The older API methods mix in a lot of related data into each API response data item. For example, each punch contains the employee id, employeeFirstName, employeeLastName, employeePayrollId, etc. It is convenient to have all that information bundled in the punch, but it is also repetitive and makes the response content size larger.

Some of the newer API methods include a separate data section in the response called supplementalData, which includes certain data related to the subject of that API method. For example, the subject data would just have an employee id, and then the supplementalData would contain an employee dictionary, with the firstName and lastName for each employee id. This greatly reduce the response content size.

Furthermore, you can select which related data kinds you are interested in. By default, all supplemental data is included, as long as the source identifier is not excluded in Field Selection. To not include any supplement data at all, send supplementalData=no on the query string. To specify which supplement data to include, use the supplementalDataFields query string parameter. For example:

...?supplementalDataFields[]=employee&supplementalDataFields[]=department&...

We have on our roadmap to support even more granular field selection such as:

...?supplementalDataFields[]=employee.firstName&supplementalDataFields[]=employee.lastName&...

If you are interested in this capability, please contact support@fareclock.com, and let us know.