Filter Contents of a Folder - Alfresco Content Services - 23.4 - 23.4 - Ready - Alfresco - external

Listing the contents of a folder in the repository is really useful, here we also cover how to filter the contents we are listing.

API Explorer URL: http://localhost:8080/api-explorer/#!/nodes/listNodeChildren

See also: List Contents of a Folder

When you know how to list the contents of a folder the next step is usually to filter out content that you are not interested in. Such as filtering out anything that is not of a specific content type.

We use the same URL as when we list the contents of a folder, just with an extra parameter called where:

http://localhost:8080/alfresco/api/-default-/public/alfresco/versions/1/nodes/{id}/children?where=(<filter
        expression>)

You can think of the where clause in a similar way to how you would think of it in a database query. Firstly, the isFile property can be used to just return files that represent content with type cm:content or a subtype:

nodes/{id}/children?where=(isFile=true)

The same result can be achieved by using the isFolder property too:

nodes/{id}/children?where=(isFolder=false)

To filter the results by a specific content type nodeType can be used in the where clause, for example, to retrieve just the Sites folder use the following URL:

nodes/{id}/children?where=(nodeType=st:sites)

This will result in a single result as shown below:

$ curl -X GET -H 'Accept: application/json' -H 'Authorization: Basic VElDS0VUXzA4ZWI3ZTJlMmMxNzk2NGNhNTFmMGYzMzE4NmNjMmZjOWQ1NmQ1OTM=' 'http://localhost:8080/alfresco/api/-default-/public/alfresco/versions/1/nodes/-root-/children?where=(nodeType=st:sites)' | jq
{
  "list": {
    "pagination": {
      "count": 1,
      "hasMoreItems": false,
      "totalItems": 1,
      "skipCount": 0,
      "maxItems": 100
    },
    "entries": [
      {
        "entry": {
          "createdAt": "2019-10-03T08:37:18.732+0000",
          "isFolder": true,
          "isFile": false,
          "createdByUser": {
            "id": "admin",
            "displayName": "Administrator"
          },
          "modifiedAt": "2019-10-03T08:37:29.544+0000",
          "modifiedByUser": {
            "id": "admin",
            "displayName": "Administrator"
          },
          "name": "Sites",
          "id": "c1a73d2a-9a5b-422b-8c95-77e694b248a3",
          "nodeType": "st:sites",
          "parentId": "695c2c56-3ba0-4539-b301-12bd9bb47712"
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

To retrieve all nodes of a specific type and its subtypes use the INCLUDESUBTYPES moniker, for example:

$ curl -X GET -H 'Accept: application/json' -H 'Authorization: Basic VElDS0VUXzA4ZWI3ZTJlMmMxNzk2NGNhNTFmMGYzMzE4NmNjMmZjOWQ1NmQ1OTM=' "http://localhost:8080/alfresco/api/-default-/public/alfresco/versions/1/nodes/-root-/children?relativePath=My%20Stuff&where=(nodeType='acme:document INCLUDESUBTYPES')" | jq            

In this example we are listing content in the /Company Home/My Stuff folder that has the node type acme:document or a subtype of this type.

Finally, the items returned can also be ordered via the orderBy query parameter. By default, the nodes/{id}/children endpoint uses orderBy=isFolder DESC,name ASC as the default sort order, which means folders first alphabetically followed by files. To mix files and folders and order them alphabetically in reverse order use the following URL:

$ curl -X GET -H 'Accept: application/json' -H 'Authorization: Basic VElDS0VUXzA4ZWI3ZTJlMmMxNzk2NGNhNTFmMGYzMzE4NmNjMmZjOWQ1NmQ1OTM=' "http://