Use this reference when you call the Certifications API directly instead of using the Console. It explains integration-only behavior for activities and credits, including how to list every activity of one type, list the credits created by a registration, and send many changes in one request.
Listing Activities and Credits by a Related Record
| What you can list | What you need to supply | Rules |
|---|---|---|
| Every activity of one activity type | The activity type's identifier | You must include the identifier. Results return one page at a time, so follow the paging key until you have retrieved every activity. |
| The credits a course registration produced | The course registration's identifier | Results return one page at a time, so follow the paging key until you have retrieved every credit. |
| The credits an event registration produced | The event registration's identifier | Results return one page at a time, so follow the paging key until you have retrieved every credit. |
| Every certification credit on your account | Nothing beyond your account credentials | The List Credits endpoint returns every certification credit on your account, not only credits tied to one registration. |
You will not see these options together on one Console screen. They are for applications and integrations that already know a type or registration identifier and need every record it produced, without searching for each record one at a time.
A related endpoint returns a certification record by ID. In that response, the related organization appears in the organization_id field.
If you import certification history and later correct a contact's name, the earlier course registration keeps the display-name data it received during import. Correcting the contact's name afterward does not automatically refresh that copied value on existing registration records.
Running Many Activity or Credit Changes in One Request
You can send one batch to create, read, update, and delete activity and credit records. You can also ask Rhythm to check the same batch without applying it, then return the outcome for each item.
This is the mechanism behind bulk imports of activity and credit history. Because activities and credits are separate record types, loading certification history in bulk is usually a two-step process: import activities first, then import the credits that go with them, using Rhythm's bulk operations tools. The standard import mapping does not create credits automatically from imported activities in one step. To do that, you need a custom-built process that creates both from the same file.
A certification activity requires an activity type, so at least one suitable certification activity type must already exist in your account before you import activities. When you update existing certification history instead of creating it, update activity quantity and credit quantity separately. Mass Update can change each one, but it cannot change both together in a single operation, so plan a separate mass update for each.
Tip
If you are loading historical activity and credit records for the first time, plan two passes: one to create the activity records, and another to create the credit records that reference them. A spreadsheet is usually the simplest way to prepare a bulk credit update through Mass Update. Map each target credit record's ID to its required field values, such as contact, date, type, quantity, status, and origin, before you run the update. Pasting only a credit ID into the expression field is not enough on its own — Mass Update needs the field values along with the ID. Once the update runs, the results are visible on the certification record's Credits tab in the 360 view.
Tip
In Mass Update, the Activity Credits field on a certification activity is a complex field. It appears as an array in the mass update definition, so you can update it only through an expression, not through a simple value.
When you import continuing-education activities and credits this way, Rhythm validates each row in your file independently against the required fields, value types, and a matching candidate found by exact identifier. A row that passes is created as a new record. A row that fails is rejected without blocking the other rows in the same file. This import creates new activity and credit records only; it does not overwrite existing records, keep historical versions, normalize values, or infer missing data for you.
Writing Back Course Completions from an External LMS
If an external learning system needs to report that someone completed a course, write that completion into Certifications as a certification credit linked to the course registration, and mark the course registration completed. Do not record it as a generic activity. This keeps the completion tied to the certifications data model and gives you a completion status you can query directly from course registrations.
To create the credit, include the credit type's identifier, the linked course registration's identifier, the contact's identifier, the date, the quantity, the status, and, optionally, an expiration date. When Rhythm receives this request, it also marks the linked course registration completed.
The certifications API endpoints most relevant to this pattern are listing credit types, creating credits, updating course registrations, and listing registrations by student. Use these together to look up what you need and write the completion back.
Related
- Update Records in Bulk covers the standard way to import or change many records at once, including activities and credits, without calling the API directly.
- Map File Columns to Rhythm Fields covers how you match your import file's columns to Rhythm fields during that two-step process.