Streaming File History API Object Documentation

API Question
#1

Hi, hoping someone can shed some light and perhaps share some update documentation for the streaming APIs (Specifically the Filing History one).

The models documented don’t seem to have all the properties we are receiving over API.
Two issues we’ve found so far:

  1. Subcategory can either come as a single string, or an array of strings, but is only a single string in the documentation example.
  2. The API documentation doesn’t mention description values anywhere or what can be in this object.

An example of both can be found here:

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We’ve handled as much as we can for these issues but without knowing the true full object that we can be sent, we cant be certain we’re recording all the data we receive.

Is there a more up-to-date API documentation than the one listed here?
https://developer-specs.company-information.service.gov.uk/streaming-api/resources/filinghistorystream?v=latest

1 Like
Companies house charge api
#2

I raised several issues on this topic but never got a response. The problem with this ‘morphing specification’ is that you can only determine the issue when you fail to deserialize (and get values from) an object of interest, and this may never happen or could happen long after the app was deployed into production.
Some fields I found to interchange between strings and arrays (across multiple endpoints) are:
“sic_codes”, “fields_changed”, “notes”, “status”, “natures_of_control”

#3

Thanks for the extra fields Phillip, we’ll keep an eye out as we integrate with the other streaming apis.

Integration would be much easier and reliable if the documentation was up to date and thorough. Hopefully CH updates it soon.

#4

I just realised you are dealing with the filing-history API - This is a tricky one as you get empty descriptions and there is also ‘a strain’ of the payload for legacy filing (god knows what else!). Here are samples from earlier today of the 2 below:

1. Empty description filing:

{“resource_kind”:“filing-history”,“resource_uri”:"/company/13703937/filing-history/MzMxODEyNjE5MWFkaXF6a2N4",“resource_id”:“MzMxODEyNjE5MWFkaXF6a2N4”,“data”:{“associated_filings”:[{“category”:“incorporation”,“date”:“2021-10-26”,“description”:“model-articles-adopted”,“type”:“MODEL ARTICLES”}],“links”:{“self”:"/company/13703937/filing-history/MzMxODEyNjE5MWFkaXF6a2N4"},“transaction_id”:“MzMxODEyNjE5MWFkaXF6a2N4”},“event”:{“timepoint”:74164588,“published_at”:“2021-10-26T08:37:02”,“type”:“changed”}}

2. Legacy filing:

{“resource_kind”:“filing-history”,“resource_uri”:"/company/07191403/filing-history/MzMxODEyNjI3MGFkaXF6a2N4",“resource_id”:“MzMxODEyNjI3MGFkaXF6a2N4”,“data”:{“barcode”:“AAEP13P7”,“category”:“accounts”,“date”:“2021-10-26”,“description”:“legacy”,“description_values”:{“description”:“Consolidated accounts of parent company for subsidiary company period ending 31/12/20”},“links”:{“self”:"/company/07191403/filing-history/MzMxODEyNjI3MGFkaXF6a2N4"},“paper_filed”:true,“transaction_id”:“MzMxODEyNjI3MGFkaXF6a2N4”,“type”:“PARENT_ACC”},“event”:{“timepoint”:74164849,“published_at”:“2021-10-26T08:40:02”,“type”:“changed”}}