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Sample queries

Sitefinity does not support all of the oData query syntax. This is because oData was made to support the Entity Framework LINQ API. Since Sitefinity is using Telerik DataAccess, not every method that is available from the Entity Framework API is available for the DataAcess API.

Following are sample queries that are supported by Sitefinity. The URL /api/default/newsitems is used for demonstration purposes: 

  • /api/default/newsitems
  • /api/default/newsitems/$count
    Returns the count of the items
  • /api/default/newsitems?$select=Title,UrlName
    Selects only a small portion of the available fields
  • /api/default/newsitems?$expand=RelatedImages
    Returns the related images.
    In this case, RelatedImages is the exact name of the custom field that is set in the backend.
    Expand will return all the properties of the related items of the news type.

    NOTE: Expand only supports a single level of expansion.

  • /api/default/newsitems?$filter=
    Append to the end of the query string a filter for fields, taxonomies, string filters, and filter by parent field.
  • /api/default/newsitems?$skip=10&$top=20
    Returns the paged items.

Query comments

Comments are exposed as complex property to content types which supports comments.

To query comments, use api/default/newsitems(<news_id>)/Comments

Query taxonomies

Two types of taxonomies are exposed – flat and hierarchical.

  • To query all classifications (taxonomies), use api/default/taxonomies
    A list with all created classifications appear. It lists the TaxaUrl, the Id, and other properties.
  • To query all taxons of a particular particular taxonomy, use 
    api/default/<Taxa-Url?$filter=TaxonomyId eq <taxonomy_id>
    A list of all taxons belonging to the taxonomy appears
    For example, enter
    /api/default/flat-taxa?$filter=TaxonomyId eq cb0f3a19-a211-48a7-88ec-77495c0f5374

Query multilingual items

To query (or filter) items in different cultures, you must add the sf_culture query-string parameter. The valid values for this parameter are any valid .NET culture codes.
For example, en, en-US, de, etc.

NOTE: By supplying the culture filter, only the live items are filtered based upon their published versions. If you are querying draft items, this does not apply.
For example when querying news items like using api/default/newsitems?sf_culture=en, only the items that are translated in the English language will be returned.

Query items from a different provider

In order to query items from a different provider then the default one, you should add the sf_provider parameter. For example, api/default/newsitems?sf_provider=OpenAccessDataProvider

For more information, see your custom service documentation available at /api/default/sfhelp

For more information about oData syntax, see oData URL Conventions.

Multisite considerations

Web services are designed to work outside the context of sites. If you have a site with a subfolder registered in the multisite configuration - for example, localhost/subfolder, the link http://localhost/subfolder/api/default will return a 404 response code, because only pages are designed to be resolved with subfolders.

Instead, to access data from other providers, use the sf_provider and sf_culture query string parameters passed with the URL.

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