# Key concepts in the Assure API
Before you start integrating with the Assure API, you should familiarise yourself with the following key concepts and terms used in the Assure API.
# End-user
This is the person whose identity will be verified. Each end-user must have a dossier containing their personal information.
# Dossier
Dossiers are resource objects that contain end-user identity data, for example name, date of birth, ID document, etc. Each end-user should have its own associated dossier. This means you must create a new dossier (opens new window) for each new end-user to perform an identity verification on the user.
The end-user data may be put in the dossier both directly by adding files (opens new window) or data (opens new window) about the end-user or indirectly by creating processes (opens new window) in the dossier that will later contain identity data about the end-user (opens new window).
A dossier can have more than one process inside and each process can use a different provider.
For more information, see the API Reference > Dossiers (opens new window).
# Normalisation
All elements in responses you get from the Assure API are normalised, i.e., they will all follow the same format, depending on the type of data they represent.
| Field | Format |
|---|---|
Dates (e.g. dateOfBirth, dateOfExpiry, etc) | YYYY-MM-DD |
createdAt, updatedAt | ISO 8601 (opens new window) UTC date: YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssZ |
issuingCountry, nationality | ISO 3166 Alpha 3 (opens new window) country codes. E.g. “PRT”, “NOR”. |
# Process
Processes are resource objects that contain end-user identity data. Like dossiers, they can also have associated files (opens new window) (e.g. ID images). However, additionally to dossiers, they have identity verification result data (opens new window) obtained from the provider that was used to verify the information in the process.
You must create the process (opens new window) inside a dossier. Each process belongs to only one dossier, but a dossier may have multiple processes. You can only use one provider to verify the information on each process.
For more information, see the API Reference > Processes (opens new window).
# Verification request
The action of requesting a provider to verify the information (opens new window) inside a process.
# Verification result
This is information obtained from the provider with the outcome of checking the information inside a process (opens new window).
This result is normalised by the Assure API and becomes part of the process too.