Make the Contact create API behave like UI in the way in checks for duplicates

Question

I am creating a contact using CiviCRM API, what I have noticed that the duplicate checking looks inaccurate compared to the check done when entering new contacts via the User Interface.

Under the CiviCRM API, it's only a match if the given parameters are exactly the same like "John Smith of [email protected]" does not match "Johnathan Smith of [email protected]", for example, but in the UI, simply entering a matching e-mail address throws a warning.

Is there a way to make the CiviCRM API dupe check behave more like the UI ?

I am passing the parameter dupe_check = true. The complete call is:

$result = civicrm_api3('Contact', 'create', 
          array( 'sequential' => 1,
                 'contact_type' => "Individual",
                 'first_name' => "raj", 
                 'last_name' => "l", 
                 'dupe_check' => 1, 
                 'api.Email.create' => array('email' => "[email protected]"), )
           );

Answer 1

There are different sets of deduplication rules, and you can create your own. They may be:

• Unsupervised- are used automatically when contacts are created in certain ways, such as through imports, event registrations and profiles
• Supervised- are used to check/warn of possible duplicates when creating new contacts in the UI
• General- you can use these at your leisure from the "Find and Merge Duplicate Contacts" page

What you're seeing in the API is probably only the Unsupervised rule, which should be deliberately strict. What you're warned about in the UI will be the Supervised rule.

The docs: https://docs.civicrm.org/user/en/4.6/common-workflows/deduping-and-merging/

Answer 2

I did some research in the code. When you use the contact API, the default Unsupervised rule for the Contact Type. This rule is configurable in the Contacts -> Find and Merge Duplicate Contacts screen.

Update: The contact has another option. You can use the duplicatecheck method. But it cannot be tested in the API explorer. The following code returns the contact_ids found deduplication rule 4 (Checking on email for Individuals).

$result = civicrm_api3('Contact', 'duplicatecheck', array(
     'return' => array("display_name"),
     'dedupe_rule_id' => 4,
     'check_permission' => FALSE,
     'match' => array(
        'contact_type' => 'Individual',
        'email'        => '[email protected]'
  )
));