Creating & Managing Individuals
The individual is the core object in the FrankieOne platform, representing a single customer. This guide covers the complete lifecycle of creating and managing these entities via the API.
Video Guide
1. Creating an Individual
To begin any verification, you must first create an individual entity. This is done by sending a POST request with the customer’s details to the /v2/individuals endpoint. A successful request will return a 201 Created status and the full individual object, including a unique entityId.
Warning: Capture the entityId
The entityId returned in the response is critical for all subsequent operations, such as updating the entity or executing a workflow.
Example: Creating a Standard Individual
This example shows a standard request to create an individual with their name, date of birth, address, and a passport document.
Anatomy of the individual Object
The individual object is a rich structure that holds all the information about your customer. Below is a breakdown of its key components.
Name
The primary legal name of the individual. You can also provide an array of alternateNames for other names the individual may be known by (e.g., maiden name).
The primary name object is required, and must contain at least a familyName. For entries in alternateNames, the familyName is also the only mandatory field.
Date of Birth
The individual’s date of birth. The year, month, and day should be provided.
The normalized field in the response is read-only. The type field is optional and defaults to GREGORIAN.
Addresses & Place of Birth
An array of address objects. The country field (ISO 3166-1 alpha-3) is mandatory for each address. Use status: 'PREVIOUS' for past addresses. The placeOfBirth object uses the same address structure.
While the addresses field is optional, if you include it, the country field within each address object is mandatory.
- Use the
statusfield to indicate if the address isCURRENTorPREVIOUS. - Use
typeto specify the address type, such asRESIDENTIALorBUSINESS. - Both
CURRENTandPREVIOUSaddresses can be provided to give a complete picture of the individual’s residential history.
Phone Numbers & Email Addresses
Arrays of phoneNumbers and emailAddresses objects to store contact information.
Both emailAddresses and phoneNumbers are optional. If included, the type field is required for each entry. Use isPreferred: true to indicate the primary contact method.
Documents
An object containing arrays of documents, categorized by their class (e.g., IDENTITY, SUPPORTING). The type and country are required for each document.
Each document can have multiple attachments. The data field, containing the base64 encoded file, is mandatory for each attachment.
For a full list of document types, refer to the Country Specific Documents.
Consents
An array of consent objects. This is critical for compliance. You must provide the consent types relevant to the checks you will perform (e.g., GENERAL, DOCS).
Consult with your AML team and the FrankieOne team to determine the appropriate consent flags for your use case.
For a full list of consent types, refer to the Consent Types.
External References
The 1externalReferences1 array is used to store your own internal identifiers against the FrankieOne 1entityId1. This is crucial for linking a user in your system to their corresponding profile in FrankieOne.
Each object in the array requires a name and a value.
Custom Attributes
A flexible key-value object for storing any additional data relevant to your business that doesn’t fit into the other standard fields.
Other Fields
gender: The individual’s gender (e.g.,MALE,FEMALE,NON_BINARY).nationality: The individual’s nationality as an ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code.
2. Retrieving an Individual
To fetch the current state of an individual entity, use a GET request with their unique entityId.
The response will contain the full individual object, identical in structure to the response from the creation request.
3. Updating an Individual
To modify an existing individual, use a PATCH request. This method allows for partial updates, meaning you only need to send the fields you wish to change.
To update a specific element within an array (like an address or document), you must include its unique ID (e.g., addressId, documentId) in the object you send.
Example: Updating an Address
This example updates an existing address by providing its addressId and the new field values.
4. Deleting an Individual & Its Elements
You can delete an entire entity or just specific pieces of information associated with it.
Deletion is Permanent
Deleting an entity or its elements is an irreversible action. This data cannot be recovered. Only perform deletions when you are certain the data is no longer required for any operational, audit, or compliance purpose.
Deleting an Entire Individual
To permanently remove an individual and all their associated data, use the DELETE endpoint with their entityId.
Deleting Specific Elements
To remove a specific piece of information without deleting the whole entity, use the corresponding endpoint from the table below. You will need the unique ID for the element you wish to delete.
