When requesting an object from the API, by default, you will receive a response that contains all of the data for that object. This response will also include links to other API endpoints related to that object, and metadata about the parameters accepted by the current request method.

Various options are available which allow you to customize which parts of the response are sent, which can reduce the number of bytes your application downloads.

Summary

If you want to use these options on expansions, you will need the advanced expansion configuration syntax.

_filter and _filteruri

A filter is a query argument that allows you to specify the fields you would like to be included in the response. The SmugMug API supports filtering on both the data fields in the response, as well as the linked URIs. This can be done by providing the query argument _filter or _filteruri with a comma separated list of the fields that should remain in the response. If no value is provided, all fields or URIs will be removed.

Let's look at an example of _filter and _filteruri in action.

Unfiltered request:

400: Invalid request

Unfiltered response:

400: Invalid request

Filtered request:

400: Invalid request

Filtered response:

400: Invalid request

_shorturis

Another option to reduce the size of your API responses is the _shorturis option. If this parameter is present in an API request, the URI section of the response object will be trimmed down so that each entry is just a key-value pair of name to URI. This removes all metadata about the URI from the response.

Below is an example of a URIs section with and without _shorturis.

Without _shorturis:

400: Invalid request

With _shorturis:

400: Invalid request

_verbosity