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API Technical Specs

Learn how to configure and leverage our services to achieve your toughest recruiting needs.
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Getting Started

This documentation is for Version 10 of the Sovren REST API, released on December 15, 2020. Both V9 and V10 use the same parsing and matching engines under-the-hood, but V10 is more streamlined and has a vastly simpler output.

Please visit this link for an in-depth comparison.

First Steps

  1. This documentation is for technical details about the API only. Before starting your integration, you should read the Product Documentation for the products you plan to integrate with. We will show you the most important information on how to create a quick and successful integration.
  2. Then, read the Acceptable Use Policy. There are many items in the Acceptable Use Policy that will require your programming expertise in order to be in compliance.Sovren's products and services contain open source software developed by third parties. A list of this software, including licensing and links to source code, can be found in our Open Source Software Disclosure.
  3. If programming in Java or C#, install the Sovren SDK using the links in the section below. Otherwise, review the code samples and endpoint documentation throughout the rest of this page.

Sovren SDK

The easiest and fastest way to get started programming your integration to the Version 10 API is by using our SDKs. We currently offer SDKs in C# and Java, with others to follow. This is, by far, the best way to use our software. You can parse a document with as little as 3 lines of code!

Each GitHub link below has installation instructions, documentation, and many code examples to help get you started. The SDKs can also be found directly using your preferred package manager.

Code Samples

Here we have a few code samples to get you up and running quickly:

  • c#
  • javascript
  • python
  • ruby
  • java
  • php
  • node
//this code uses the official SDK (see https://github.com/sovren/sovren-dotnet)
SovrenClient client = new SovrenClient("12345678", "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz", DataCenter.US);
 
//A Document is an unparsed File (PDF, Word Doc, etc)
Document doc = new Document("resume.docx");
 
//when you create a ParseRequest, you can specify many configuration settings
//in the ParseOptions. See https://sovren.com/technical-specs/latest/rest-api/resume-parser/api/
ParseRequest request = new ParseRequest(doc, new ParseOptions());
 
try
{
    ParseResumeResponse response = await client.ParseResume(request);
    //if we get here, it was 200-OK and all operations succeeded
 
    //now we can use the response from Sovren to ouput some of the data from the resume
    Console.WriteLine("Name: " + response.EasyAccess().GetCandidateName()?.FormattedName);
    Console.WriteLine("Email: " + response.EasyAccess().GetEmailAddresses()?.FirstOrDefault());
    Console.WriteLine("Phone: " + response.EasyAccess().GetPhoneNumbers()?.FirstOrDefault());
}
catch (SovrenException e)
{
    //this was an outright failure, always try/catch for SovrenExceptions when using the SovrenClient
    Console.WriteLine($"Error: {e.SovrenErrorCode}, Message: {e.Message}");
}
All above code samples are provided without warranty and are not necessarily indicative of best practices.

Standard Transaction Cost

EndpointBase Cost**
POST /v10/parser/*1 credit
POST /v10/index/{indexid}/*1 credit per document
POST /v10/scorer/bimetric1 credit + ((number of target documents - 1) * 0.1)
POST /v10/matcher/*Free when initiated by a human end-user for a single transaction. For more details see the Acceptable Use Policy.
POST /v10/searcherFree when initiated by a human end-user for a single transaction. For more details see the Acceptable Use Policy.
POST /v10/geocoder/*1 credit if using the default options
0.1 credits if you specify your own provider key
POST /v10/geocodeAndIndex/*2 credit if using the default options
1.1 credits if you specify you own provider key
1 credit if you specify the latitude/longitude
GET /v10/index/{indexId}/count1 credit
GET /v10/index10 credits
GET /v10/account1 credit. You should only call this endpoint if you are batch parsing, and you should only call it in compliance with our Acceptable Use Policy.
POST /v10/formatter/resume0.5 credits
Data Enrichment APIs
POST /v10/skills/extract0.1 credits + (0.04 per 1k characters)
POST /v10/*/normalize0.1 credits * number of input items
POST /v10/*/autocomplete0.1 credits
POST /v10/*/lookup0.1 credits
GET /v10/*/taxonomy1 credit
POST /v10/ontology/*10 credits
Customer Portal Only
Download Indexed Documents(100 credits + 1 per 5k documents) for each index selected

**Note: Additional costs may be incurred if any of the following scenarios apply:

  • Any of the add-ons described in the table below are enabled/used for the transaction.
  • Sovren Sourcing is enabled (credit cost is increased 15%).
  • You use a deprecated version of the API as per the Terms of Service.

Add-On Cost Per Transaction

Add-On/FeatureCostApplicable Endpoints
Job Title Normalization0.2 creditsPOST /v10/parser/*
POST /v10/searcher
Skills Normalization0.1 credits, does not apply when using V1 taxonomyPOST /v10/parser/*
Geocoding1 credit with the default options
0.1 credits if you specify your own provider key
POST /v10/parser/*
POST /v10/matcher/*
POST /v10/searcher

While matching and searching, each location included in the FilterCriteria will be charged the specified add-on cost.

Endpoints

Our REST API is also documented using Swagger. Follow the links below for the appropriate data center to access an HTML page where you can make sample requests.
Data Center
UShttps://rest.resumeparsing.com/v10/
EUhttps://eu-rest.resumeparsing.com/v10/
AUhttps://au-rest.resumeparsing.com/v10/

Authentication

Our REST API handles authentication via the Sovren-AccountId and Sovren-ServiceKey headers. These keys were generated during account creation and send to the contacts listed on the account. If authentication fails we return a 401 Unathorized HTTP Status Code.

The most common causes for unauthorized exceptions are:

  • Not including the headers in the request
  • Making requests to the wrong data center. If you have questions about which data center your account is setup for contact support@sovren.com

If you recieve a 403 Forbidden Access exception, please confirm that you are using https. We have deprecated the use of unsecured http connections in this verison.


Request Headers

It is unnecessary to include these headers when using the Sovren SDK. Your AccountId and ServiceKey will be entered when creating a SovrenClient
HeaderData TypeRequiredDescription
Sovren-AccountIdstringYesThe Account ID that is provided to you when establishing your Service Account.
Sovren-ServiceKeystringYesThe Service key that is provided to you for access to your account’s available credits.
Content-TypestringYesIndicates the media type of the incoming request body. The only supported value is application/json.
Sovren-TrackingTagstringNoAn optional value that you can use for tracking API usage in the Customer Portal. Comma-separated values are accepted here, and the max length is 100 characters.

Versioning

We continuously deploy bug fixes and new features to our API. We limit breaking changes to new versions deployed to new urls unless the change is to fix an error in the output. In the top-left of our documentation site you can change the API version of the documentation.

Release notes can be found here.

When integrating to our API, make sure that all of your API calls use same version. When upgrading to a new version it's crucial to upgrade all api calls to the new version at the same time. NEVER use multiple versions in your integration.

There are four different statuses for API versions, and they are defined as follows:

  • Suggested - this is the version we suggest that you use. It will continue to receive new features, and bug fixes as they are identified.
  • Beta - this version is currently in beta-testing. There may be some final minor tweaks before the official release.
  • Supported - do not integrate against this version, and if you're currently utilizing it plan your upgrade to the suggested version before this version is deprecated. Supported versions will continue to receive critical bug fixes, but not new features or accuracy improvements.
  • Deprecated - do not use this version. If you're integrated to a deprecated version you should plan your upgrade to the suggested version. Deprecated versions do not receive any bug fixes or new features.Deprecated versions may incur higher use of credits.

API VersionStatusNotes
Version 10Suggested (new customers/projects)This is the same as v9 under-the-hood, but features an entirely new/modern input/output structure and official SDKs. For more information see Version 9 vs Version 10. Release notes can be found here.
Version 9Suggested (existing customers/projects)This version is still receiving updates and is fully supported. Full release notes can be found here.
Version 7.5Deprecated (6/26/2018)If you're still using the version 7.5 of the API we recommend upgrading straight to version 10. Reach out to support@sovren.com to start the conversation.

HTTP Status Codes

Our API uses conventional HTTP status codes to describe the overall status of the transaction. The specific code we return are detailed below and mapped to the Info.Code values we return for every transaction:

HTTP Status CodeInfo.CodeDescription
200 - OKSuccess, WarningsFoundDuringParsing, PossibleTruncationFromTimeout, SomeErrorsThe transaction was successful
400 - Bad RequestMissingParameter, InvalidParameter, InsufficientData, DataNotFound, CoordinatesNotFound, ConstraintErrorUnable to process request
401 - UnauthorizedAuthenticationError, UnauthorizedThe AccountId and/or ServiceKey were invalid
403 - ForbiddenN/AThe request was made using http instead of https.
404 - Not FoundDataNotFoundThe requested asset wasn't found.
408 - Request TimeoutTimeoutThe transaction reached its timeout limit.
409 - ConflictDuplicateAssetThe request could not be completed due to a conflict with the current state of the target resource.
413 - Payload Too LargeRequestTooLargeThe request is too large to be processed by the server. The max file size is ~6MB on disk. Files larger than this are either not resumes/jobs, or are scanned images of resumes/jobs. Scanned images are not supported by Sovren, so they need to be OCR'ed prior to sending to Sovren to parse.
422 - Unprocessable EntityConversionExceptionThe request made was syntactically correct, but the provided document was unable to be converted to text.
429 - Too Many RequestsTooManyRequestsYour submission has been rejected without being processed because you were exceeding the allowable batch parsing transaction concurrency limit per the AUP. You have been charged for submitting the transaction. It is your responsibility to resubmit this transaction after you correct the process which caused the concurrency problem.
500 - Internal Server ErrorUnhandledExceptionAn unexpected issue occurred (these are extremely rare).