LinkedIn Developer Network

• You must use an access token with this call for either public or standard profile. There is no way to get a profile without representing the user making the request.

Identifying the profile to return

There are several ways to identify the user profile you want to return:

• ~: Use the tilde character to indicate that you want the profile of the current user. The access token will be used to determine the profile to return.

  GET	http://api.linkedin.com/v1/people/~

• member_id: If you know the member token of the profile you want to display, you can use it as the key value for this API call. You should include id= to indicate that you are using a member token. Requesting by member token only returns a profile from the logged in person's three degree network and doesn't return any out-of-network profiles. You cannot use a member token to get a public profile.

  GET	http://api.linkedin.com/v1/people/id=abcdefg

• Search result: If you found this profile through a search result, the search result should include an API URL that you can use to make this call, in addition to HTTP headers that would be required to access an out of network profile.
• Public Profile URL:Using the Public Profile URL will return a profile from inside or outside the logged in member's three degree network. The Public Profile URL must be URL escaped.

  GET	http://api.linkedin.com/v1/people/url=<public-profile-url>

By default, only the following fields are returned for a profile request:

To request any fields beyond this limited set, you must use Field Selectors.

The URL to retrieve the standard and public profiles are the same. To return a public profile, simply add  :public to the end of the profile. Without that, the call will return a standard profile.

• To see just a thumbnail version of the profile, do not include anything after the profile key value.
  http://api.linkedin.com/v1/people/id=abcdefg
• To select your own fields, use the field selector notation: :(field1,field2,field3...). When using field selectors, all fields must be at the same level of depth in the XML.
  http://api.linkedin.com/v1/people/id=12345:(first-name,last-name)

This is the XML you will see when making a call to get the current user's profile. The profile for the access token will be used. A successful call returns an XML document in the following format:

<person>
  <id>
  <first-name />
  <last-name />
  <headline>
  <location>
    <name>
    <country>
      <code>
    </country>
  </location>
  <industry>
  <distance>
  <relation-to-viewer>
    <distance>
  </relation-to-viewer>
  <num-recommenders>
  <current-status>
  <current-status-timestamp>
  <connections total="" >
  <summary/>
  <positions total="">
    <position>
      <id>
      <title>
      <summary>
      <start-date>
        <year>
        <month>
      </start-date>
      <is-current>
      <company>
        <name>
      </company>
    </position>
  <educations total="">
    <education>
      <id>
      <school-name>
      <degree>
      <start-date>
        <year>
      </start-date>
      <end-date>
        <year>
      </end-date>
    </education>
    </education>
  </educations>
  <member-url-resources>
    <member-url>
      <url>
      <name>
    </member-url>
  <api-standard-profile-request>
    <url>
    <headers>
      <http-header>
        <name>
        <value>
      </http-header>
    </headers>
  </api-standard-profile-request>
  <site-standard-profile-request>
    <url>
  </site-standard-profile-request>
  <picture-url>
</person>

This is the XML you will see when making a call to get a profile other than the current user. This could include a first, second, third degree, or out of network profile. A successful call returns an XML document in the following format:

<person>
  <id>
  <first-name>
  <last-name>
  <headline>
  <location>
    <name>
    <country>
      <code>
    </country>
  </location>
  <industry>
  <distance>
  <num-recommenders>
  <current-status>
  <current-status-timestamp>
  <connections total="" >
  <summary/>
  <positions total="">
    <position>
      <id>
      <title>
      <summary>
      <start-date>
        <year>
        <month>
      </start-date>
      <is-current>
      <company>
        <name>
      </company>
    </position>
  </positions>
  <member-url-resources>
    <member-url>
      <url>
      <name>
    </member-url>
  <api-standard-profile-request>
    <url>
    <headers>
      <http-header>
        <name>
        <value>
      </http-header>
    </headers>
  </api-standard-profile-request>
  <site-standard-profile-request>
    <url>
  </site-standard-profile-request>
  <picture-url>
</person>

For your convenience, the XML returns two URLs that let you easily display a standard profile.

• api-standard-profile-request/url is the URL you use to return a standard profile.
• site-standard-profile-request/url is URL you use to display a standard profile on LinkedIn.com