Syntax for named relationships

In some cases, the relationship between the root resource and an included resource is more than just a parent/child relationship. It is a "named relationship" in which the relationship has a special designation or label.

As of this release, there are no examples of named relationships in BillingCenter. PolicyCenter has examples of this. For example, every account in PolicyCenter has an "account holder". This is an AccountContact who is the legal holder of the account. An account can have any number of child AccountContacts, but only one of those AccountContacts can be labeled as the account holder.

When using request inclusion for named relationships, the JSON has the following structure. The lines that are not required for simple parent/child relationships but are required for named relationships appear in bold:

{
  "data" : {
    "attributes": {
      "<relationshipField>": "<arbitraryRefId>"
      ...
    }
  },
  "included": {
    "<resourceType>": [
      {
        "attributes": {
          ...
        },
        "refid": "<arbitraryRefId>",
        "method": "post",
        "uri": "/../this/..."
      }
    ]
  }
}

The data section

The data section includes information about the root resource, such as its attributes. (For PATCHes, the data section could also include a checksum value for the root resource.)

The data section also includes the field that names the relationship with the child resource. This field is set to some reference ID. The value of this reference ID is arbitrary. It can be any value, as long as the value also appears with the child resource in the included section.

The included section

The included section consists of one or more subsections of included resources. Each subsection starts with the resource type name. Then, one or more resources of that type can be specified. For each resource, you must specify:

  • The resource's attributes
  • The method and uri to create or modify the resource.

The refid field

Each included resource must include a refid field. This field must be set to the same arbitrary reference ID used in the data section. The system APIs use refids to identify which child resource in the included section has the named relationship with the root resource.

The method and uri fields

Request inclusion involves a single call to a single endpoint, but the system APIs internally use multiple endpoints to execute the call. For every included resource, you must specify the operation and uri relevant to that resource.

For example, suppose you are working with PolicyCenter and you are writing a POST /accounts call to create an account and an AccountContact who is the "accountHolder". The AccountContact is the included resource. The included section would contain code similar to this:

"included": {
  "AccountContact": [
    {
      "attributes": {
        ...
      },
      "refid": "...",
      "method": "post",
      "uri": "/account/v1/accounts/this/contacts"
    }
  ]
}

This specifies that in order to create the AccountContact, use the POST /account/v1/{accountId}/contacts endpoint.

The uri must start with the API name, such as "/account/v1".

If the included resource is being POSTed, the uri must specify the ID of the root resource. When the root resource and the included resources are being created at the same time, the root resource does not yet have an ID. Therefore, the keyword this is used in the uri to represent the root resource's ID. If the root resource is being PATCHed, the URI field would not use this. For more information, see PATCHes in request inclusion.

Example of request inclusion for named relationships

As of this release, there are no examples of named relationships in BillingCenter. The following payload is a PolicyCenter example of creating an account and an AccountContact for the account whose relationship is "accountHolder". (Accounts also require a primary location, so the payload also creates an AccountLocation whose relationship is "primaryLocation".)

POST http://localhost:8180/pc/rest/account/v1/accounts

{
  "data": {
    "attributes": {
      "accountHolder": {
        "refid": "newperson"
      },
      "organizationType": {
        "code": "individual"
      },
      "preferredCoverageCurrency": {
        "code": "USD"
      },
      "preferredSettlementCurrency": {
        "code": "USD"
      },
      "primaryLocation": {
        "refid": "newloc"
      },
      "producerCodes": [
        {
          "id": "pc:6"
        }
      ]
    }
  },
  "included": {
    "AccountContact": [
      {
        "attributes": {
          "contactSubtype": "Person",
          "firstName": "Bill",
          "lastName": "Preston",
          "primaryAddress": {
            "addressLine1": "2850 S Delaware St #400",
            "city": "San Mateo",
            "postalCode": "94403",
            "state": {
              "code": "CA"
            }
          }
        },
        "method": "post",
        "refid": "newperson",
        "uri": "/account/v1/accounts/this/contacts"
      }
    ],
    "AccountLocation": [
      {
        "attributes": {
          "locationCode": "0001",
          "locationName": "Location 0001",
          "nonSpecific": true,
          "postalCode": "94403",
          "state": {
            "code": "CA"
          }
        },
        "method": "post",
        "refid": "newloc",
        "uri": "/account/v1/accounts/this/locations"
      }
    ]
  }
}