Advanced Searching using CQL

Pagination in the REST API

The examples on this page use curl, and the responses are piped into python -mjson.tool

Why pagination?

A lot of the time, when you're making calls to the Confluence REST API, there'll be a lot of results to return. For that reason, we paginate the results to make sure responses are easier to handle.

Let's say your initial call is asking for all the pages in a Confluence instance; the result could be a massive response with hundreds of thousands of pages. That's not a good place to start.

Rather than that, we've built in a default limit on results, but we recommend you always explicitly set the limit parameter to ensure you know how many results per page you'll get. Don't rely on the defaults as they'll be different depending on what parts of the response you're expanding, so the response you get might not be what you expected.

Set the limit parameter

For example, you might need to request all pages in the Demonstration space (ds is the spaceKey) of your Confluence instance, but you only want the results 5 at a time. The endpoint we're going to hit here to specifically get the pages in that space is /rest/api/space/{spaceKey}/content/{type}, with the type being page (you could also use blogpost).

Your GET would look something like this:

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curl -u admin:admin -X GET "http://localhost:8080/confluence/rest/api/space/ds/content/page?limit=5" | python -mjson.tool

Note the limit parameter in this call is set to 5, so the response shows items 0 through 4.

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{
    "_links": {
        "base": "http://localhost:8080/confluence",
        "context": "",
        "next": "/rest/api/space/ds/content/page?limit=5&start=5",
        "self": "http://localhost:8080/confluence/rest/api/space/ds/content/page"
    },
    "limit": 5,
    "results": [
        {
            "_expandable": {
                "ancestors": "",
                "body": "",
                "children": "/rest/api/content/98308/child",
                "container": "",
                "descendants": "/rest/api/content/98308/descendant",
                "history": "/rest/api/content/98308/history",
                "metadata": "",
                "space": "/rest/api/space/ds",
                "version": ""
            },
            "_links": {
                "self": "http://localhost:8080/confluence/rest/api/content/98308",
                "tinyui": "/x/BIAB",
                "webui": "/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=98308"
            },
            "id": "98308",
            "status": "current",
            "title": "What is Confluence? (step 1 of 9)",
            "type": "page"
        },
        {
            "_expandable": {
                "ancestors": "",
                "body": "",
                "children": "/rest/api/content/98309/child",
                "container": "",
                "descendants": "/rest/api/content/98309/descendant",
                "history": "/rest/api/content/98309/history",
                "metadata": "",
                "space": "/rest/api/space/ds",
                "version": ""
            },
            "_links": {
                "self": "http://localhost:8080/confluence/rest/api/content/98309",
                "tinyui": "/x/BYAB",
                "webui": "/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=98309"
            },
            "id": "98309",
            "status": "current",
            "title": "A quick look at the editor (step 2 of 9)",
            "type": "page"
        },
        {
            "_expandable": {
                "ancestors": "",
                "body": "",
                "children": "/rest/api/content/98306/child",
                "container": "",
                "descendants": "/rest/api/content/98306/descendant",
                "history": "/rest/api/content/98306/history",
                "metadata": "",
                "space": "/rest/api/space/ds",
                "version": ""
            },
            "_links": {
                "self": "http://localhost:8080/confluence/rest/api/content/98306",
                "tinyui": "/x/AoAB",
                "webui": "/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=98306"
            },
            "id": "98306",
            "status": "current",
            "title": "Get serious with a table (step 5 of 9)",
            "type": "page"
        },
        {
            "_expandable": {
                "ancestors": "",
                "body": "",
                "children": "/rest/api/content/98307/child",
                "container": "",
                "descendants": "/rest/api/content/98307/descendant",
                "history": "/rest/api/content/98307/history",
                "metadata": "",
                "space": "/rest/api/space/ds",
                "version": ""
            },
            "_links": {
                "self": "http://localhost:8080/confluence/rest/api/content/98307",
                "tinyui": "/x/A4AB",
                "webui": "/display/ds/Welcome+to+Confluence"
            },
            "id": "98307",
            "status": "current",
            "title": "Welcome to Confluence",
            "type": "page"
        },
        {
            "_expandable": {
                "ancestors": "",
                "body": "",
                "children": "/rest/api/content/98305/child",
                "container": "",
                "descendants": "/rest/api/content/98305/descendant",
                "history": "/rest/api/content/98305/history",
                "metadata": "",
                "space": "/rest/api/space/ds",
                "version": ""
            },
            "_links": {
                "self": "http://localhost:8080/confluence/rest/api/content/98305",
                "tinyui": "/x/AYAB",
                "webui": "/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=98305"
            },
            "id": "98305",
            "status": "current",
            "title": "Share your page with a team member (step 9 of 9)",
            "type": "page"
        }
    ],
    "size": 5,
    "start": 0
}

In the above response, line 5 shows the link for the next page of results (/rest/api/space/ds/content/page?limit=5&start=5). Note there's no previous link in the response, meaning there's no results before this page.

GET the next page of results

You can then make a call to return the next page. The start parameter in the next link is 5, so the next page of results will show items 5 through 9.

The call will be as follows:

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curl -u admin:admin -X GET "http://localhost:8080/confluence/rest/api/space/ds/content/page?limit=5&start=5" | python -mjson.tool

Which will deliver the next set of results, this time with links for the next and previous pages.

You could use these next and previous links to submit calls via next and previous buttons in a UI, for example.

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{
    "_links": {
        "base": "http://localhost:8080/confluence",
        "context": "",
        "next": "/rest/api/space/ds/content/page?limit=5&start=10",
        "prev": "/rest/api/space/ds/content/page?limit=5&start=0",
        "self": "http://localhost:8080/confluence/rest/api/space/ds/content/page"
    },
    "limit": 5,
    "results": [
        {
            "_expandable": {
                "ancestors": "",
                "body": "",
                "children": "/rest/api/content/98314/child",
                "container": "",
                "descendants": "/rest/api/content/98314/descendant",
                "history": "/rest/api/content/98314/history",
                "metadata": "",
                "space": "/rest/api/space/ds",
                "version": ""
            },
            "_links": {
                "self": "http://localhost:8080/confluence/rest/api/content/98314",
                "tinyui": "/x/CoAB",
                "webui": "/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=98314"
            },
            "id": "98314",
            "status": "current",
            "title": "Let's edit this page (step 3 of 9)",
            "type": "page"
        },
        {
            "_expandable": {
                "ancestors": "",
                "body": "",
                "children": "/rest/api/content/98313/child",
                "container": "",
                "descendants": "/rest/api/content/98313/descendant",
                "history": "/rest/api/content/98313/history",
                "metadata": "",
                "space": "/rest/api/space/ds",
                "version": ""
            },
            "_links": {
                "self": "http://localhost:8080/confluence/rest/api/content/98313",
                "tinyui": "/x/CYAB",
                "webui": "/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=98313"
            },
            "id": "98313",
            "status": "current",
            "title": "Tell people what you think in a comment (step 8 of 9)",
            "type": "page"
        },
        {
            "_expandable": {
                "ancestors": "",
                "body": "",
                "children": "/rest/api/content/98312/child",
                "container": "",
                "descendants": "/rest/api/content/98312/descendant",
                "history": "/rest/api/content/98312/history",
                "metadata": "",
                "space": "/rest/api/space/ds",
                "version": ""
            },
            "_links": {
                "self": "http://localhost:8080/confluence/rest/api/content/98312",
                "tinyui": "/x/CIAB",
                "webui": "/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=98312"
            },
            "id": "98312",
            "status": "current",
            "title": "Prettify the page with an image (step 4 of 9)",
            "type": "page"
        },
        {
            "_expandable": {
                "ancestors": "",
                "body": "",
                "children": "/rest/api/content/98311/child",
                "container": "",
                "descendants": "/rest/api/content/98311/descendant",
                "history": "/rest/api/content/98311/history",
                "metadata": "",
                "space": "/rest/api/space/ds",
                "version": ""
            },
            "_links": {
                "self": "http://localhost:8080/confluence/rest/api/content/98311",
                "tinyui": "/x/B4AB",
                "webui": "/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=98311"
            },
            "id": "98311",
            "status": "current",
            "title": "Lay out your page (step 6 of 9)",
            "type": "page"
        },
        {
            "_expandable": {
                "ancestors": "",
                "body": "",
                "children": "/rest/api/content/98310/child",
                "container": "",
                "descendants": "/rest/api/content/98310/descendant",
                "history": "/rest/api/content/98310/history",
                "metadata": "",
                "space": "/rest/api/space/ds",
                "version": ""
            },
            "_links": {
                "self": "http://localhost:8080/confluence/rest/api/content/98310",
                "tinyui": "/x/BoAB",
                "webui": "/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=98310"
            },
            "id": "98310",
            "status": "current",
            "title": "Learn the wonders of autoconvert (step 7 of 9)",
            "type": "page"
        }
    ],
    "size": 5,
    "start": 5
}

How do I know if there are more pages?

When the response doesn't contain a link to the next page of results, you know that you've reached the end. Below you'll see the call for the next page of results, and the response which doesn't contain a next link.

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curl -u admin:admin -X GET "http://localhost:8080/confluence/rest/api/space/ds/content/page?limit=5&start=10" | python -mjson.tool
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{
    "_links": {
        "base": "http://localhost:8080/confluence",
        "context": "",
        "prev": "/rest/api/space/ds/content/page?limit=5&start=5",
        "self": "http://localhost:8080/confluence/rest/api/space/ds/content/page"
    },
    "limit": 5,
    "results": [
        {
            "_expandable": {
                "ancestors": "",
                "body": "",
                "children": "/rest/api/content/589845/child",
                "container": "",
                "descendants": "/rest/api/content/589845/descendant",
                "history": "/rest/api/content/589845/history",
                "metadata": "",
                "space": "/rest/api/space/ds",
                "version": ""
            },
            "_links": {
                "self": "http://localhost:8080/confluence/rest/api/content/589845",
                "tinyui": "/x/FQAJ",
                "webui": "/display/ds/The+eleventh+page"
            },
            "id": "589845",
            "status": "current",
            "title": "The eleventh page",
            "type": "page"
        }
    ],
    "size": 1,
    "start": 10
}

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