Create Candidate Resource

Creating a candidate is the first step to placing a background check order.
To create a candidate you will be sending a [POST HTTP call to the /candidate resource] (https://accurate.readme.io/reference#postcandidate-1). The amount of information you provide when creating a candidate will vary depending on:

• Your desired order workflow
• The products in your packages
• The amount of information you collect from your candidates in your app

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All calls require HTTP Basic Authentication

Let’s start by creating a candidate with the minimum amount of required information.

1. Assemble the payload with the candidate’s first name, last name, and email address.

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POST calls can have content-type of application/x-www-form-urlencoded or application/json

2. Send the payload along with your basic authentication credentials like this:

cURL

curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.accuratebackground.com/v3/candidate \
  --header 'Accept: application/json' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{"firstName":"Elmer","lastName":"Fudd","email":"[email protected]"}'

Ruby

require 'uri'
require 'net/http'
require 'openssl'

url = URI("https://api.accuratebackground.com/v3/candidate")

http = Net::HTTP.new(url.host, url.port)
http.use_ssl = true

request = Net::HTTP::Post.new(url)
request["Accept"] = 'application/json'
request["Content-Type"] = 'application/json'
request.body = "{\"firstName\":\"Elmer\",\"lastName\":\"Fudd\",\"email\":\"[email protected]\"}"

response = http.request(request)
puts response.read_body

JavaScript

const options = {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {Accept: 'application/json', 'Content-Type': 'application/json'},
  body: '{"firstName":"Elmer","lastName":"Fudd","email":"[email protected]"}'
};

fetch('https://api.accuratebackground.com/v3/candidate', options)
  .then(response => console.log(response))
  .catch(err => console.error(err));

Python

import requests

url = "https://api.accuratebackground.com/v3/candidate"

payload = {
    "firstName": "Elmer",
    "lastName": "Fudd",
    "email": "[email protected]"
}
headers = {
    "Accept": "application/json",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}

response = requests.request("POST", url, json=payload, headers=headers)

print(response.text)

C#

var client = new RestClient("https://api.accuratebackground.com/v3/candidate");
var request = new RestRequest(Method.POST);
request.AddHeader("Accept", "application/json");
request.AddHeader("Content-Type", "application/json");
request.AddParameter("application/json", "{\"firstName\":\"Elmer\",\"lastName\":\"Fudd\",\"email\":\"[email protected]\"}", ParameterType.RequestBody);
IRestResponse response = client.Execute(request);

PHP

<?php

$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, [
  CURLOPT_URL => "https://api.accuratebackground.com/v3/candidate",
  CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
  CURLOPT_ENCODING => "",
  CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10,
  CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 30,
  CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1,
  CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => "POST",
  CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => "{\"firstName\":\"Elmer\",\"lastName\":\"Fudd\",\"email\":\"[email protected]\"}",
  CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
    "Accept: application/json",
    "Content-Type: application/json"
  ],
]);

$response = curl_exec($curl);
$err = curl_error($curl);

curl_close($curl);

if ($err) {
  echo "cURL Error #:" . $err;
} else {
  echo $response;
}

Java

OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient();

MediaType mediaType = MediaType.parse("application/json");
RequestBody body = RequestBody.create(mediaType, "{\"firstName\":\"Elmer\",\"lastName\":\"Fudd\",\"email\":\"[email protected]\"}");
Request request = new Request.Builder()
  .url("https://api.accuratebackground.com/v3/candidate")
  .post(body)
  .addHeader("Accept", "application/json")
  .addHeader("Content-Type", "application/json")
  .build();

Response response = client.newCall(request).execute();

3. Once a candidate resource is created successfully your response will include an ID for the candidate resource.

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Store the candidate ID so you can reference it when placing an order.

4. You can append the candidate resource by using a [PUT HTTP call] (https://accurate.readme.io/reference#putcandidate-1). You must include the candidate ID at the end of the URL.

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PUT calls only support a content-type of application/x-www-form-urlencoded.

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Try it yourself!