CleanName - NameCleansing • Data8 Web Services API Documentation

CleanName

Cleanse a given name and identify gender.

Description

Tidy the supplied name, standardising casing and punctuation. The gender is derived from the name where possible, and standard formal and informal salutations are generated.

Endpoint URLs

To connect to this service you'll need to use one of these endpoints:

Protocol	URL
JSON	JSON https://webservices.data-8.co.uk/NameCleansing/CleanName.json
OPEN API	OPEN API https://webservices.data-8.co.uk/swagger/NameCleansing/swagger.json
SOAP	SOAP https://webservices.data-8.co.uk/namecleansing.asmx

Parameters

The following parameters can be supplied to this method:

Name	Description
username	username See the available authentication methods. If you are using username & password authentication, specify the username to authenticate as. If you are using API Key authentication and you are not using the JSON, Javascript or ADO APIs, use your API Key here with the prefix `apikey-`, e.g. `apikey-ABCD-1234-EFGH-5678`
password	password If you are using username & password authentication, specify the password to use for authentication. Otherwise leave this blank.
name	name The name to clean, supplied in four separate fields: `Title` `Forename` `MiddleName` `Surname` If you have a name in one field, use the `ParseName` method instead.
options	options An array of options that control further details of how this method operates. See the `Advanced Options` section below, for more information.

Advanced Options

The following options can be specified as part of the option parameter. Each option is specified as a key/value pair. The list of available names is shown below, along with a description of the allowable values for that name.

Name	Description
Common Options
ApplicationName	ApplicationName Gives the name of the calling application - used to break down usage by application in the usage reports on the dashboard.

Results

This method returns an object containing the following fields:

Name	Description
Status	Status Indicates whether the method call was successful, or if some error occurred. If the `Success` field is `true`, the other results described below can be used to get the results of the method. If `Success` is `false`, some error occurred in calling the method, such as the authentication failed or the account is out of credits. The details of the error can be obtained from the `ErrorMessage` field, and any other results should be ignored.
Name	Name A tidied version of the supplied `name`
Gender	Gender The gender that has been identified from the name. This can be one of the following values: `Male` - the name is almost always male, e.g. "Mark" `Female` - the name is almost always female, e.g. "Lucy" `Usually_Male` - the name is usually male but can be female, e.g. "Alex" `Usually_Female` - the name is usually female but can be male, e.g. "Carroll" `Unknown` - we do not know the gender of this name, or it is ambiguous
FormalSalutation	FormalSalutation The mode of address that should be used for this person in a formal situation.
InformalSalutation	InformalSalutation The mode of address that should be used for this person in an informal situation.

Credit Usage

Each request to this method consumes 1 NameCleansing credit.

Sample Code

Request Format

{
  "name": {
    "Title": "Mr",
    "Forename": "John",
    "MiddleName": "",
    "Surname": "Smith"
  },
  "options": {}
}

Response Format

{
  "Status": {
    "Success": true,
    "CreditsRemaining": 1000
  },
  "Name": null,
  "Gender": "Unknown",
  "FormalSalutation": null,
  "InformalSalutation": null
}

Depending on your chosen authentication method you will need to modify this request slightly:

API Key

Post the request to
https://webservices.data-8.co.uk/NameCleansing/CleanName.json?key=your-api-key
and do NOT include the username or password properties in the request JSON document.

Parameter	Value
Parameters
Name
name	Title Forename MiddleName Surname
Common Options
ApplicationName	ApplicationName
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