Remote Data

This feature is only available to customers on our Core, Professional, or Enterprise plans. View the Merge Plans to learn more.

Overview

Using Merge's remote data, you can get the latest integration data in the original format Merge received it in.

If you set Merge's include_remote_data query parameter to true, Merge will include original data as we saw it from the remote API endpoint. This approach is ideal for when you're looking for an extra field specific to an integration that is not included in Merge's standardized format. Note that remote_data will not be updated during recurring syncs unless normalized fields (e.g., common model fields or field mappings) are updated.

If you're looking for data from an endpoint that we do not include in our common data models, you may need to create an Authenticated Passthrough Request instead.

Query Parameters

include_remote_dataBoolean

Indicates whether the latest remote data should be included with the requested resource.

remote_fieldsString

Indicates which common model fields should be returned in the original, non-normalized format.

Fetching with the Merge SDK

See below for an example of how to get remote data via Merge's SDK:

Remote Data via SDK


1employees_response = employees_api_instance.employees_list("YOUR_ACCOUNT_TOKEN", include_remote_data=True)

Response

Resources fetched with remote data will look like the following:

Remote Data Example

JSON


{
  "id": "83622854-bb75-476f-9e67-a145593de468",
  "remote_id": "8324",
  ...
  ...
  "remote_data": [
    {
      "path": "/employees",
      "data": {
        "id": 8324,
        "name": "Gil Feig"
      }
    },
    {
      "path": "/locations",
      "data": {
        "id": 998,
        "employee_id": 8324,
        "city": "San Francisco",
        "state": "CA"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Show Enum Origins

Merge's Show Enum Origins feature allows you to obtain the value of common model enum fields in the original format that Merge received it in. This feature is available in all of Merge's common model API endpoints, where relevant.

If you include a common model enum field's name into the show_enum_origins query parameter, Merge will replace the normalized enum value of the specified common model field with the unnormalized value from the third-party in the response body. This is useful if you always want to return the original value of common model fields as they are represented in your customer's third-party platform, instead of in Merge's normalized format.

When using the show_enum_origins query parameter, Merge will map the unnormalized value of the field to the specified common model field so that you can reliably access that field's value in a consistent way, regardless of the integration your customer is using.

Below is an example response from Merge's /employees endpoint, where /employees was passed into the query parameters. In this example, instead of returning the normalized enum value of "INACTIVE" in the employment_status field, we return the original value "Terminated" as it was received from the third-party.

Show Enum Origins Example Response

JSON


{
  "id": "0958cbc6-6040-430a-848e-aafacbadf4ae",
  "remote_id": "19202938",
  "employee_number": "2",
  "display_full_name": "Cousin Greg Hirsch",
  "employment_status": "Terminated",
  ...
  ...
}