ArangoDB v3.9 reached End of Life (EOL) and is no longer supported.

This documentation is outdated. Please see the most recent version at docs.arangodb.com

Getting Information about a Collection

Return information about a collection

returns a collection

GET /_api/collection/{collection-name}

Accessing collections by their numeric ID is deprecated from version 3.4.0 on. You should reference them via their names instead.

Path Parameters

  • collection-name (string, required): The name of the collection.

The result is an object describing the collection with the following attributes:

  • id: The identifier of the collection.

  • name: The name of the collection.

  • status: The status of the collection as number.

    • 3: loaded
    • 5: deleted

Every other status indicates a corrupted collection.

  • type: The type of the collection as number.
    • 2: document collection (normal case)
    • 3: edge collection
  • isSystem: If true then the collection is a system collection.

Responses

HTTP 404: If the collection-name is unknown, then a HTTP 404 is returned.

Read properties of a collection

reads the properties of the specified collection

GET /_api/collection/{collection-name}/properties

Accessing collections by their numeric ID is deprecated from version 3.4.0 on. You should reference them via their names instead.

Path Parameters

  • collection-name (string, required): The name of the collection.

Responses

HTTP 400: If the collection-name is missing, then a HTTP 400 is returned.

HTTP 404: If the collection-name is unknown, then a HTTP 404 is returned.

HTTP 200:

  • waitForSync (boolean): If true then creating, changing or removing documents will wait until the data has been synchronized to disk.

  • schema (object): The collection level schema for documents.

  • keyOptions (object): A object which contains key generation options

    • type (string): specifies the type of the key generator. The currently available generators are traditional, autoincrement, uuid and padded.

    • allowUserKeys (boolean): if set to true, then it is allowed to supply own key values in the _key attribute of a document. If set to false, then the key generator is solely responsible for generating keys and supplying own key values in the _key attribute of documents is considered an error.

    • lastValue (integer):

  • cacheEnabled (boolean): Whether the in-memory hash cache for documents is enabled for this collection.

  • numberOfShards (integer): The number of shards of the collection. (cluster only)

  • shardKeys (array of strings): contains the names of document attributes that are used to determine the target shard for documents. (cluster only)

  • replicationFactor (integer): contains how many copies of each shard are kept on different DB-Servers. It is an integer number in the range of 1-10 or the string "satellite" for a SatelliteCollection (Enterprise Edition only). (cluster only)

  • writeConcern (integer): determines how many copies of each shard are required to be in sync on the different DB-Servers. If there are less then these many copies in the cluster a shard will refuse to write. Writes to shards with enough up-to-date copies will succeed at the same time however. The value of writeConcern cannot be larger than replicationFactor. (cluster only)

  • shardingStrategy (string): the sharding strategy selected for the collection. One of ‘hash’ or ‘enterprise-hash-smart-edge’. (cluster only)

  • isSmart (boolean): Whether the collection is used in a SmartGraph (Enterprise Edition only). (cluster only)

  • smartGraphAttribute (string): Attribute that is used in SmartGraphs (Enterprise Edition only). (cluster only)

  • smartJoinAttribute (string): Determines an attribute of the collection that must contain the shard key value of the referred-to SmartJoin collection (Enterprise Edition only). (cluster only)

  • isSystem (boolean): true if this is a system collection; usually name will start with an underscore.

  • name (string): literal name of this collection

  • id (string): unique identifier of the collection; deprecated

  • type (integer): The type of the collection:
    • 0: “unknown”
    • 2: regular document collection
    • 3: edge collection
  • globallyUniqueId (string): Unique identifier of the collection

Examples

Using an identifier:

shell> curl --header 'accept: application/json' --dump - http://localhost:8529/_api/collection/67230/properties

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
connection: Keep-Alive
content-length: 423
location: /_db/_system/_api/collection/67230/properties
server: ArangoDB
x-arango-queue-time-seconds: 0.000000
x-content-type-options: nosniff
Show response body

Using a name:

shell> curl --header 'accept: application/json' --dump - http://localhost:8529/_api/collection/products/properties

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
connection: Keep-Alive
content-length: 423
location: /_db/_system/_api/collection/products/properties
server: ArangoDB
x-arango-queue-time-seconds: 0.000000
x-content-type-options: nosniff
Show response body

Return number of documents in a collection

Counts the documents in a collection

GET /_api/collection/{collection-name}/count

Accessing collections by their numeric ID is deprecated from version 3.4.0 on. You should reference them via their names instead.

Path Parameters

  • collection-name (string, required): The name of the collection.

In addition to the above, the result also contains the number of documents. Note that this will always load the collection into memory.

  • count: The number of documents inside the collection.

Responses

HTTP 400: If the collection-name is missing, then a HTTP 400 is returned.

HTTP 404: If the collection-name is unknown, then a HTTP 404 is returned.

Examples

Requesting the number of documents:

shell> curl --header 'accept: application/json' --dump - http://localhost:8529/_api/collection/products/count

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
connection: Keep-Alive
content-length: 439
location: /_db/_system/_api/collection/products/count
server: ArangoDB
x-arango-queue-time-seconds: 0.000000
x-content-type-options: nosniff
Show response body

Return statistics for a collection

Fetch the statistics of a collection

GET /_api/collection/{collection-name}/figures

Accessing collections by their numeric ID is deprecated from version 3.4.0 on. You should reference them via their names instead.

Path Parameters

  • collection-name (string, required): The name of the collection.

Query Parameters

  • details (boolean, optional): Setting details to true will return extended storage engine-specific details to the figures. The details are intended for debugging ArangoDB itself and their format is subject to change. By default, details is set to false, so no details are returned and the behavior is identical to previous versions of ArangoDB. Please note that requesting details may cause additional load and thus have an impact on performace.

In addition to the above, the result also contains the number of documents and additional statistical information about the collection.

Responses

HTTP 200: Returns information about the collection:

  • count (integer): The number of documents currently present in the collection.

  • figures (object): metrics of the collection

    • indexes (object):

      • count (integer): The total number of indexes defined for the collection, including the pre-defined indexes (e.g. primary index).

      • size (integer): The total memory allocated for indexes in bytes.

HTTP 400: If the collection-name is missing, then a HTTP 400 is returned.

HTTP 404: If the collection-name is unknown, then a HTTP 404 is returned.

Examples

Using an identifier and requesting the figures of the collection:

shell> curl --header 'accept: application/json' --dump - http://localhost:8529/_api/collection/products/figures

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
connection: Keep-Alive
content-length: 553
location: /_db/_system/_api/collection/products/figures
server: ArangoDB
x-arango-queue-time-seconds: 0.000000
x-content-type-options: nosniff
Show response body
shell> curl --header 'accept: application/json' --dump - http://localhost:8529/_api/collection/products/figures?details=true

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
connection: Keep-Alive
content-length: 627
location: /_db/_system/_api/collection/products/figures
server: ArangoDB
x-arango-queue-time-seconds: 0.000000
x-content-type-options: nosniff
Show response body

Return responsible shard for a document

Return the responsible shard for a document

PUT /_api/collection/{collection-name}/responsibleShard

Path Parameters

  • collection-name (string, required): The name of the collection.

Request Body

(json, required)

The body must consist of a JSON object with at least the shard key attributes set to some values.

Returns the ID of the shard that is responsible for the given document (if the document exists) or that would be responsible if such document existed.

The request must body must contain a JSON document with at least the collection’s shard key attributes set to some values.

The response is a JSON object with a shardId attribute, which will contain the ID of the responsible shard.

Note : This method is only available in a cluster Coordinator.

Responses

HTTP 200: Returns the ID of the responsible shard.

HTTP 400: If the collection-name is missing, then a HTTP 400 is returned. Additionally, if not all of the collection’s shard key attributes are present in the input document, then a HTTP 400 is returned as well.

HTTP 404: If the collection-name is unknown, then an HTTP 404 is returned.

HTTP 501: HTTP 501 is returned if the method is called on a single server.

Examples

shell> curl -X PUT --header 'accept: application/json' --data-binary @- --dump - http://localhost:8529/_api/collection/testCollection/responsibleShard <<EOF
{"_key":"testkey","value":23}
EOF

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
connection: Keep-Alive
content-length: 45
location: /_db/_system/_api/collection/testCollection/responsibleShard
server: ArangoDB
x-arango-queue-time-seconds: 0.000000
x-content-type-options: nosniff
Show response body

Return the shard ids of a collection

Return the shard ids of a collection

GET /_api/collection/{collection-name}/shards

Path Parameters

  • collection-name (string, required): The name of the collection.

Query Parameters

  • details (boolean, optional): If set to true, the return value will also contain the responsible servers for the collections’ shards.

By default returns a JSON array with the shard IDs of the collection.

If the details parameter is set to true, it will return a JSON object with the shard IDs as object attribute keys, and the responsible servers for each shard mapped to them. In the detailed response, the leader shards will be first in the arrays.

Note : This method is only available in a cluster Coordinator.

Responses

HTTP 200: Returns the collection’s shards.

HTTP 400: If the collection-name is missing, then a HTTP 400 is returned.

HTTP 404: If the collection-name is unknown, then an HTTP 404 is returned.

HTTP 501: HTTP 501 is returned if the method is called on a single server.

Examples

Retrieves the list of shards:

shell> curl --header 'accept: application/json' --dump - http://localhost:8529/_api/collection/testCollection/shards

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
connection: Keep-Alive
content-length: 571
location: /_db/_system/_api/collection/testCollection/shards
server: ArangoDB
x-arango-queue-time-seconds: 0.000000
x-content-type-options: nosniff

"{\"error\":false,\"code\":200,\"waitForSync\":false,\"shards\":[\"s10061\",\"s10062\",\"s10063\"],\"shardingStrategy\":\"hash\",\"shardKeys\":[\"_key\"],\"usesRevisionsAsDocumentIds\":true,\"schema\":null,\"writeConcern\":1,\"syncByRevision\":true,\"replicationFactor\":2,\"numberOfShards\":3,\"id\":\"10060\",\"name\":\"testCollection\",\"isDisjoint\":false,\"minReplicationFactor\":1,\"status\":3,\"type\":2,\"globallyUniqueId\":\"c10060/\",\"isSmart\":false,\"isSystem\":false,\"internalValidatorType\":0,\"isSmartChild\":false,\"statusString\":\"loaded\",\"cacheEnabled\":false,\"keyOptions\":{\"allowUserKeys\":true,\"type\":\"traditional\"}}"

Retrieves the list of shards with the responsible servers:

shell> curl --header 'accept: application/json' --dump - http://localhost:8529/_api/collection/testCollection/shards?details=true

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
connection: Keep-Alive
content-length: 841
location: /_db/_system/_api/collection/testCollection/shards
server: ArangoDB
x-arango-queue-time-seconds: 0.000000
x-content-type-options: nosniff

"{\"error\":false,\"code\":200,\"waitForSync\":false,\"shards\":{\"s10055\":[\"PRMR-6d1ec310-907a-4510-9968-b9b9dd36a1db\",\"PRMR-7d2f4093-741c-4e77-b3a1-bc5917f1c6d3\"],\"s10056\":[\"PRMR-7d2f4093-741c-4e77-b3a1-bc5917f1c6d3\",\"PRMR-6d1ec310-907a-4510-9968-b9b9dd36a1db\"],\"s10057\":[\"PRMR-6d1ec310-907a-4510-9968-b9b9dd36a1db\",\"PRMR-7d2f4093-741c-4e77-b3a1-bc5917f1c6d3\"]},\"shardingStrategy\":\"hash\",\"shardKeys\":[\"_key\"],\"usesRevisionsAsDocumentIds\":true,\"schema\":null,\"writeConcern\":1,\"syncByRevision\":true,\"replicationFactor\":2,\"numberOfShards\":3,\"id\":\"10054\",\"name\":\"testCollection\",\"isDisjoint\":false,\"minReplicationFactor\":1,\"status\":3,\"type\":2,\"globallyUniqueId\":\"c10054/\",\"isSmart\":false,\"isSystem\":false,\"internalValidatorType\":0,\"isSmartChild\":false,\"statusString\":\"loaded\",\"cacheEnabled\":false,\"keyOptions\":{\"allowUserKeys\":true,\"type\":\"traditional\"}}"

Return collection revision id

Retrieve the collections revision id

GET /_api/collection/{collection-name}/revision

Accessing collections by their numeric ID is deprecated from version 3.4.0 on. You should reference them via their names instead.

Path Parameters

  • collection-name (string, required): The name of the collection.

The response will contain the collection’s latest used revision id. The revision id is a server-generated string that clients can use to check whether data in a collection has changed since the last revision check.

  • revision: The collection revision id as a string.

Responses

HTTP 400: If the collection-name is missing, then a HTTP 400 is returned.

HTTP 404: If the collection-name is unknown, then a HTTP 404 is returned.

Examples

Retrieving the revision of a collection

shell> curl --header 'accept: application/json' --dump - http://localhost:8529/_api/collection/products/revision

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
connection: Keep-Alive
content-length: 440
location: /_db/_system/_api/collection/products/revision
server: ArangoDB
x-arango-queue-time-seconds: 0.000000
x-content-type-options: nosniff
Show response body

Return checksum for the collection

returns a checksum for the specified collection

GET /_api/collection/{collection-name}/checksum

Accessing collections by their numeric ID is deprecated from version 3.4.0 on. You should reference them via their names instead.

Path Parameters

  • collection-name (string, required): The name of the collection.

Query Parameters

  • withRevisions (boolean, optional): Whether or not to include document revision ids in the checksum calculation.

  • withData (boolean, optional): Whether or not to include document body data in the checksum calculation.

Will calculate a checksum of the meta-data (keys and optionally revision ids) and optionally the document data in the collection.

The checksum can be used to compare if two collections on different ArangoDB instances contain the same contents. The current revision of the collection is returned too so one can make sure the checksums are calculated for the same state of data.

By default, the checksum will only be calculated on the _key system attribute of the documents contained in the collection. For edge collections, the system attributes _from and _to will also be included in the calculation.

By setting the optional query parameter withRevisions to true, then revision ids (_rev system attributes) are included in the checksumming.

By providing the optional query parameter withData with a value of true, the user-defined document attributes will be included in the calculation too. Note: Including user-defined attributes will make the checksumming slower.

The response is a JSON object with the following attributes:

  • checksum: The calculated checksum as a number.

  • revision: The collection revision id as a string.

Responses

HTTP 400: If the collection-name is missing, then a HTTP 400 is returned.

HTTP 404: If the collection-name is unknown, then a HTTP 404 is returned.

Examples

Retrieving the checksum of a collection:

shell> curl --header 'accept: application/json' --dump - http://localhost:8529/_api/collection/products/checksum

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
connection: Keep-Alive
content-length: 193
location: /_db/_system/_api/collection/products/checksum
server: ArangoDB
x-arango-queue-time-seconds: 0.000000
x-content-type-options: nosniff
Show response body

Retrieving the checksum of a collection including the collection data, but not the revisions:

shell> curl --header 'accept: application/json' --dump - http://localhost:8529/_api/collection/products/checksum?withRevisions=false&withData=true

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
connection: Keep-Alive
content-length: 194
location: /_db/_system/_api/collection/products/checksum
server: ArangoDB
x-arango-queue-time-seconds: 0.000000
x-content-type-options: nosniff
Show response body

reads all collections

returns all collections

GET /_api/collection

Query Parameters

  • excludeSystem (boolean, optional): Whether or not system collections should be excluded from the result.

Returns an object with an attribute result containing an array of all collection descriptions.

By providing the optional query parameter excludeSystem with a value of true, all system collections will be excluded from the response.

Responses

HTTP 200: The list of collections

Examples

Return information about all collections:

shell> curl --header 'accept: application/json' --dump - http://localhost:8529/_api/collection

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
content-type: application/json
connection: Keep-Alive
content-length: 1422
server: ArangoDB
x-arango-queue-time-seconds: 0.000000
x-content-type-options: nosniff
Show response body