Collections

Collections store your data as items with defined properties. Each collection becomes a RESTful endpoint.

Naming

• Unique within the API
• Case-sensitive
• Allowed characters: letters, digits, hyphens, underscores
• The name becomes the endpoint path

https://eu.restapi.com/my-api/products
                              └── collection name

note

Renaming a collection changes its endpoint path.

Properties

Each collection can have up to 25 properties.

Property Rules

• Unique names within the collection
• Case-sensitive
• Allowed characters: letters, digits, underscores
• Must begin with a letter

Property Configuration

Setting	Description
Name	Unique identifier for the property
Type	Data type (string, integer, decimal, etc.)
Required	If true, must be provided on create
Default	Value used when property is omitted
Validation	Min/max length or value constraints

Data Types

Type	Description
string	Text, max 1024 characters
integer	Whole numbers (-2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647)
decimal	Decimal numbers
boolean	true or false
date	Date only (YYYY-MM-DD)
date-time	Date and time in ISO 8601 format
guid	Unique identifier (UUID format)
blob	Binary data (files)
object	Reference to another model

Lookup Properties

Create relationships between collections:

{
  "name": "customer",
  "type": "lookup",
  "target": "customers"
}

Access related data in queries or via the select parameter:

?select=orderDate,total,customer.name,customer.email

Self-Referencing Lookups

Collections can reference themselves, which is useful for hierarchical data structures:

{
  "name": "categories",
  "properties": [
    { "name": "name", "type": "string" },
    { "name": "parent", "type": "lookup", "target": "categories" }
  ]
}

Use cases:

• Category trees with parent/child relationships
• Organizational hierarchies
• Threaded comments
• File/folder structures

Validation

Required Fields

Required properties must be included in POST/PUT requests:

{ "name": "email", "type": "string", "required": true }

Missing required fields return 400 Bad Request.

String Constraints

Limit string length:

{
  "name": "title",
  "type": "string",
  "minLength": 1,
  "maxLength": 100
}

Numeric Constraints

Set value boundaries:

{
  "name": "quantity",
  "type": "integer",
  "min": 0,
  "max": 1000
}

Default Values

Provide defaults for optional properties:

{
  "name": "status",
  "type": "string",
  "default": "pending"
}

Defaults apply to POST and PUT operations when the property is omitted.

Expression-Based Defaults

Use expressions for dynamic default values:

Expression	Description
now()	Current UTC date-time
now() + 7D	7 days from now
now() - 1H	1 hour ago
newId()	Generate unique GUID
10 + 5	Numeric calculation

Date/time tokens: now(), D (days), H (hours), M (minutes), S (seconds). Tokens are case-insensitive.

{
  "name": "createdAt",
  "type": "date-time",
  "default": "now()"
}

{
  "name": "dueDate",
  "type": "date-time",
  "default": "now() + 7D"
}

See Data Types for complete documentation on default value expressions.

Example Collection

{
  "name": "products",
  "properties": [
    { "name": "sku", "type": "string", "required": true },
    { "name": "name", "type": "string", "required": true, "maxLength": 200 },
    { "name": "description", "type": "string" },
    { "name": "price", "type": "decimal", "required": true, "min": 0 },
    { "name": "stock", "type": "integer", "default": 0, "min": 0 },
    { "name": "isActive", "type": "boolean", "default": true },
    { "name": "createdAt", "type": "date-time", "default": "now()" },
    { "name": "category", "type": "lookup", "target": "categories" },
    { "name": "image", "type": "blob" }
  ]
}