Upcoming V1 Web Services Deprecation & BETA Testing

Melissa’s V1 Web Services will be replaced by the new technology version on April 8, 2020. If you are a current user of the original V1 Web Services, you should have received a product advisory email containing the information below. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to the Melissa tech support team here.

About the New Technology

The new versions of our data quality web services are more modern, private, secure and contain more features due to the shift in technology that used to support our old services. We have worked to maintain our service and keep them functioning as they have been for many years however, we have reached a point where the old technology simply must be removed for privacy and security reasons.

We recommend you to switch to our current Personator Web Service. Beyond address verification, you can also append missing data pieces, update a changed address, and verify that a name belongs to an address. If you are interested, please contact a sales representative and see our Wiki for the service here.

If you do not have the time or resources to make the switch to our Personator Web Service, we have worked on an in-place replacement of our V1 Web Services that will imitate their functionality while using new technology that allows them to be private, safe, secure and supported. However, we cannot guarantee that every possible input will result in the exact same response. To mitigate this possible issue, we are releasing a BETA version of V1 for our clients to try.

Accessing the BETA Version

The BETA version allows you to preview and test it before we make the switch. If you run into an issue, please contact tech@melissa.com. It is imperative you perform this test and report any issues that may arise. Otherwise, we will not have the information or the time to make adjustments to accommodate your application. Below are two methods to access these BETA versions.

Method 1: Access the BETA test by simply pointing your application to the new URL that corresponds to the one you are currently using:

Current URL

https://xml.melissadata.com/xml.asp

https://ws.melissadata.com/dqws/address.asmx

BETA URL

https://xml-b.melissadata.com/xml.asp

https://ws-b.melissadata.com/dqws/address.asmx

Method 2: If you do not have the ability to change the URL in your application, you can also change the host file on your machine to point to BETA. Here is a tutorial about the process: https://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-7/windows-7-hosts-file/

In your host file, add these two lines to the bottom and save.

12.203.219.12 xml.melissadata.com

12.203.219.12 ws.melissadata.com

Note

These two test methods are for compatibility testing to make sure you will not have an issue with the new version. Once we make the switch on April 8, 2020, the official URLs will be updated to use the new technology and these test methods will be turned off. Once your test is successful, simply switch back to your old state and you will not be affected by the switch.

Contact

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to the Melissa tech support team here.