Users

In most cases, a user is a person who is known to BillingCenter and who is listed in the BillingCenter database (such as policy underwriters, claims adjusters, and billing clerks). Within the context of Cloud API authentication, this is also referred to as an internal user.

In some cases, a user can represent a service. This occurs for caller applications which are services which are mapped to user accounts for the purpose of managing access.

Do not confuse internal users with external users. External users are users known to BillingCenter but who are not listed in the BillingCenter database (such as account holders, policy holders, and service vendors).

For information on working with services and external users, see the Cloud API Developer Guide.

Note: Be aware that Cloud API enforces application constraints specified in internal code, but it does not enforce constraint specified in the user interface. This is because internal code constraints cannot be modified or removed, but user interface constraints can. As a result of this, there may be actions you can execute through Cloud API that you cannot execute through the base configuration user interface.

For example, there is no internal code that requires a user to have a phone number. Therefore, you can create and modify a user through Cloud API without ever specifying a primary phone number. However, the base configuration user interface does require you to specify a phone number. Therefore, any user that you modify through the base configuration user interface must have a phone number, even when that user was created through Cloud API without a phone number.

If there is a desire to have the constraints of the two environments match, insurers can add constraints to Cloud API and/or remove them from the user interface.

Querying for user information

To retrieve information about a user, you can use the following endpoints:

  • GET /admin/v1/users
  • GET /admin/v1/users/{userId}

For example, the following is the snippet of the response payload when retrieving the information for user bc:SwJl9CwZJ3GJj_mvArObi (Aaron Applegate).

Command

GET /admin/v1/users/bc:SwJl9CwZJ3GJj_mvArObi

Response

{
    "data": {
        "attributes": {
            "active": true,
            "cellPhone": {
                "countryCode": {
                    "code": "US",
                    "name": "United States (1)"
                },
                "displayName": "650-333-3333",
                "number": "6503333333"
            },
            "displayName": "Aaron Applegate",
            "externalUser": false,
            "firstName": "Aaron",
            "id": "bc:SwJl9CwZJ3GJj_mvArObi",
            "lastName": "Applegate",
            "roles": [
                {
                    "displayName": "All Permissions (Deprecated)",
                    "id": "superuser",
                    "type": "Role"
                }
            ],
            "username": "aapplegate",
            "vacationStatus": {
                "code": "atwork",
                "name": "At work"
            },
            "workPhone": {
                "displayName": "213-555-8164",
                "number": "2135558164"
            }
        }
    }
}

Creating users

To create a user, use the following endpoint:

  • POST /admin/v1/users
Note: When a user is created through Cloud API, the user's password is set to a value that cannot be used for authentication. (The password is set to a value that is not a valid Base64 string, but the authentication framework can authenticate passwords only when they are valid Base64 strings.) In order for the new user to authenticate, the password must first be changed to a valid Base64 string through some other method, such as through the user interface.

Create a minimal user

The minimum creation criteria for a user is the username. For example, the following request creates a user with the user name "amartin".

{
  "data": {
    "attributes": {
      "username": "amartin"
    }
  }
}

The following is the response payload.

POST /admin/v1/users

{
    "data": {
        "attributes": {
            "active": true,
            "displayName": "",
            "externalUser": false,
            "id": "bc:S21jxg7V0kWX7Lk1o4Mu7",
            "username": "amartin",
            "vacationStatus": {
                "code": "atwork",
                "name": "At work"
            }
        },
        "checksum": "89341e74aa80e5732927941330885c06",
        "links": {
            "self": {
                "href": "/admin/v1/users/bc:S21jxg7V0kWX7Lk1o4Mu7",
                "methods": [
                    "get",
                    "patch"
                ]
            }
        }
    }
}

Create a typical user

You can specify additional information about a user as specified in the User schema. For example, the following payload creates a user with the following attributes:

  • First name: Adriana
  • Last name: Diaz
  • User name: adiaz
  • Employee number: ACME-02027
  • General authority limit profile (with id default_data:2)
  • Roles: billing clerical (billing_clerical) and billing manager (billing_manager)
POST /admin/v1/users

{
  "data": {
    "attributes": {
        "firstName": "Adriana",
        "lastName": "Diaz",
        "username": "adiaz",
        "employeeNumber": "ACME-02027",
        "authorityLimitProfile": {
            "id": "default_data:2"
        },
        "roles" : [
            {
                "id": "billing_clerical"
            },
            {
                "id": "billing_manager"
            }

        ]
    }
  }
}

When you create a user, you can also specify the user's roles.

  • For more information on working with user roles, see User roles.

Assigning a user to a group

You cannot assign a user to a group using the /admin/v1/users endpoint. You must use the /admin/v1/groups/{groupId}/users endpoint. For more information, see Assigning users to groups.

Updating users

Use the following endpoint to modify an existing user:

  • PATCH /admin/v1/users/{userId}

For example, the following request updates the first name of user xc:2156

PATCH /admin/v1/users/xc:2156

{
  "data": {
    "attributes": {
      "firstName": "Alex"
    }
  }
}

Deleting users

Use the following endpoint to delete an existing user:

  • DELETE /admin/v1/users/{userId}
For example, the following request deletes user xc:2156:
DELETE /admin/v1/users/xc:2156

<no request body>