Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Answers to Commonly Asked Questions.
What is Videntity?
Videntity is an identity service designed to help businesses and organizations to better communicate with their customers.
Where do I go for more technical information?
Videntity technical information can be found at http://vidapi.com
How do I pay for the software and services? What are the payment options?
Fee Per Transaction: Currently, fees per transactions start at only $0.05 USD. Additional transactional fees apply when your transactions make calls, uses SMS mobile text message, fax, or other add-on feature. When calls are made, the length of the call affects the cost of the transaction.
Subscription Agreement: You can prepay for Videntity on a quarterly, semi-annual, or annual basis. The billing process works in a similar fashion to a mobile calling plan
Enterprise Licensing: This license is for customers operating a custom or on-site Videntity installation with enterprise support.
Can Videntity be used for Physical Access Control?
Yes; The verify method can be implemented and applied to any yes/no type validity check.
Can I try the service for free?
Yes. You can request a trial API License lasting for two weeks. The trial comes with 30 minutes of call out time and the ability to send up to 10 text messages. For further details, contact sales by email at sales@videntity.com or by phone at 650-396-7717
Can Videntity be used as a single sign-on solution for my Enterprise?
Yes. Videntity's "verify" function provides a single sign-on like response which may be integrated into other systems including physical access control.
Is Videntity compatible with OpenID?
es. Videntity user accounts may associate an OpenID URL with the user and supply it in responses. We do not currently provide an OpenID identity, but rather provide a storage location for the URL. Videntity can be used as an "out-of-band" verification mechanism for OpenID. Using OpenID support is optional.
How do Videntity User's Work?
Every Entity (organization) and every Identity (person) are identified by a Videntity ID. The Videntity ID is a 15 digit account number, similar to a credit card number.
Videntity has three types of users available to customers: "agent", "population", and "API".
Agent:The agent account is used for staff, employees, or "agents" of an organization. Therefore, an agent account must be associated with an entity.
Population:The population account is for customers or "population" users. In the case of health care, these are the patients. In education, these are the students. For first response applications, these users are the general public or rescue victims.
API:An API user is an administrator account. This is the "root" and the only account that is able to create, edit, and delete entities and users. The API user can only delete contents it has created. When a transaction occurs, the API user's credentials are used to successfully allow the transaction. This is similar to a "sudo" command in Unix. For example, you can allow some of your agents to edit population accounts when needed. The API credentials so the API acts as a surrogate to initiate the transaction.
Can I use Videntity to send sms text messages or telephone-based notifications to staff or customers?
Yes. Use the Notify transaction type. You can send a specific message to a specific user or provide mass notifications for your agents and for your population accounts.
How do I get Videntity to use my audio when calling out?
Record the audio and upload it using the API. Make note of the recording IDs returned by the audio upload process. These are used in the outgoing transactions. See http://vidapi.com for more detail.
Can Videntity record the outgoing audio messages for me
Yes. We can have our staff record the audio with the female voice we provide. Fees apply. Please contact sales for more information. You may also make your own recordings and upload them.
Can I use Videntity to build and automated telephone-based questionnaires?
Yes. You would use the Inquiry transaction type to achieve this. See the API documentation for more details. http://vidapi.com
Can I use Videntity to verify identity and obtain explicit transaction authorization over the phone?
Yes. You would use the Inquiry transaction type to achieve this. See the API documentation for more details. http://vidapi.com
Does your API directly support sending in audio for speaker verification?
Not in the current release, but this feature is being considered in currently, however we are adding this feature to be included in a future release.
Currently no, however, this feature is scheduled to be included in a future release.
Do you support other biometrics?
Not right now, but keep posted on future releases. Fingerprint and iris are slated for incorporation. Your organization may require special hardware and software to take advantage of these new and exciting capabilities. Stay tuned!
What does REST mean?
From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REST
Representational state transfer (REST) is a style of software architecture for distributed hypermedia systems such as the World Wide Web. As such, it is not strictly a method for building what are sometimes called "web services". The terms “representational state transfer” and “REST” were introduced in 2000 in the doctoral dissertation of Roy Fielding, one of the principal authors of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) specification. The terms have since come into widespread use in the networking community.
REST strictly refers to a collection of network architecture principles which outline how resources are defined and addressed. The term is often used in a looser sense to describe any simple interface which transmits domain-specific data over HTTP without an additional messaging layer such as SOAP or session tracking via HTTP cookies. These two meanings can conflict as well as overlap. It is possible to design a software system in accordance with Fielding’s REST architectural style without using HTTP and without interacting with the World Wide Web. It is also possible to design simple XML+HTTP interfaces which do not conform to REST principles and instead follow a model of remote procedure call. The difference between the uses of the term “REST” therefore causes some confusion in technical discussions. Systems which follow Fielding’s REST principles are often referred to as “RESTful”.
How Does Videntity use REST? (What is the quick story on how the API works?)
Like many internet-based services with API's, Videntity uses a "REST-like" service that incorporates elements from both REST and XML-RPC. The url itself is used to indicate the method being called. Submissions are made to the server using the HTTP method POST. Responses are returned as an XML document. The definition of the Videntity XML response can be found at http://videntity.com/response.xsd Please visit http://vidapi.com for more technical information.
Can the Fax Form be Customized? I want to add my own information to the fax form.
Yes. Videntity fax forms can be customized. Customization and integration fees apply. Please contact sales for more information.
How Does the Fax System Work?
The fax system is a way to securely authorize and transmit hand written or paper documents. A fax cover is generated through the generate_fax_form web service. You can incorporate this web service into your applications or websites.
Step 1: Use the GET method to specify the sender, receiver, subject, and other transaction data.The fax form initiates an "Object" transaction type. Object transactions are for verification, authorization, and delivery of files, documents, or other items. The fax is converted to a PDF document within the Object transaction. See the API documentation for more details.
Step 2: Get the response. The API responds with a completed PDF, which serves as the fax's cover page. Print this out, and use it as the cover page to your fax.
What Fax Number do I use?
For security we don't publish fax numbers. A fax number is provided after you sign up for Videntity and Videntity Fax service. Videntity Enterprise customers have the option of setting up their own custom fax server and fax number.
How Do Responses Work?
Responses are returned in XML. A response status is either SUCCESSFUL, PENDING, or FAIL as indicated in the status field of the response.
Some transactions can take more than a few seconds (perhaps even days) to complete. In these cases, if there are no problems with the transaction
format, the server initially response with PENDING. When the transaction is completed, Videntity responds with an the updated SUCCESSFUL or FAIL status.
This means that for a given transaction, the more than one response at multiple times is necessary. The first response, is always returned as
a response to the original HTTP POST request. Depending on your configuration, response update will either be placed at a particular URL or
a response server is used to "listen" for status updates. If getting responses using the URL method, the response URL is provided with your PENDING status.
You can then check this URL to see when your transaction is complete. After the transaction is complete and the response URL is read, it will self-destruct
(i.e be erased) shortly thereafter. Therefore, it is important that the programmer take the responsibility to copy the URL response message from the URL using the URL response method.