Specifying Query Parameters in REST APIs

Specifying Request Arguments

In a REST request, you pass arguments in the form of query parameters. Those parameters are specified in the form parameterName=value.

A parameter list is appended to a URI after a "?". Multiple parameters are separated by "&", as shown here:

<syntaxhighlight lang="vbnet">

 http://{domain}/{address}?parameterName1=value1&parameterName2=value2

</syntaxhighlight>

For example:

<syntaxhighlight lang="vbnet">

 http://myLongJump.com/networking/rest/user?fieldList=*&sortBy=first_name

</syntaxhighlight>

For boolean arguments, the value passed can be "1" or "true", "0" or "false".

In some cases, it may be necessary to encode special characters in order to include them in an argument value. For example:

Instead of	Use
& (A&B)	%26 (A%26B)
space (A B)	%20 (A%20B)

Specifying Response Format

You specify the response format as either XML (the default) or JSON, using the alt parameter:

• ?alt=xml
• ?alt=json

Example

<syntaxhighlight lang="vbnet">

 http://{domain}/{address}?alt=json

</syntaxhighlight>