue to have the same MIK number. The same applies for when they have a change in their demographics such as marital status, income, length of residence, etc. MIK numbers can also be used as a fast and easy way to identify duplicate individuals in your database by searching for repeated instances of the MIK key.
Date Last Confirmed
Personator continuously receives updates on it’s reference data in order to bring the latest information about individuals. By using the Date Last confirmed field, users can determine how new or how old a record is based on how recent we received new information about the individual. Leverage this information to make better decisions about your data.
The addition of new fields in the output is considered a backwards compatible change.
Furthermore, these new columns do not output by default. They will need to be requested for specifically using the columns option in the request. Personator Consumer:Request Columns - Melissa Wiki
However, while the update is considered seamless, we still recommend users to test the new service endpoint to verify compatibility. Please refer to the section “Can I test this New Upcoming Version”.
Users may specify what additional columns to get back from the service using the columns input. Personator Consumer:Request Columns - Melissa Wiki.
NOTE: These new columns are only accessible in REST, JSON and XML (not SOAP).
The syntax for requesting these new columns are as follows:
REST
&cols=DateLastConfirmed,MelissaIdentityKey
POST XML
DateLastConfirmed,MelissaIdentityKey POST JSON
"Columns":"DateLastConfirmed,MelissaIdentityKey",
Yes. Users may test the new version by using the following endpoint:
rcpersonator.melissadata.net*Please note that this is NOT a production endpoint and should only be used for testing.
November 14-16, 2022
Web Service Rollouts take 2-3 days to complete on all instances across the world.