Search Pointer

Search Pointer

Each person returned in an API response will have a special attribute called “search pointer.” This string can be used for two purposes:

• If the person was a possible person, run a follow-up search, which will pull up more data about this person.
• If the person was a match, use the search pointer to cache a reference to this person. Searching by the search pointer will almost always return the same person again.

Because search pointers can be very long, searches made with them should be made via POST with the search pointer included in the request body. Requests using GET or with POST and the search pointer embedded directly in the URL are likely to return HTTP 414 Request-URI too long errors. We suggest using our Postman collection to test out Search Pointers with HTTP POST.

Example

Replace SEARCH_POINTER_STRING with a valid search pointer.

cURL

curl https://api.pipl.com/search/ \
 -d search_pointer='SEARCH_POINTER_STRING' \
 -d key=YOURKEY

Python

from piplapis.search import SearchAPIRequest

request = SearchAPIRequest(search_pointer='SEARCH_POINTER_STRING', api_key="YOURKEY")
response = request.send()

Ruby

require 'pipl'

response = Pipl::client.search search_pointer: 'SEARCH_POINTER_STRING', api_key: 'YOURKEY'

Java

import com.pipl.api.search.SearchAPIRequest;
import com.pipl.api.search.SearchAPIResponse;
import com.pipl.api.search.SearchConfiguration;

SearchAPIConfiguration configuration = new SearchConfiguration();
configuration.apiKey = 'YOURKEY'

SearchAPIRequest request = new SearchAPIRequest("SEARCH_POINTER_STRING", configuration);
SearchAPIResponse response = request.send()

PHP

<?php

require_once './piplapis/search.php';

$configuration = new PiplApi_SearchRequestConfiguration();
$configuration->api_key = 'YOURKEY';

$request = new PiplApi_SearchAPIRequest(array('search_pointer' => 'SEARCH_POINTER_STRING'), $configuration);
$response = $request->send();

C#

using Pipl.APIs.Search;

SearchConfiguration searchConfiguration = new SearchConfiguration(apiKey: "YOURKEY");
var request = new SearchAPIRequest(searchPointer: "SEARCH_POINTER_STRING", requestConfiguration: searchConfiguration);
var response = request.SendAsync().Result;

HTTP

https://api.pipl.com/search/?search_pointer=SEARCH_POINTER_STRING&key=YOURKEY