title: IBM Connections: userid vs key - Why has connection multiple identifier for a single user?
body: <p>When I look at the source of a profile page like <code>https://&lt;connections-host&gt;/profiles/html/profileView.do?userid=98A10FD8-FCC3-5DD7-C125-6A9B0055D8C8</code> I see two kind of ids in the page source:</p>
  
  <pre><code>profilesData.displayedUser = { 
          key: "7a74e3bf-6cf4-40cd-a593-801275661353",
          dn: "&lt;dn&gt;",
          displayName: "Alice Someone", 
          userid:"98A10FD8-FCC3-5DD7-C125-6A9B0055D8C8", 
          // ...
  };
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><code>userid</code> seems like a regular GUID for the user, that's clear for me. But why do we have an additional <code>key</code> attribute? It also looks like another GUID but lowercase. </p>
  
  <h2>Connections API</h2>
  
  <p>The reason why I'm asking is: <a href="https://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/lcwiki.nsf/xpAPIViewer.xsp?lookupName=IBM+Connections+5.5+API+Documentation#action=openDocument&amp;res_title=Retrieving_a_profile_entry_ic55&amp;content=apicontent" rel="nofollow noreferrer">IBM's User API</a> asks for a <code>key</code> attribute, e.g. <code>/profiles/atom/profileEntry.do?key=7a74e3bf-6cf4-40cd-a593-801275661353</code>. We can also call <code>/profiles/atom/profileEntry.do?userid=98A10FD8-FCC3-5DD7-C125-6A9B0055D8C8</code>, altough this is not official documentated.</p>
  
  <p>Can someone explain why we have two ids? And what is the reason for using <code>key</code> instead of <code>userid</code> here? It disagrees the concept of an id to be unique. </p>