No Results Response

If the search does not produce any results, the search returns a response that specifies no results were found. The default XML format response is described below. See the section on optional JSON output for an illustration of how this might differ if optional JSON output format was requested.

For example, given the following search query, which is for someone with the non-existent last name of "zzzzzz":

http://api.whitepages.com/find_person/1.0/?lastname=zzzzzz;api_key=API_KEY

The results response (the elements are described below) should look like the following:

<wp:wp>
    <wp:result wp:type="success" wp:message="The search did not find results" wp:code="No Data Found"/>
    <wp:meta>
        <wp:linkexpiration>2008-04-01</wp:linkexpiration>
        <wp:recordrange wp:lastrecord="0" wp:firstrecord="0" wp:totalavailable="0"/>
        <wp:apiversion>1.0</wp:apiversion>
        <wp:searchlinks>
            <wp:link wp:linktext="Whitepages.com" wp:type="homepage">http://www.whitepages.com</wp:link>
            <wp:link wp:linktext="View Search Suggestions" wp:type="viewsearchsuggestions">
                URL_TO_SEARCH_SUGGESTIONS
            </wp:link>
            <wp:link wp:linktext="Link to this api call" wp:type="self">
                URL_TO_THIS_API_CALL
            </wp:link>
        </wp:searchlinks>
    </wp:meta>
</wp:wp>

The URLs for links returned in the NoResults response will be:
URL_TO_SEARCH_SUGGESTIONS is the URL to where the user can find information to help them perform a successful search
URL_TO_THIS_API_CALL is the same URL as the original query

Data Elements

The data elements that may be found in a no results response are described in the following table.

Attribute Description Notes
result The result status of the search request  
type The type of result error means the request contained invalid or ambiguous data or resulted in some kind of error.
success means the request returned 0 or more records. A valid search which returns NoResults will be success
message A textual description of the result or error Typically The search did not find results
code The results code Found Data means that the search response contains at least one record
No Data Found means that the search response contains no records
For NoResults Responses, this should be No Data Found
linkexpiration The date after which the links are no longer valid. These are typically valid for several days.
lastrecord The index of the last record in the list of records This attribute should be 0 for a NoResults response
firstrecord The index of the first record in the list of records This attribute should be 0 for a NoResults response
totalavailable The total number of returned records This attribute should be 0 for a NoResults response
apiversion The version of the API This is 1.0 for this release

Return to the main documentation page

Copyright © 2008 WhitePages.com. All rights reserved.