When running the filing history end point in the beta API, we have noticed a difference to the Document API with regards to the barcode for some documents.
Running GET /company/03763138/filing-history?category=accounts returns data, including the following snippet -
{
"description": "accounts-with-accounts-type-small",
"type": "AA",
"date": "2002-03-14",
"action_date": "2001-02-28",
"category": "accounts",
"description_values": {
"made_up_date": "2001-02-28"
},
"links": {
"document_metadata": "https://frontend-doc-api.companieshouse.gov.uk/document/ZTHA9rUqzXmH_cnINKK_obhzQ28ap25LNdF2Mn2_vIk",
"self": "/company/03763138/filing-history/MDExMDYyMDQ1M2FkaXF6a2N4"
},
"pages": 9,
"paper_filed": true,
"barcode": null,
"transaction_id": "MDExMDYyMDQ1M2FkaXF6a2N4"
}
As you can see, the barcode is null. However, when running the document API for the metadata link https://document-api.companieshouse.gov.uk/document/ZTHA9rUqzXmH_cnINKK_obhzQ28ap25LNdF2Mn2_vIk it returns the following -
{
"company_number": "03763138",
"barcode": "A5Y7V91P",
"significant_date": "2001-02-28T00:00:00Z",
"significant_date_type": "",
"category": "accounts",
"pages": 9,
"created_at": "2015-01-31T20:56:20.959078544Z",
"etag": "",
"links": {
"self": "https://document-api.companieshouse.gov.uk/document/ZTHA9rUqzXmH_cnINKK_obhzQ28ap25LNdF2Mn2_vIk",
"document": "https://document-api.companieshouse.gov.uk/document/ZTHA9rUqzXmH_cnINKK_obhzQ28ap25LNdF2Mn2_vIk/content"
},
"resources": {
"application/pdf": {
"content_length": 166000
}
}
}
As you can see, the barcode is populated.
As it stands we have to check the content of the first call and, if the barcode is null, run a second call to the document API in order to get the barcode value. This adds overhead on both sides and would seem to be a bug in the filing history end point.
Can someone confirm if this is a bug? If it isn’t, why do the different APIs report different data?