Quickstart Guide

Using Melissa Web Services

Melissa offers a wide array of Web Services from address verification, geocoding, to property information and business firmographics. Most of our web services will follow the same schema for the request/response, and is accessible through industry standard protocols including REST, JSON, XML and SOAP.

Licensing

Licensing

All Melissa Web Services require a license in order to be accessed. Our services can be accessed using Credits or with a Subscription. Both ways use the same service, so you do not need to change your code to move from one model to another.

Subscription

The subscription model is our traditional model and the one most commonly used. Subscriptions are based on yearly anticipated usage and pricing is based on usage tiers, with lower per record costs for higher usage tiers. These are the benefits of Subscription Model:

  • Lowest cost available
  • Full technical support
  • Free trial access
  • Full functionality for all services

To get started, please contact a sales representative by:

Credits

Our credit system allows developers instance access to most of our web services without the need to speak to a sales representative and without any commitments. You can try out our services quickly and easily. Not all features for all services are available through credits, but the majority of the features are. If your volume increases, you can easily move to our subscription model for access to all features and volume discounts. For more information, please visit: https://www.melissa.com/developer/

To get started:

  • Register! It's easy, https://www.melissa.com/user/new_user.aspx
  • To get your license key:
    • Verify your email
    • Sign in
    • Get your license key from "My Account"
  • You can enable Auto-top off in the "Buy Credits" menu.
  • Start using any service right away

Single Record / Real-time Requests

Most Melissa Web Service APIs will follow a similar request structure, but with some variation specific to each service.

REST

  • DOMAIN – Indicates which web service to access.
  • SUB DIRECTORY/PATH – Indicates exactly which endpoint to use for the API
  • QUERY – Contains the request elements to the API
https://personator.melissadata.net/v3/WEB/ContactVerify/doContactVerify?format=json&id=66778150&act=Check&a1=22382+Avenida+Empresa&postal=92688

XML/JSON

  • GLOBAL SETTINGS – Contains any global input settings such as the customer ID, Options, and column requests.
  • RECORD ARRAY – Contains a single or multiple record array.
<Request>
    <CustomerID>CUSTOMERID</CustomerID>
    <Options/>
    <Records>
        <RequestRecord>
            <Input1>string</Input1>
            <Input2>string</Input2>
            …
            …
            <Input10>string</Input10>
        </RequestRecord>
    </Records>
</Request>
{
  "CustomerID":"string",
  "Options":"string",
  "Records":[
    {
      "Input1":"string",
      "Input2":"string",
        …
        …
      "Input10":"string",
    }
  ]
}

Multiple Record / Batch Requests

Most Melissa Web Services will allow for sending up to 100 records in a single request. This reduces the amount overhead produced from continuous back and forth communication between the service and client.

Batch Processing is only available in the JSON, XML and SOAP protocols.

XML/JSON

  • GLOBAL SETTINGS – Contains any global input settings such as the customer ID, Options, and column requests.
  • RECORD ARRAY – Contains a single or multiple record array.
<Request>
    <CustomerID>CUSTOMERID</CustomerID>
    <Options/>
    <Records>
        <RequestRecord>
            <Input1>string</Input1>
            <Input2>string</Input2>
            …
            …
            <Input10>string</Input10>
        </RequestRecord>
        …
        …
        <RequestRecord>
            <Input1>string</Input1>
            <Input2>string</Input2>
            …
            …
            <Input10>string</Input10>
        </RequestRecord>
    </Records>
</Request>

Up to 100 records can be in the arrays.

{
  "CustomerID":"string",
  "Options":"string",
  "Records":[
    {
      "Input1":"string",
      "Input2":"string",
        …
        …
      "Input10":"string",
    },
        …
        …
    {
      "Input1":"string",
      "Input2":"string",
        …
        …
      "Input10":"string",
    }
  ]
}