Overview

Most elements in Resolver, such as objects, fields, reports, relationships, and configuration elements, are assigned an internal ID and an external reference ID, which represents these elements in the API when making calls. Some elements, like fields and object types, are also assigned a unique ID, which helps end-users identify them in Resolver.

Because external reference IDs don't change when moving them from one Org to another, it's recommended that external reference IDs are used when testing and working with an integration, using the following approach:

Write the integration using the retrieved external reference IDs
Retrieve the object type data and store it
If object types' internal IDs are necessary for a particular endpoint, cross-reference them using the external reference IDs

See the sections below for more detailed information on unique IDs, internal IDs, and external reference IDs.

Unique IDs

Generated for all objects created in Resolver
Unique IDs use the object type abbreviation and a number (for example, Act-22)
The number used will be the next number after the highest number that already exists in the system. For example, if Act-23, Act-24, and Act-25 have been generated, and Act-24 is deleted, the next object created will be Act-26. Therefore, the unique ID should not be used for counting how many objects exist. For more information, please refer to the Assessment Instances Overview article
Automatically assigned
Cannot be modified
An Example of a Unique ID

Internal IDs

Intended for internal use
Created for most elements within Resolver
Automatically assigned
Numeric
Cannot be modified
Visible in Swagger and the URL when viewing associated Admin Settings in Resolver

An Example of an Internal ID

External Reference IDs

Also known as external ref IDs
Created for most elements within Resolver
Alphanumeric
Unique within your Org
Can only be modified from Swagger

Object External Reference IDs

Intended for cross-referencing records with external systems
Automatically assigned a unique MD5 hash when created in Resolver
Imported objects must be assigned a new external reference ID upon import
Can be retrieved from Swagger or from the External Reference ID property on a report table

Configuration Element External Reference IDs

Intended to maintain the relationships between configuration components across multiple Orgs with the same configuration (i.e., sandboxes and production Orgs)
Automatically assigned when created
Preserved when exporting and importing a configuration file from one Org to another, but assigned a new internal ID upon import
Visible only in Swagger

Examples

GET /object/report

{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": 9017, <--Report internal ID
      "name": "Risks & Controls By Location",
      "description": "",
      "nameKey": "app:report:name:820c6f98-b82d-496f-9df2-2e2da44a866f",
      "descriptionKey": "app:report:description:231e091c-296b-43bf-a2d9-91a5eca5913b",
      "objectTypeId": 4211,
      "created": "2019-12-09T19:06:56.042Z",
      "modified": "2019-12-09T19:14:58.577Z",
      "org": 46,
      "externalRefId": "8e197f22-774f-459f-b9a1-a087055c1fb7", <--Report external reference ID
      "type": 1,
      "showArchiveData": false,
      "nestloop": "org"
    }

GET /object/objectType/{id}

{
  "id": 2373, <--Object type Internal ID
  "name": "Incident",
  "pluralName": "Incidents",
  "description": "",
  "monogram": "INC",
  "nameKey": "app:objectType:name:5ac171c8-69e2-4b7e-aa9a-0ce17c22aa2a",
  "descriptionKey": "app:objectType:description:e130ff47-cf9a-419c-8e74-f70e4ee504f7",
  "pluralNameKey": "app:objectType:pluralName:552ff26a-abea-49ed-9f08-c4dd6e70fdec",
  "monogramKey": "app:objectType:monogram:998fd41f-9cd5-42fd-ad61-d08aee707574",
  "color": "#fff57a",
  "objectLifeCycleId": 2490,
  "externalRefId": "Incident", <--Object type External Reference ID
  "created": "2017-12-14T20:28:06.519Z",
  "modified": "2019-02-07T15:18:02.255Z",
  "nextElement": 34,
  "org": 8,
  "assessment": false,
  "anchor": null,
  "anchorRelationship": null,
  "dataDefinitionId": null
}

GET /data/object

    {
      "id": 758, <--Object internal ID
      "name": "Service agreements are maintained for hardware and software",
      "description": "Service agreements are maintained for hardware and software to ensure support during a disaster.",
      "externalRefId": "CON-13:1", <--Object external reference ID
      "uniqueId": "13.1", <--Object Unique ID
      "objectTypeId": 4188,
      "evaluations": {
        "12339": {
          "value": null
        }

External, Internal & Unique IDs