Reading Objects

Use the Read (XML API) or read() (SOAP API) command to get an object or a list of objects of a specific type.

A read command passes the following parameters and arguments:

• type — You must specify the type of object you want to retrieve. For information about supported object types, see List of Supported Business Object Types.

• method — You must specify the read method you want to use. You can use a read command to return all objects, objects matching or not matching a search query object, custom field values for each object, or objects associated with a specific user or project. See Read Methods.

• Attributes — You must set a limit attribute to control the number of objects returned. You can specify other attributes to modify the response when reading objects using the XML API or SOAP API. Some attributes control API features available for most supported object types, other attributes can only be used when reading a specific object type. See Read Attributes.

• Fields — (Optional) By default, the response includes all object properties. You can specify the object properties included in the response.

  Note:

  By default, the XML API includes all standard object properties in the response. To include custom fields for the object type, set the enable_custom attribute to 1. To exclude the flags property for User or Company objects, set the exclude_flags attribute to 1.

  By default, the SOAP API includes all standard object properties in the response except for the flags property for User or Company objects. It also includes all custom fields for the object type in the response. To include the flags property for User or Company objects, set the include_flags attribute to 1.

• Objects — Depending on the read method you are using, or whether you are using date filters, you may need to include objects as arguments. See Read Methods and Date Filters Usage.