Filtering

When we looked at RESTful APIs we discussed the concept of using the query string to perform filtering actions such as:

• Paging
• Filtering
• Sorting

Obviously, if we are writing an RPC API, we do not have the luxury of a query string; however, implementing these concepts is incredibly useful. As long as we are consistent there is no reason at all that we cannot define a parameter on our request object for the filter condition:

{
 "jsonrpc": "2.0", 
 "method": "Users.v1.GetUserLog",
 "params": {
   "name": "Nic Jackson", 
   "id": 12335432434,
   "filter": { 
     "page_start": 1,  //optional 
     "page_size" : 10,  //optional 
     "sort": "name DESC" //optional 
   },
 "id": 1
}

This is just an example and you will probably choose to implement something specific to your own needs, however, the key is consistency. If we use this same object for every method, we can be reasonably sure that our users will be cool with this.