Document Identifier
What are document identifier?
In order to successfully process several different ID documents, it is necessary to define a document identifier for each of them. A document identifier represents an ID document and its layout. Our software uses document identifiers to recognize ID documents and read out the data via OCR.
When initializing our service, it is necessary to include the document identifiers of all ID documents that you would like to be processed by the mobile application. Please also refer to our API.
Identification documents (ID documents) are regularly revised by the responsible countries for example due to security concerns or international requirements. Therefore, new versions of these documents are provided on a regular basis. Regular in this case means at least several years. In accordance with new and revised ID documents, we also update our document identifiers frequently. If you would like these new documents to be recognized by the mobile application, it is necessary to include the corresponding document identifiers.
The following table shows examples of document identifiers and their classification scheme:
| Document identifier | Description | Scheme |
|---|---|---|
| ID_D_2021 | German identity card | ID = ID card D = Germany 2021 = Handed out since 2021 |
| P_FRA_2006 | French passport | P = Passport FRA = France 2006 = Handed out since 2006 |
| PD_D_2017 | German diplomatic passport | PD = Diplomatic passport D = Germany 2017 = Handed out since 2017 |
Please click the following button to download the current list of supported documents.
Last updated: April 26th, 2023.
Another use case of the document identifier is to tell our software, that a defined document shall be processed or not. Our API requires including of document identifiers and allows their exclusion. (please refer to our API, configuration –> document –> documentIncludes and documentExcludes)
Additionally, a result provided by our API contains the document identifier of the document where the data has been extracted.
Please note that only our service onsite allows to include passports and ID cards from other countries than Germany.
Challenge with current document identifier approach.
When a customer is including a certain document identifier via API and AUTHADA adds the pattern (document identifier) for a new version of this already supported document to her software, the API call needs to be updated. If the update does not take place, the OCR might deliver wrong values, when this new version is processed with the AUTHADA Business app.
Introducing group identifiers
To meet this issue, we introduced group identifiers with version 3.26.0 of our backend system. A group identifier represents at least one document identifier and can be included and excluded in an AUTHADA API call as described above. From the APIs perspective the Group Identifiers are also document identifiers.
As of now we defined two kinds of group identifiers:
- Group by country and document type – They represent for instance all German ID cards, or all German electronic residence permits currently supported by our software.
- Group by topics – We defined several classifications of document and group identifiers that are represented by this groups. For example, “GROUP_TD3_KNOWN” represents all know (i.e., defined) document identifiers, that are supported by AUTHADA via OCR.
When we add a new document identifier to our systems, we will add it to the corresponding group identifier as well. The users of our API will have less maintenance effort when it comes to updating the API. The users of the AUTHADA Business app benefit from this by having new OCR capabilities at hand right away and not having to wait for updates of the API.
The following example should explain this:
The German ID card (Personalausweis) is currently (Mai 2023) existing in two different layouts:
- ID_D_2010, first handed out in November 2010
- ID_D_2021, first handed out in August 2021
When a new layout would be defined as of say January 2025, a user of our onsite service using the document must include the new document Identifier, so the app knows, that this document is supported.
When the Group Identifier for the German ID card is included (TYPE_ID_D), a new Version is included by AUTHADAs maintenance activities. No changes to the API parameters must be performed by the API user.
Please click the following button to download the current list of group identifiers.
Last updated: July 18th, 2023.
Please click the following button to download the current list of group identifiers by topic.
Last updated: July 18th, 2023.
