User Import API

API Reference for the User Import API that developers can use to bulk import users from another system to their Authgear project.

The User Import API is an API that supports the bulk import of users from another system to an Authgear project. This API is not part of the Admin API GraphQL. However, the API endpoints require the Admin API JWT token to access it.

The following are other important things to note about the User Import API:

• The actual process of importing the users is asynchronous. This means execution is done in the background. The API provides an endpoint developers can use to query the status of the import.

• Once an import is initiated successfully, the API will return an ID for the task. This ID is required to query the status of the import.

• The body of HTTP requests to the API has a limit of 500KB.

• Using the User Import API does not trigger the user.pre_create and user.created hooks.

• The API supports the Bcrypt password format. To import passwords using this format specify the format type and password_hash in an object that will be the value of the user's password field. For example:

"password": {
        "type": "bcrypt",
        "password_hash": "$2a$10$N9qo8uLOickgx2ZMRZoMyeIjZAgcfl7p92ldGxad68LJZdL17lhWy"
      },

Endpoints

The Import User API has two endpoints, one for initiating a user import task and the other for checking the status of the task. The endpoints only support secure HTTPS request and require a valid Admin API JWT token using Bearer authorization header (Authorization: Bearer <Admin API JWT Token>).

Here are more details about the endpoints and their expected inputs.

Initiate Import

POST /_api/admin/users/import

Use this endpoint to create a new user import task.

Headers

Name	Value
Content-Type	application/json
Authorization	Bearer <Admin API JWT Token>
Host	<Your Authgear Project Domain>

Body

The Initiate Import endpoint accepts JSON input via an HTTP(S) request body. The following is an example of the input:

{
    "identifier": "email",
    "records": [
        {
            "email": "[e-mail]",
            "email_verified": true,
            "password": {
                "type": "bcrypt",
                "password_hash": "$2a$10$N9qo8uLOickgx2ZMRZoMyeIjZAgcfl7p92ldGxad68LJZdL17lhWy"
            }
        }
    ]
}

Input Format

The endpoint that initiates an import accepts JSON input via an HTTP request body. The following sample JSON document shows the expected structure and fields of the input:

{
  "upsert": true,
  "identifier": "email",
  "records": [
    {
      "preferred_username": "jdoe",
      "email": "[e-mail]",
      "phone_number": "[phone]",

      "email_verified": true,
      "phone_number_verified": true,

      "name": "John Doe",
      "given_name": "John",
      "family_name": "Doe",
      "middle_name": "",
      "nickname": "JD",
      "profile": "https://example.com",
      "picture": "https://example.com",
      "website": "https://example.com",
      "gender": "male",
      "birthdate": "1990-01-01",
      "zoneinfo": "Asia/Hong_Kong",
      "locale": "zh-Hant-HK",
      "address": {
        "formatted": "1 Unnamed Road, Central, Hong Kong Island, HK",
        "street_address": "1 Unnamed Road",
        "locality": "Central",
        "region": "Hong Kong",
        "postal_code": "N/A",
        "country": "HK"
      },

      "custom_attributes": {
        "member_id": "123456789"
      },

      "roles": ["role_a", "role_b"],
      "groups": ["group_a"],

      "disabled": false,

      "password": {
        "type": "bcrypt",
        "password_hash": "$2a$10$N9qo8uLOickgx2ZMRZoMyeIjZAgcfl7p92ldGxad68LJZdL17lhWy"
      },

      "mfa": {
        "email": "[e-mail]",
        "phone_number": "[phone]",
        "password": {
          "type": "bcrypt",
          "password_hash": "$2a$10$N9qo8uLOickgx2ZMRZoMyeIjZAgcfl7p92ldGxad68LJZdL17lhWy"
        },
        "totp": {
          "secret": "secret"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

To understand the input better, let's take a close look at the three fields (upsert, identifier, records) that are directly on the root of the above JSON document.

• upsert: This is an optional boolean that is false by default. When the value for this field is set to true and a user already exists with the same identity, the user's data is updated based on the update behavior for each attribute.

• identifier: This field is required. It tells Authgear what attribute to use to identify an existing user. The following strings are the accepted values: preferred_username, email, and phone_number.

• records: This is where a developer can provide the data of all the users they wish to import in an array. Each direct object in the array represents a single user. Within the object, you can define the standard attributes for the user using the various fields as shown in the sample above. You may also define custom attributes in an object nested inside the custom_attributes field as also shown above.

Response

200

{
  "id": "task_4WZ0V7EPT4GZ2ABVN03QXYZ122W835C1",
  "created_at": "2024-04-04T06:56:36.02508096Z",
  "status": "pending"
}

400

{
  "error": "Invalid request"
}

id: this is the unique ID for the import task that was created. The ID is required to check the status of the task.

status: the value for status is pending after the import task is created and completed once the user import task is finished.

Check Status

GET /_api/admin/users/import/{ID}

Use this endpoint to query the status of an existing user import task. Replace {ID} with a valid ID for a user import task.

Headers

Name	Value
Authorization	Bearer <Admin API JWT Token>
Host	<Your Authgear Project Domain>

Response

200

{
  "id": "task_4WZ0V7EPT4GZ2ABVN03QXYZ122W835C1",
  "created_at": "2024-04-04T06:56:36.02508096Z",
  "status": "completed",
  "summary": {
    "total": 2,
    "inserted": 2,
    "updated": 0,
    "skipped": 0,
    "failed": 0
  },
  "details": [
    {
      "index": 0,
      "record": {
        "email": "[e-mail]",
        "email_verified": true,
        "password": {
          "password_hash": "REDACTED",
          "type": "bcrypt"
        }
      },
      "outcome": "inserted",
      "user_id": "0f0f65ee-4c7d-45a0-a740-bcbbfd3fcf06"
    },
    {
      "index": 1,
      "record": {
        "email": "[e-mail]",
        "email_verified": false,
        "family_name": "Doe",
        "given_name": "John",
        "name": "John Doe",
        "password": {
          "password_hash": "REDACTED",
          "type": "bcrypt"
        }
      },
      "outcome": "inserted",
      "user_id": "9c71fc29-6db6-4a18-aa73-774139fed16d",
      "warnings": [
        {
          "message": "email_verified = false has no effect in insert."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

400

{
  "error": "Invalid request"
}

Update Behavior

The update behavior for an attribute determines how Authgear will treat that attribute when an existing user has the same value for the specified identifier type. For example, if the identifier is "email", the update behavior for each attribute is how Authgear will treat the attribute if a user already exists with the same email address as the current user you're trying to import.

Each attribute can have one of the three different types of update behavior described below:

• UPDATED_IF_PRESENT_AND_REMOVED_IF_NULL: An attribute with this update behavior will update the user's attribute to the new value if that new value is not null. If the new value is explicitly null, the attribute will be deleted for the user. And if the attribute is absent, no operation is done.

• UPDATED_IF_PRESENT: When this is the update behavior of an attribute, it will be updated if it is present. If the attribute is not present, no operation is done.

• IGNORED: If a user exists already, the new value of this attribute is ignored. If the attribute is absent, nothing is done.

Update Behavior of each field

The following table shows all attributes and their update behavior for reference purposes:

Item	Update Behavior	Description
preferred_username, email, phone_number	UPDATED_IF_PRESENT_AND_REMOVED_IF_NULL	If it is not identifier, then the update behavior applies. The corresponding Login ID will be created, updated or removed as needed.
email_verified, phone_number_verified	UPDATED_IF_PRESENT	For example, in the first import, if email_verified is absent, then email is marked as unverified.
All other standard attributes	UPDATED_IF_PRESENT_AND_REMOVED_IF_NULL	In particular, address IS NOT merged with the existing value, but REPLACES the existing address value.
custom_attributes.*	UPDATED_IF_PRESENT_AND_REMOVED_IF_NULL	For each attribute in custom_attributes, the update behavior applies individually. So an absent custom attribute in an upsert does not change the existing value.
roles, groups	UPDATED_IF_PRESENT	If present, the roles and groups of the user will match the value. For example, supposed the user originally has ["role_a", "role_b"]. roles is ["role_a", "role_c"]. role_b is removed and role_c is added.
disabled	UPDATED_IF_PRESENT	Re-importing a record without specifying disabled WILL NOT accidentally alter the disabled state previously set by other means.
password	IGNORED	If it was not provided when the record was first imported, subsequent import CANNOT add it back.
mfa.email	UPDATED_IF_PRESENT_AND_REMOVED_IF_NULL	If provided, the user can perform 2FA with email OTP.
mfa.phone_number	UPDATED_IF_PRESENT_AND_REMOVED_IF_NULL	If provided, the user can perform 2FA with phone OTP.
mfa.password	IGNORED	If it was not provided when the record was first imported, subsequent import CANNOT add it back.
mfa.totp	IGNORED	If it was not provided when the record was first imported, subsequent import CANNOT add it back.

Usage Example

The following is a detailed guide with examples of using the User Import API to bulk import users and check the status of tasks.

Import Users using User Import API