# Collections ## Creating Collections This article describes how to create collections in Advanced Usergrid. All entities are automatically associated with a corresponding collection based on the type property of the entity. You may create empty collections if you wish, but creating an entity of a new type will automatically create a corresponding collection for you. For example, creating a new custom "item" entity, creates an "items" collection. __Note__: Although not shown in the API examples below, you need to provide a valid access token with each API call. See Authenticating users and application clients for details. ### Creating a collection The following example shows how to create an empty collection. Alternatively, you can create a collection simply by creating a new entity with a 'type' property that corresponds to the collection you wish to create. For more on creating entities, see Creating Custom Data Entities ### Request Syntax curl -X POST https://api.usergrid.com/// Parameters Parameter Description --------- ----------- org Organization UUID or organization name app Application UUID or application name collection name Name of the collection to create. If the provided value is not a plural word, Usergrid will pluralize it. For example, providing 'item' will create a collection named 'items' but providing 'items' will not create 'itemses'. ### Example Request/Response Request: curl -X POST "https://api.usergrid.com/your-org/your-app/item" Response: { "action" : "post", "application" : "f34f4222-a166-11e2-a7f7-02e81adcf3d0", "params" : { }, "path" : "/items", "uri" : "http://api.usergrid.com/your-org/your-app/items", "entities" : [ ], "timestamp" : 1378857079220, "duration" : 31, "organization" : "your-org", "applicationName" : "your-app" } ## Retrieving Collections This article describes how to retrieve all of the entities in a collection.

Note


By default, the Usergrid API returns 10 entities per request. For collections with more than 10 entities, use the returned 'cursor' property to retrieve the next 10 entities in the result set. You may also use the LIMIT parameter in a query string to increase the number of results returned. For more information on using cursors, see [Query Parameters](../data-queries/query-parameters.html).

__Note__: Although not shown in the API examples below, you need to provide a valid access token with each API call. See Authenticating users and application clients for details. ### Retrieving sets of entities from a collection ### Request Syntax curl -X GET https://api.usergrid.com/// Parameters Parameter Description --------- ----------- org Organization UUID or organization name app Application UUID or application name collection Collection UUID or collection name ### Example Request/Response Request: curl -X GET "https://api.usergrid.com/your-org/your-app/items" Response: { "action" : "get", "application" : "f34f4222-a166-11e2-a7f7-02e81adcf3d0", "params" : { }, "path" : "/items", "uri" : "http://api.usergrid.com/your-org/your-app/items", "entities" : [ { "uuid" : "5bb76bca-1657-11e3-903f-9ff6c621a7a4", "type" : "item", "name" : "milk", "created" : 1378405020796, "modified" : 1378405020796, "metadata" : { "path" : "/items/5bb76bca-1657-11e3-903f-9ff6c621a7a4" }, "name" : "milk", "price" : "3.25" }, { "uuid" : "1a9356ba-1682-11e3-a72a-81581bbaf055", "type" : "item", "name" : "bread", "created" : 1378423379867, "modified" : 1378423379867, "metadata" : { "path" : "/items/1a9356ba-1682-11e3-a72a-81581bbaf055" }, "name" : "bread", "price" : "2.50" } ], "timestamp" : 1378426821261, "duration" : 35, "organization" : "your-org", "applicationName" : "your-app", "count" : 2 } ## Updating Collections This article describes how to perform batch updates on all entities in a collection. Batch updates require the use of a query string in the request, which can either specify all entities in the collection or a subset of entities for the update to be performed on. For more information on queries, see Querying your data. __Note__: Although not shown in the API examples below, you need to provide a valid access token with each API call. See Authenticating users and application clients for details. ### Batch updating entities in a collection ### Request Syntax curl -X PUT https://api.usergrid.com////?ql= -d {} Note the empty query string (ql=) appended to the URL. Parameters Parameter Description --------- ----------- org Organization UUID or organization name app Application UUID or application name collection Collection UUID or collection name property An entity property to be updated, formatted as a key-value pair. For example: {"property_1":"value_1", "property_2":"value_2",...} ### Example Request/Response Request: curl -X PUT https://api.usergrid.com/your-org/your-app/items/?ql= -d '{"availability":"in-stock"}' Note the empty ?ql= query string. Response: { "action" : "put", "application" : "f34f4222-a166-11e2-a7f7-02e81adcf3d0", "params" : { "ql" : [ "" ] }, "path" : "/items", "uri" : "http://api.usergrid.com/your-org/your-app/items", "entities" : [ { "uuid" : "31847b9a-1a62-11e3-be04-8d05e96f700d", "type" : "item", "name" : "milk", "price" : "3.25", "availability" : "in-stock" "created" : 1378849479113, "modified" : 1378849567301, "name" : "milk", }, { "uuid" : "3192ac6a-1a62-11e3-a24f-496ca1d42ce7", "type" : "item", "name" : "bread", "price" : "4.00", "availability" : "in-stock" "created" : 1378849479206, "modified" : 1378849567351, "name" : "bread", } ], "timestamp" : 1378849567280, "duration" : 207, "organization" : "your-org", "applicationName" : "your-app" } ## Deleting Collections This article describes how to batch delete entities in a collection. Batch deletes require the use of a query string in the request, which specifies a subset of entities to be deleted. For more information on queries, see Querying your data. Currently, collections cannot be deleted; however, you can delete all of the entities from a collection. __Note__: Although not shown in the API examples below, you need to provide a valid access token with each API call. See Authenticating users and application clients for details. ### Batch deleting entities in a collection ### Request Syntax curl -X DELETE https://api.usergrid.com////?ql= Parameters Parameter Description --------- ----------- org Organization UUID or organization name app Application UUID or application name collection Collection UUID or collection name query A query string that specifies the subset of entities to delete (for more information on queries, see Querying your data) ### Example Request/Response The following example will delete the first 5 entities in a collection. Request: curl -X DELETE https://api.usergrid.com/your-org/your-app/items/?ql="limit=5" Response: { "action" : "delete", "application" : "f34f4222-a166-11e2-a7f7-02e81adcf3d0", "params" : { "ql" : [ "" ] }, "path" : "/items", "uri" : "http://api.usergrid.com/your-org/your-app/items", "entities" : [ { "uuid" : "53fe3700-0abe-11e3-b1f7-1bd100b8059e", "type" : "item", "name" : "milk", "price" : "3.25", "created" : 1377129832047, "modified" : 1377129832047, "metadata" : { "path" : "/items/53fe3700-0abe-11e3-b1f7-1bd100b8059e" }, "name" : "milk" }, { "uuid" : "5ae1fa7a-0abe-11e3-89ab-6be0003c809b", "type" : "item", "name" : "bread", "price" : "4.00", "created" : 1377129843607, "modified" : 1377129843607, "metadata" : { "path" : "/items/5ae1fa7a-0abe-11e3-89ab-6be0003c809b" }, "name" : "bread" } ], "timestamp" : 1378848117272, "duration" : 12275, "organization" : "your-org", "applicationName" : "your-app" }