Prerequisites
Sign up for an account — It's free.
Sign in to your account and generate a public key and secret. For security purposes, the secret is only shown once, so make sure to save it and keep it in a safe place. If you lose your secret you can generate a new one.
Integration at a glance
With this integration you will embed our technology into your own Android app. Our UX components blends with yours and the user will go through the necessary steps without leaving your app.
On a high level, this integration has three main steps:
• Create a session using the
Session API. Provide a callback URL to receive the updates for this session.
• Using the native SDK, start the session with the token created in the previous step. Once the passport or ID is successfully scanned by the user, you will receive a callback to the URL provided in the previous step.
• When you receive a callback with session state APPROVED, use the
Session API to retrieve the passport and ID data.
Note that there is no sandbox environment for testing, instead, integration and testing is done in production.
When you sign up for an account you are given free credit to be used for this.
Step 1 — Create a session
Always start by creating a new session from your backend system:
curl http://localhost:4000/api/v1/session.create \
-u PUBLIC_KEY:SECRET \
-d @- << EOF
{
"callback_url": "..."
}
EOF
{
"id": 123,
"token": "i_dI5hs7m...",
...
} Optional properties:
• callback_url — set a callback url to receive session updates. Must be a valid public URL where your backend system handles the session updates.
• reference — set a reference to connect the session to any arbitrary identifier, such as a user id or a session id from your own system.
• face_verification — set whether face verification is required or not (false by default).
Send the token to your application.
Note that a session is intended to be used for a short period of time to handle a single user. Once a session has been used, it should not be used again.
Step 2 — SDK integration on Android
Download the SDK (Iris library) for Android and add it to your Android Studio project.
Both Kotlin and Java is supported. Minimum target API level 21.
To add a library to an Android application, follow these steps:
• Open the app's Android Studio project.
• Go to File > New > New Module and select Import .JAR/.AAR Package.
• Provide the path to the library and click Finish to add it.
• Go to File > Project Structure > Dependencies and select your app.
• Under Declared Dependencies, click the + button and select Module Dependency.
• Select the library from the list.
Next, import the SDK and set up a session using the token from the previous step.
Start the session.
import iris.Iris
val iris = Iris(this, token)
iris.start(object: Iris.StartHandler {
override fun onSuccess(response: Iris.SuccessResponse) {
}
override fun onError() {
}
}) On success, you will receive a callback to the URL provided in the previous step. Some data points are also available directly in the response.
Step 3 — Retreive passport and ID data
When you receive a callback with session state APPROVED, use the
Session API to retreive the passport and ID data in your backend system.
curl http://localhost:4000/api/v1/session.get \
-u PUBLIC_KEY:SECRET \
-d @- << EOF
{
"id": 123
}
EOF
{
"given_names": "John",
"surname": "Doe",
"nationality": "US",
"sex": "MALE",
"date_of_birth": "1988-01-01",
"document_type": "PASSPORT",
"document_number": "31195855",
"expiry_date": "2031-01-01",
"issuing_country": "US",
"issuer": "Department of State, U.S. Government",
"portrait": "dGVzdHRlc3R0ZXN0...",
...
} If face verification was required, an additional property will be available; face — containing and image of the user's face.
Available data points
Data points returned by the
Session API, available for you to use in your application:
• Given names — Given names as stated on the passport or ID
• Surname — Surname as stated on the passport or ID
• Nationality — Two-letter ISO 3166 code (e.g. “US”)
• Sex — “MALE”, “FEMALE” or “UNSPECIFIED”
• Date of birth — Formatted as YYYY-MM-DD
• Personal number — If applicable, subject to country-specific formats
• Document type — The document type (e.g. “PASSPORT”)
• Document number — Document number as stated on the passport or ID
• Expiry date — Formatted as YYYY-MM-DD
• Issuing country — Two-letter ISO 3166 code (e.g. “US”)
• Issuer — Name of the issuing authority
• Portrait image — High resolution digital image from the passport or ID, base64 encoded PNG
• Face — Image of the user's face (if face verification was required), base64 encoded PNG
Certain data points are available in the SDK directly, without using the
Session API:
• Given names
• Surname
• Nationality
• Document type
• Document number
• Expiry date
• Issuing country
• Issuer
• Portrait image
These data points are unverified and unsecure, and should not be used for purposes other than providing a smooth user experience, such as greeting the user by their real name as they progress in the application flow.
Always use only the verified data from the
Session API for any real operations such as creating user accounts.
Session lifecycle and callbacks
During the lifecycle of a session we will send a callback when the session state changes. These callbacks are sent to the URL provided when the session is created.
Callbacks are sent as JSON encoded POST requests and contain the session id and session state in the request body. All callbacks are re-tried up to 5 times in case of errors on the receiving end.
curl CALLBACK_URL \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d @- << EOF
{
"session_id": 123,
"session_state": "INITIATED",
"session_reference": ""
}
EOF Below is a list of possible lifecycle states for a session. All state changes after CREATED are sent as callbacks to the URL provided when the session was created.
If the flow ends with state ABORTED or FAILED, a new session must be created and the user must start over from the beginning.
• State CREATED — The session is created
• State INITIATED — The session has been initiated by the user
• State FAILED — The session failed, e.g. because of an NFC read error
• State ABORTED — The session was aborted by the user
• State COMPLETED — The session completed successfully
• State REJECTED — The session was rejected, e.g. because the document could not be verified
• State APPROVED — The session has been verified and approved