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10.3.2. /db/_all_docs

GET /{db}/_all_docs

Returns a JSON structure of all of the documents in a given database. The information is returned as a JSON structure containing meta information about the return structure, including a list of all documents and basic contents, consisting the ID, revision and key. The key is the from the document’s _id.

Parameters:
  • db – Database name
Request Headers:
 
  • Accept –
    • application/json
    • text/plain
Query Parameters:
 
  • conflicts (boolean) – Includes conflicts information in response. Ignored if include_docs isn’t true. Default is false.
  • descending (boolean) – Return the documents in descending by key order. Default is false.
  • endkey (string) – Stop returning records when the specified key is reached. Optional.
  • end_key (string) – Alias for endkey param.
  • endkey_docid (string) – Stop returning records when the specified document ID is reached. Optional.
  • end_key_doc_id (string) – Alias for endkey_docid param.
  • include_docs (boolean) – Include the full content of the documents in the return. Default is false.
  • inclusive_end (boolean) – Specifies whether the specified end key should be included in the result. Default is true.
  • key (string) – Return only documents that match the specified key. Optional.
  • limit (number) – Limit the number of the returned documents to the specified number. Optional.
  • skip (number) – Skip this number of records before starting to return the results. Default is 0.
  • stale (string) – Allow the results from a stale view to be used, without triggering a rebuild of all views within the encompassing design doc. Supported values: ok and update_after. Optional.
  • startkey (string) – Return records starting with the specified key. Optional.
  • start_key (string) – Alias for startkey param.
  • startkey_docid (string) – Return records starting with the specified document ID. Optional.
  • start_key_doc_id (string) – Alias for startkey_docid param.
  • update_seq (boolean) – Response includes an update_seq value indicating which sequence id of the underlying database the view reflects. Default is false.
Response Headers:
 
  • Content-Type –
    • application/json
    • text/plain; charset=utf-8
  • ETag – Response signature
Response JSON Object:
 
  • offset (number) – Offset where the document list started
  • rows (array) – Array of view row objects. By default the information returned contains only the document ID and revision.
  • total_rows (number) – Number of documents in the database/view. Note that this is not the number of rows returned in the actual query.
  • update_seq (number) – Current update sequence for the database
Status Codes:
  • 200 OK – Request completed successfully

Request:

GET /db/_all_docs HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/json
Host: localhost:5984

Response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Cache-Control: must-revalidate
Content-Type: application/json
Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2013 16:22:56 GMT
ETag: "1W2DJUZFZSZD9K78UFA3GZWB4"
Server: CouchDB (Erlang/OTP)
Transfer-Encoding: chunked

{
    "offset": 0,
    "rows": [
        {
            "id": "16e458537602f5ef2a710089dffd9453",
            "key": "16e458537602f5ef2a710089dffd9453",
            "value": {
                "rev": "1-967a00dff5e02add41819138abb3284d"
            }
        },
        {
            "id": "a4c51cdfa2069f3e905c431114001aff",
            "key": "a4c51cdfa2069f3e905c431114001aff",
            "value": {
                "rev": "1-967a00dff5e02add41819138abb3284d"
            }
        },
        {
            "id": "a4c51cdfa2069f3e905c4311140034aa",
            "key": "a4c51cdfa2069f3e905c4311140034aa",
            "value": {
                "rev": "5-6182c9c954200ab5e3c6bd5e76a1549f"
            }
        },
        {
            "id": "a4c51cdfa2069f3e905c431114003597",
            "key": "a4c51cdfa2069f3e905c431114003597",
            "value": {
                "rev": "2-7051cbe5c8faecd085a3fa619e6e6337"
            }
        },
        {
            "id": "f4ca7773ddea715afebc4b4b15d4f0b3",
            "key": "f4ca7773ddea715afebc4b4b15d4f0b3",
            "value": {
                "rev": "2-7051cbe5c8faecd085a3fa619e6e6337"
            }
        }
    ],
    "total_rows": 5
}
POST /{db}/_all_docs

The POST to _all_docs allows to specify multiple keys to be selected from the database. This enables you to request multiple documents in a single request, in place of multiple GET /{db}/{docid} requests.

The request body should contain a list of the keys to be returned as an array to a keys object. For example:

POST /db/_all_docs HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/json
Content-Length: 70
Content-Type: application/json
Host: localhost:5984

{
   "keys" : [
      "Zingylemontart",
      "Yogurtraita"
   ]
}

The returned JSON is the all documents structure, but with only the selected keys in the output:

{
   "total_rows" : 2666,
   "rows" : [
      {
         "value" : {
            "rev" : "1-a3544d296de19e6f5b932ea77d886942"
         },
         "id" : "Zingylemontart",
         "key" : "Zingylemontart"
      },
      {
         "value" : {
            "rev" : "1-91635098bfe7d40197a1b98d7ee085fc"
         },
         "id" : "Yogurtraita",
         "key" : "Yogurtraita"
      }
   ],
   "offset" : 0
}

10.3.3. /db/_bulk_docs

POST /{db}/_bulk_docs

The bulk document API allows you to create and update multiple documents at the same time within a single request. The basic operation is similar to creating or updating a single document, except that you batch the document structure and information.

When creating new documents the document ID (_id) is optional.

For updating existing documents, you must provide the document ID, revision information (_rev), and new document values.

In case of batch deleting documents all fields as document ID, revision information and deletion status (_deleted) are required.

Parameters:
  • db – Database name
Request Headers:
 
  • Accept –
    • application/json
    • text/plain
  • Content-Type – application/json
  • X-Couch-Full-Commit – Overrides server’s commit policy. Possible values are: false and true. Optional
Request JSON Object:
 
  • all_or_nothing (boolean) – Sets the database commit mode to use all-or-nothing semantics. Default is false. Optional
  • docs (array) – List of documents objects
  • new_edits (boolean) – If false, prevents the database from assigning them new revision IDs. Default is true. Optional
Response Headers:
 
  • Content-Type –
    • application/json
    • text/plain; charset=utf-8
Response JSON Array of Objects:
 
  • id (string) – Document ID
  • rev (string) – New document revision token. Available if document have saved without errors. Optional
  • error (string) – Error type. Optional
  • reason (string) – Error reason. Optional
Status Codes:

Request:

POST /db/_bulk_docs HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/json
Content-Length: 109
Content-Type:application/json
Host: localhost:5984

{
  "docs": [
    {
      "_id": "FishStew"
    },
    {
      "_id": "LambStew",
      "_rev": "2-0786321986194c92dd3b57dfbfc741ce",
      "_deleted": true
    }
  ]
}

Response:

HTTP/1.1 201 Created
Cache-Control: must-revalidate
Content-Length: 144
Content-Type: application/json
Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2013 00:15:05 GMT
Server: CouchDB (Erlang/OTP)

[
  {
    "ok": true,
    "id": "FishStew",
    "rev":" 1-967a00dff5e02add41819138abb3284d"
  },
  {
    "ok": true,
    "id": "LambStew",
    "rev": "3-f9c62b2169d0999103e9f41949090807"
  }
]

Inserting Documents in Bulk

Each time a document is stored or updated in CouchDB, the internal B-tree is updated. Bulk insertion provides efficiency gains in both storage space, and time, by consolidating many of the updates to intermediate B-tree nodes.

It is not intended as a way to perform ACID-like transactions in CouchDB, the only transaction boundary within CouchDB is a single update to a single database. The constraints are detailed in Bulk Documents Transaction Semantics.

To insert documents in bulk into a database you need to supply a JSON structure with the array of documents that you want to add to the database. You can either include a document ID, or allow the document ID to be automatically generated.

For example, the following update inserts three new documents, two with the supplied document IDs, and one which will have a document ID generated:

POST /source/_bulk_docs HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/json
Content-Length: 323
Content-Type: application/json
Host: localhost:5984

{
    "docs": [
        {
            "_id": "FishStew",
            "servings": 4,
            "subtitle": "Delicious with freshly baked bread",
            "title": "FishStew"
        },
        {
            "_id": "LambStew",
            "servings": 6,
            "subtitle": "Serve with a whole meal scone topping",
            "title": "LambStew"
        },
        {
            "_id": "BeefStew",
            "servings": 8,
            "subtitle": "Hand-made dumplings make a great accompaniment",
            "title": "BeefStew"
        }
    ]
}

The return type from a bulk insertion will be 201 Created, with the content of the returned structure indicating specific success or otherwise messages on a per-document basis.

The return structure from the example above contains a list of the documents created, here with the combination and their revision IDs:

HTTP/1.1 201 Created
Cache-Control: must-revalidate
Content-Length: 215
Content-Type: application/json
Date: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 00:10:39 GMT
Server: CouchDB (Erlang OTP)

[
    {
        "id": "FishStew",
        "ok": true,
        "rev": "1-6a466d5dfda05e613ba97bd737829d67"
    },
    {
        "id": "LambStew",
        "ok": true,
        "rev": "1-648f1b989d52b8e43f05aa877092cc7c"
    },
    {
        "id": "BeefStew",
        "ok": true,
        "rev": "1-e4602845fc4c99674f50b1d5a804fdfa"
    }
]

The content and structure of the returned JSON will depend on the transaction semantics being used for the bulk update; see Bulk Documents Transaction Semantics for more information. Conflicts and validation errors when updating documents in bulk must be handled separately; see Bulk Document Validation and Conflict Errors.

Updating Documents in Bulk

The bulk document update procedure is similar to the insertion procedure, except that you must specify the document ID and current revision for every document in the bulk update JSON string.

For example, you could send the following request:

POST /recipes/_bulk_docs HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/json
Content-Length: 464
Content-Type: application/json
Host: localhost:5984

{
    "docs": [
        {
            "_id": "FishStew",
            "_rev": "1-6a466d5dfda05e613ba97bd737829d67",
            "servings": 4,
            "subtitle": "Delicious with freshly baked bread",
            "title": "FishStew"
        },
        {
            "_id": "LambStew",
            "_rev": "1-648f1b989d52b8e43f05aa877092cc7c",
            "servings": 6,
            "subtitle": "Serve with a whole meal scone topping",
            "title": "LambStew"
        },
        {
            "_id": "BeefStew",
            "_rev": "1-e4602845fc4c99674f50b1d5a804fdfa",
            "servings": 8,
            "subtitle": "Hand-made dumplings make a great accompaniment",
            "title": "BeefStew"
        }
    ]
}

The return structure is the JSON of the updated documents, with the new revision and ID information:

HTTP/1.1 201 Created
Cache-Control: must-revalidate
Content-Length: 215
Content-Type: application/json
Date: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 00:10:39 GMT
Server: CouchDB (Erlang OTP)

[
    {
        "id": "FishStew",
        "ok": true,
        "rev": "2-2bff94179917f1dec7cd7f0209066fb8"
    },
    {
        "id": "LambStew",
        "ok": true,
        "rev": "2-6a7aae7ac481aa98a2042718d09843c4"
    },
    {
        "id": "BeefStew",
        "ok": true,
        "rev": "2-9801936a42f06a16f16c30027980d96f"
    }
]

You can optionally delete documents during a bulk update by adding the _deleted field with a value of true to each document ID/revision combination within the submitted JSON structure.

The return type from a bulk insertion will be 201 Created, with the content of the returned structure indicating specific success or otherwise messages on a per-document basis.

The content and structure of the returned JSON will depend on the transaction semantics being used for the bulk update; see Bulk Documents Transaction Semantics for more information. Conflicts and validation errors when updating documents in bulk must be handled separately; see Bulk Document Validation and Conflict Errors.

Bulk Documents Transaction Semantics

CouchDB supports two different modes for updating (or inserting) documents using the bulk documentation system. Each mode affects both the state of the documents in the event of system failure, and the level of conflict checking performed on each document. The two modes are:

  • non-atomic

    The default mode is non-atomic, that is, CouchDB will only guarantee that some of the documents will be saved when you send the request. The response will contain the list of documents successfully inserted or updated during the process. In the event of a crash, some of the documents may have been successfully saved, and some will have been lost.

    In this mode, the response structure will indicate whether the document was updated by supplying the new _rev parameter indicating a new document revision was created. If the update failed, then you will get an error of type conflict. For example:

    [
   {
      "id" : "FishStew",
      "error" : "conflict",
      "reason" : "Document update conflict."
   },
   {
      "id" : "LambStew",
      "error" : "conflict",
      "reason" : "Document update conflict."
   },
   {
      "id" : "BeefStew",
      "error" : "conflict",
      "reason" : "Document update conflict."
   }
]

    In this case no new revision has been created and you will need to submit the document update, with the correct revision tag, to update the document.

  • all-or-nothing

    In all-or-nothing mode, either all documents are written to the database, or no documents are written to the database, in the event of a system failure during commit.

    In addition, the per-document conflict checking is not performed. Instead a new revision of the document is created, even if the new revision is in conflict with the current revision in the database. The returned structure contains the list of documents with new revisions:

    HTTP/1.1 201 Created
Cache-Control: must-revalidate
Content-Length: 215
Content-Type: application/json
Date: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 00:13:33 GMT
Server: CouchDB (Erlang OTP)

[
    {
        "id": "FishStew",
        "ok": true,
        "rev": "1-6a466d5dfda05e613ba97bd737829d67"
    },
    {
        "id": "LambStew",
        "ok": true,
        "rev": "1-648f1b989d52b8e43f05aa877092cc7c"
    },
    {
        "id": "BeefStew",
        "ok": true,
        "rev": "1-e4602845fc4c99674f50b1d5a804fdfa"
    }
]

    When updating documents using this mode the revision of a document included in views will be arbitrary. You can check the conflict status for a document by using the conflicts=true query argument when accessing the view. Conflicts should be handled individually to ensure the consistency of your database.

    To use this mode, you must include the all_or_nothing field (set to true) within the main body of the JSON of the request.

The effects of different database operations on the different modes are summarized below:

  • Transaction Mode: Non-atomic
    • Transaction: Insert
      • Cause: Requested document ID already exists
      • Resolution: Resubmit with different document ID, or update the existing document
    • Transaction: Update
      • Cause: Revision missing or incorrect
      • Resolution: Resubmit with correct revision
  • Transaction Mode: All-or-nothing
    • Transaction: Insert / Update
      • Cause: Additional revision inserted
      • Resolution: Resolve conflicted revisions

Replication of documents is independent of the type of insert or update. The documents and revisions created during a bulk insert or update are replicated in the same way as any other document. This can mean that if you make use of the all-or-nothing mode the exact list of documents, revisions (and their conflict state) may or may not be replicated to other databases correctly.

Bulk Document Validation and Conflict Errors

The JSON returned by the _bulk_docs operation consists of an array of JSON structures, one for each document in the original submission. The returned JSON structure should be examined to ensure that all of the documents submitted in the original request were successfully added to the database.

When a document (or document revision) is not correctly committed to the database because of an error, you should check the error field to determine error type and course of action. Errors will be one of the following type:

  • conflict

    The document as submitted is in conflict. If you used the default bulk transaction mode then the new revision will not have been created and you will need to re-submit the document to the database. If you used all-or-nothing mode then you will need to manually resolve the conflicted revisions of the document.

    Conflict resolution of documents added using the bulk docs interface is identical to the resolution procedures used when resolving conflict errors during replication.

  • forbidden

    Entries with this error type indicate that the validation routine applied to the document during submission has returned an error.

    For example, if your validation routine includes the following:

    throw({forbidden: 'invalid recipe ingredient'});

    The error response returned will be:

    HTTP/1.1 417 Expectation Failed
Cache-Control: must-revalidate
Content-Length: 120
Content-Type: application/json
Date: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 00:05:17 GMT
Server: CouchDB (Erlang OTP)

{
    "error": "forbidden",
    "id": "LambStew",
    "reason": "invalid recipe ingredient",
    "rev": "1-34c318924a8f327223eed702ddfdc66d"
}

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