# Associating faces to a user


You can use the [AssociateFaces](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/rekognition/latest/APIReference/API_AssociatingFaces.html) operation to associate multiple individual faces with a single user. In order to associate a face with a user, you must first create a collection and a user. Note that the face vectors must reside in the same collection where the user vector resides.

**To associate faces (SDK)**

1. If you haven't already:

   1. Create or update a user with `AmazonRekognitionFullAccess` permissions. For more information, see [Step 1: Set up an AWS account and create a User](setting-up.md#setting-up-iam).

   1. Install and configure the AWS CLI and the AWS SDKs. For more information, see [Step 2: Set up the AWS CLI and AWS SDKs](setup-awscli-sdk.md).

1. Use the following examples to call the `AssociateFaces` operation.

------
#### [ Java ]

   This Java code example associates a face with a user.

   ```
   import java.util.Arrays;
   import java.util.List;
   
   import com.amazonaws.services.rekognition.AmazonRekognition;
   import com.amazonaws.services.rekognition.AmazonRekognitionClientBuilder;
   import com.amazonaws.services.rekognition.model.AssociateFacesRequest;
   import com.amazonaws.services.rekognition.model.AssociateFacesResult;
   
   
   public class AssociateFaces {
   
       public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
   
   
           AmazonRekognition rekognitionClient = AmazonRekognitionClientBuilder.defaultClient();
   
           /* Replace the below configurations to allow you successfully run the example
   
              @collectionId: The collection where user and faces are stored
              @userId: The user which faces will get associated to
              @faceIds: The list of face IDs that will get associated to the given user
              @userMatchThreshold: Minimum User match confidence required for the face to
                                  be associated with a User that has at least one faceID already associated
            */
   
           String collectionId = "MyCollection";
           String userId = "demoUser";
           String faceId1 = "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx";
           String faceId2 = "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx";
           List<String> faceIds = Arrays.asList(faceid1,faceid2);
   
           float userMatchThreshold = 0f;
           System.out.println("Associating faces to the existing user: " +
                   userId);
   
           AssociateFacesRequest request = new AssociateFacesRequest()
                   .withCollectionId(collectionId)
                   .withUserId(userId)
                   .withFaceIds(faceIds)
                   .withUserMatchThreshold(userMatchThreshold);
   
           AssociateFacesResult result = rekognitionClient.associateFaces(request);
   
           System.out.println("Successful face associations: " + result.getAssociatedFaces().size());
           System.out.println("Unsuccessful face associations: " + result.getUnsuccessfulFaceAssociations().size());
       }
   
   }
   ```

------
#### [ AWS CLI ]

   This AWS CLI command associates a face with a user, using the `associate-faces` CLI operation.

   ```
   aws rekognition associate-faces --user-id user-id --face-ids face-id-1 face-id-2
   --collection-id collection-name 
   --region region-name
   ```

------
#### [ Python ]

   This Python code example associates a face with a user. 

   ```
   from botocore.exceptions import ClientError
   import boto3
   import logging
   
   logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
   session = boto3.Session(profile_name='profile-name')
   client = session.client('rekognition')
   
   def associate_faces(collection_id, user_id, face_ids):
       """
       Associate stored faces within collection to the given user
   
       :param collection_id: The ID of the collection where user and faces are stored.
       :param user_id: The ID of the user that we want to associate faces to
       :param face_ids: The list of face IDs to be associated to the given user
   
       :return: response of AssociateFaces API
       """
       logger.info(f'Associating faces to user: {user_id}, {face_ids}')
       try:
           response = client.associate_faces(
               CollectionId=collection_id,
               UserId=user_id,
               FaceIds=face_ids
           )
           print(f'- associated {len(response["AssociatedFaces"])} faces')
       except ClientError:
           logger.exception("Failed to associate faces to the given user")
           raise
       else:
           print(response)
           return response
   
   def main():
       face_ids = ["faceId1", "faceId2"]
       collection_id = "collection-id"
       user_id = "user-id"
       associate_faces(collection_id, user_id, face_ids)
   
   if __name__ == "__main__":
       main()
   ```

------

## AssociateFaces operation response


The response for `AssociateFaces` includes the `UserStatus`, which is the status of the disassociation request, as well as a list of `FaceIds` to be associated. A list of `UnsuccessfulFaceAssociations` is also returned. After submitting a request to `AssociateFaces`, the operation may take a minute or so to complete. 

For this reason, the UserStatus is returned, which can have the following values: 
+ CREATED - Denotes that the ‘User’ is created successfully and no faces are associated to it currently. ‘User’ will be in this state before any successful ‘AssociateFaces’ call is made.
+ UPDATING - Denotes that the ‘User’ is being updated to reflect the newly associated/disassociated faces and will become ACTIVE in few seconds. Search results may contain ‘User’ in this state and customers can choose to ignore them from the returned results.
+ ACTIVE - Denotes that the** ‘**User**’ **is updated to reflect all associated/disassociated faces and is in a searchable state.

```
{
    "UnsuccessfulFaceAssociations": [
        {
            "Reasons": [
                "LOW_MATCH_CONFIDENCE"
            ], 
            "FaceId": "f5817d37-94f6-0000-bfee-1a2b3c4d5e6f", 
            "Confidence": 0.9375374913215637
        }, 
        {
            "Reasons": [
                "ASSOCIATED_TO_A_DIFFERENT_IDENTITY"
            ], 
            "FaceId": "851cb847-dccc-1111-bfee-1a2b3c4d5e6f", 
            "UserId": "demoUser2"
        }
    ], 
    "UserStatus": "UPDATING", 
    "AssociatedFaces": [
        {
            "FaceId": "35ebbb41-7f67-2222-bfee-1a2b3c4d5e6f"
        }
    ]
}
```