# Api limits and issues;

**URL:** <https://api-discuss.freeagent.com/t/api-limits-and-issues/359>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [21 January 2015 15:56 UTC](https://api-discuss.freeagent.com/t/api-limits-and-issues/359 "2015-01-21T15:56:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![nd1](https://api-discuss.freeagent.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/c0e974/32.png) [@nd1](https://api-discuss.freeagent.com/u/nd1)\
**Post date:** [21 January 2015 15:56 UTC](https://api-discuss.freeagent.com/t/api-limits-and-issues/359/1 "2015-01-21T15:56:15Z")

</div>

Hey guys,

Can you explain why the API uses pagination, is this a limit on my trial  
account? I’m running into some limitations and it seems to stem from only  
been given 25 results per request. I’ve looked into it and found the  
documentation which mentions the pagination but I don’t understand the  
reasons for it.

If I want to output a list of all projects and all contacts but to do so I  
have two choices;

1, import all api results into my own database and run this on a  
cron/schedule to make sure we get all items.  
2, somehow figure out how many projects are on the system in total and work  
out how many pages there are and then begin getting the api results one  
page at a time.

Both of these causes problems, how am I supposed to give the user the  
ability to show all projects where Organisation Name = Test if I cannot get  
a list of all projects to begin with?

Am I missing something in the documentation or not understanding what  
features the API provides? Can I get a list of filtered projects via the  
API?

Also, to look up a single project or update it you need the ID but this  
only seems to be included in the response as part of the URL so I had to  
parse the URL to get ID, is this how it is supposed to be done? Why is the  
ID not included as a standalone field in the project data?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nd1](https://api-discuss.freeagent.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/c0e974/32.png) [@nd1](https://api-discuss.freeagent.com/u/nd1)\
**Post date:** [10 February 2015 09:32 UTC](https://api-discuss.freeagent.com/t/api-limits-and-issues/359/2 "2015-02-10T09:32:29Z")

</div>

Thanks for your response David.

Your explanation clears up a lot of misunderstandings I had and I will use  
the points you mention to improve my code.On Monday, January 26, 2015 at 12:33:28 PM UTC, David Jones wrote:

> Hey there,
> 
> Thanks for your message and sorry it has taken me a few days to get back  
> to you.
> 
> Response pagination isn’t a limit of your trial account, it’s the default  
> behaviour for all our API endpoints.
> 
> We spread the data across multiple pages to avoid flooding your  
> integration with enormous response bodies.  
> It’s not uncommon for our older and busier accounts to have hundreds of  
> even thousands of contacts, projects and invoices.  
> If all invoices (for example) were to be enumerated in a single response,  
> the payload would be enormous!
> 
> If the pagination is getting in the way, there are certain headers you can  
> set to make things easier.  
> For example, rather than the default 25 items per page, you can request  
> (upto) 100 items in a single response. That way, you can fetch an entire  
> collection of entities (invoices, contacts) in fewer API requests:
> 
> You can also easily jump to the last page of pagination using the URLs in  
> the “Link” header at the top of each response:
> 
> [https://api.freeagent.com/v2/invoices?page=10&per\_page=50](https://api.freeagent.com/v2/invoices?page=10&per_page=50); rel=“last”
> 
> Note that the page number is included as an argument in the URL, so once  
> you know the number of the “last” page, you can easily determine how many  
> pages need to be traversed to ensure you gather all of the data.
> 
> To answer your final question, about parsing a project ID from the URL,  
> you should be able to reference the project using the absolute (full) URL  
> directly:  
> Infact, that’s the way our API is designed to handle all references to  
> existing entities, using their _full_ URL (rather than purely their ID).
> 
> I hope this helps to get you started!
> 
> Dave J
> 
> On 21 January 2015 at 15:56, \<n…@pcmmedia.eu \<javascript:\>\> wrote:
> 
> > Hey guys,
> > 
> > Can you explain why the API uses pagination, is this a limit on my trial  
> > account? I’m running into some limitations and it seems to stem from only  
> > been given 25 results per request. I’ve looked into it and found the  
> > documentation which mentions the pagination but I don’t understand the  
> > reasons for it.
> > 
> > If I want to output a list of all projects and all contacts but to do so  
> > I have two choices;
> > 
> > 1, import all api results into my own database and run this on a  
> > cron/schedule to make sure we get all items.  
> > 2, somehow figure out how many projects are on the system in total and  
> > work out how many pages there are and then begin getting the api results  
> > one page at a time.
> > 
> > Both of these causes problems, how am I supposed to give the user the  
> > ability to show all projects where Organisation Name = Test if I cannot get  
> > a list of all projects to begin with?
> > 
> > Am I missing something in the documentation or not understanding what  
> > features the API provides? Can I get a list of filtered projects via the  
> > API?
> > 
> > Also, to look up a single project or update it you need the ID but this  
> > only seems to be included in the response as part of the URL so I had to  
> > parse the URL to get ID, is this how it is supposed to be done? Why is the  
> > ID not included as a standalone field in the project data?
> > 
> > –  
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups  
> > “FreeAgent API” group.  
> > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an  
> > email to [freeagent\_ap...@googlegroups.com](mailto:freeagent_ap...@googlegroups.com) \<javascript:\>.  
> > To post to this group, send email to [freeag...@googlegroups.com](mailto:freeag...@googlegroups.com)  
> > \<javascript:\>.  
> > Visit this group at [http://groups.google.com/group/freeagent\_api](http://groups.google.com/group/freeagent_api).  
> > For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout).
> 
> –  
> David Jones  
> Senior Support Engineer
> 
> FreeAgent

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![David\_Jones](https://api-discuss.freeagent.com/user_avatar/api-discuss.freeagent.com/david_jones/32/55_2.png) [@David\_Jones](https://api-discuss.freeagent.com/u/David_Jones)\
**Post date:** [26 January 2015 12:33 UTC](https://api-discuss.freeagent.com/t/api-limits-and-issues/359/3 "2015-01-26T12:33:27Z")

</div>

Hey there,

Thanks for your message and sorry it has taken me a few days to get back to  
you.

Response pagination isn’t a limit of your trial account, it’s the default  
behaviour for all our API endpoints.

We spread the data across multiple pages to avoid flooding your integration  
with enormous response bodies.  
It’s not uncommon for our older and busier accounts to have hundreds of  
even thousands of contacts, projects and invoices.  
If all invoices (for example) were to be enumerated in a single response,  
the payload would be enormous!

If the pagination is getting in the way, there are certain headers you can  
set to make things easier.  
For example, rather than the default 25 items per page, you can request  
(upto) 100 items in a single response. That way, you can fetch an entire  
collection of entities (invoices, contacts) in fewer API requests:

You can also easily jump to the last page of pagination using the URLs in  
the “Link” header at the top of each response:

[https://api.freeagent.com/v2/invoices?page=10&per\_page=50](https://api.freeagent.com/v2/invoices?page=10&per_page=50); rel=“last”

Note that the page number is included as an argument in the URL, so once  
you know the number of the “last” page, you can easily determine how many  
pages need to be traversed to ensure you gather all of the data.

To answer your final question, about parsing a project ID from the URL, you  
should be able to reference the project using the absolute (full) URL  
directly:  
Infact, that’s the way our API is designed to handle all references to  
existing entities, using their _full_ URL (rather than purely their ID).

I hope this helps to get you started!

Dave JOn 21 January 2015 at 15:56, [nd@pcmmedia.eu](mailto:nd@pcmmedia.eu) wrote:

> Hey guys,
> 
> Can you explain why the API uses pagination, is this a limit on my trial  
> account? I’m running into some limitations and it seems to stem from only  
> been given 25 results per request. I’ve looked into it and found the  
> documentation which mentions the pagination but I don’t understand the  
> reasons for it.
> 
> If I want to output a list of all projects and all contacts but to do so I  
> have two choices;
> 
> 1, import all api results into my own database and run this on a  
> cron/schedule to make sure we get all items.  
> 2, somehow figure out how many projects are on the system in total and  
> work out how many pages there are and then begin getting the api results  
> one page at a time.
> 
> Both of these causes problems, how am I supposed to give the user the  
> ability to show all projects where Organisation Name = Test if I cannot get  
> a list of all projects to begin with?
> 
> Am I missing something in the documentation or not understanding what  
> features the API provides? Can I get a list of filtered projects via the  
> API?
> 
> Also, to look up a single project or update it you need the ID but this  
> only seems to be included in the response as part of the URL so I had to  
> parse the URL to get ID, is this how it is supposed to be done? Why is the  
> ID not included as a standalone field in the project data?
> 
> –  
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups  
> “FreeAgent API” group.  
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an  
> email to [freeagent\_api+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com](mailto:freeagent_api+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com).  
> To post to this group, send email to [freeagent\_api@googlegroups.com](mailto:freeagent_api@googlegroups.com).  
> Visit this group at [http://groups.google.com/group/freeagent\_api](http://groups.google.com/group/freeagent_api).  
> For more options, visit [https://groups.google.com/d/optout](https://groups.google.com/d/optout).

David Jones  
Senior Support Engineer

FreeAgent