User Portal searching (soft launch only)

Owned by Jo Burrell (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Mar 03, 2022 by Steven Baker (Unlicensed)
4 min read

The user portal for the Australian Death Check service is a limited and interim option to enable Data Service Brokers to use the service while their API connection is being built under soft launch arrangements.

** Please note the portal “look and feel” is subject to change throughout the soft launch period. **

Searches of Data Sets available in the Australian Death Check can be completed by entering the necessary values within the search fields. Once a Data Set is selected, the relevant search fields will display.

The example below is the Exact Name and DOB Data Set, where the full date of birth, full given names (including middle names) and surname must be entered. To complete the transaction, select the “Search” button.

Where a match is located, the results will be returned on the page with the approved reference data (e.g. state of registration, ACR number and date of death):

Select the “Reset” button in the search section to perform another search.

If no matches are found, the following will display:


Bulk Search - Batch Upload

The bulk search supports CSV or TSV file formats, and must conform to the Australian Death Check service specifications outlined in this wiki.

There is a 100mb file size limit for the bulk search.

Bulk search performance is impacted based on the number of matches found. The service can match at approximately 60,000 records per second. Each match found has at least 2 milliseconds additional time. This number increases to approximately 10 milliseconds when reference data is returned for matched records.

It is recommended that only the necessary data items as per the required search parameters are included in the file. The inclusion of other fields may impact the performance of the bulk search.

Creating a file

A header record must exist on the first line of the file. This must contain column labels as they are configured for the data set. The values required for searches must match the requirements for the data set as per the single query process. In most cases this is name and date of birth or name and date of death.

If your file contains information other than the search parameters for the data set, the service will ignore that information. An ID (‘column name of your ID’) must be included in the file. This is some type of unique identifier applied by your agency for the record to enable the match results to be linked back to the record. If you do not have a unique identifier, this number can be generated sequentially (e.g. 1 through 100 for a file containing 100 records).

Examples of a CSV that meets the DMS specifications for a data set with given names (GN), surname (SN), and date of birth (DB) as the search parameters is:

Reference,GN,SN,DB,SEX
123,Jane Mary,Doe,01/01/2000,F
234,John Henry,Doe,01/01/1990,M
345,John,Citizen,01/01/1980,M

In this example, the service would ignore the (SEX) values when the matching process runs as it is not part of the search parameters for the data set.

 To perform a bulk match (based on the above example):

  1.  Select the ‘Choose File’ button and attach the relevant agency file.

  2. Enter “Reference” in the ‘Column name of your ID’ field in the bulk search box.

  3. Select ‘Comma (CSV)’ as the file type from the drop down.

  4. Select the ‘Upload for matching’ button.

  5. When the search commences, a message will appear. When the matched results have successfully completed, they file link will be available, and you can download the results.

  6. The results file only shows records where a match was obtained. Records where a match is not found are not included in the results file. The results file can be cross referenced with client data using the SOURCEID field.