Nested includes

We ended the previous chapter with a small teaser about nested includes. Now in this part, we finally present to you the nested include. This tutorial will teach you what it is, where it is used and how you can apply them yourself.

Nested includes and relationships

Life is all about relationships. You are, for example, your parents’ child, your sister’s sibling, etc. Nested includes are no different from this because they too share a relationship with includes. The nested include allows you to further enrich your data, by requesting more information from a standard include. Might sound difficult, but we assure you, it’s anything but hard. This is how we use Nested includes.

Create your request

For example, in our includes tutorial you’ve enriched your fixture by date request with the team and events includes:

https://soccer.sportmonks.com/api/v2.0/fixtures/date/2020-08-02?api_token={API_TOKEN}&include=localTeam,visitorTeam,events

The include event shows you the data about players who received a card, scored a goal, or were substituted. A snippet of the response:

Response

            "events": {
                "data": [
                    {
                        "id": 16475287001,
                        "team_id": "338",
                        "type": "yellowcard",
                        "var_result": null,
                        "fixture_id": 16475287,
                        "player_id": 174161,
                        "player_name": "S. Martin",
                        "related_player_id": null,
                        "related_player_name": null,
                        "minute": 17,
                        "extra_minute": null,
                        "reason": null,
                        "injuried": null,
                        "result": null
                    },
                    {
                        "id": 16475287002,
                        "team_id": "53",
                        "type": "goal",
                        "var_result": null,
                        "fixture_id": 16475287,
                        "player_id": 96792,
                        "player_name": "O. Édouard",
                        "related_player_id": 173080,
                        "related_player_name": "G. Taylor",
                        "minute": 20,
                        "extra_minute": null,
                        "reason": null,
                        "injuried": null,
                        "result": "1-0"
                    },
                    {
                        "id": 16475287003,
                        "team_id": "53",
                        "type": "goal",
                        "var_result": null,
                        "fixture_id": 16475287,
                        "player_id": 8403182,
                        "player_name": "J. Frimpong",
                        "related_player_id": 173080,
                        "related_player_name": "G. Taylor",
                        "minute": 31,
                        "extra_minute": null,
                        "reason": null,
                        "injuried": null,
                        "result": "2-0"
                    },
                    {
                        "id": 16475287004,
                        "team_id": "338",
                        "type": "own-goal",
                        "var_result": null,
                        "fixture_id": 16475287,
                        "player_id": 32761,
                        "player_name": "C. Jullien",
                        "related_player_id": null,
                        "related_player_name": null,
                        "minute": 34,
                        "extra_minute": null,
                        "reason": null,
                        "injuried": null,
                        "result": "2-1"
                    },
                    
            }

Field description

Field	Description
id	The unique id of an event
team_id	The id of team the event belongs to
type	The event type. Possible values can be found in our statuses and definitions
var_result	The outcome of the Video Assistant Referee intervention. Possible values can be found in our statuses and definitions
fixture_id	The unique id of the fixture
player_id	The unique id of the main player involved in the event
player_name	The name of the main player involved in the event
related_player_id	The unique id of the second player involved in the event (if applicable)
related_player_name	The name of the second player involved in the event (if applicable)
minute	The minute of the fixture the event happened in
extra_minute	The extra minute of the fixture the event happened in (if applicable)
reason	The reason of the event. Mostly available when the event is a card. (if applicable)
injuried	Indicates if the event resulted in an injured player
results	The result of the event. Mostly available when the event is a goal. (if applicable)

But, what if we want to know more about these players, who scored a goal, like their country of origin, height, weight, age, image, etc. This is where the nested include comes into play!

Using nested includes

Because the include event is related to a player. You can add .playerto the include, which will result in the nested include: events.player

https://soccer.sportmonks.com/api/v2.0/fixtures/date/2020-08-02?api_token={API_TOKEN}&include=events.player

Response

"events": {
                "data": [
                    {
                        "id": 16475287001,
                        "team_id": "338",
                        "type": "yellowcard",
                        "var_result": null,
                        "fixture_id": 16475287,
                        "player_id": 174161,
                        "player_name": "S. Martin",
                        "related_player_id": null,
                        "related_player_name": null,
                        "minute": 17,
                        "extra_minute": null,
                        "reason": null,
                        "injuried": null,
                        "result": null,
                        "player": {
                            "data": {
                                "player_id": 174161,
                                "team_id": 338,
                                "country_id": 1161,
                                "position_id": 3,
                                "common_name": "S. Martin",
                                "display_name": "Scott Martin",
                                "fullname": "Scott Martin",
                                "firstname": "Scott",
                                "lastname": "Martin",
                                "nationality": "Scotland",
                                "birthdate": "01/04/1997",
                                "birthcountry": "Scotland",
                                "birthplace": "Glasgow",
                                "height": null,
                                "weight": null,
                                "image_path": "https://cdn.sportmonks.com/images/soccer/players/17/174161.png"
                            }
                        }
                    },

Field description

Field	Description
player_id	The unique id of the main player involved in the event
team_id	The unique id of the team the event belongs to
country_id	The unique id of the country the team plays in
position_id	The unique id of the position the player plays in
common_name	The common name the player is known for
display_name	The display name of the player. Often used to show in the lineup formation
fullname	The full name of the player
firstname	The first name of the player
lastname	The last name of the player
nationality	The nationality of the player
birthdate	The date of birth of the player
birthcountry	The country the player was born in
birthplace	The place the player was born in
height	The height of the player
weight	The weight of the player
image_path	The URL of the player image

The nested includes are represented in the form of dots (.), which are then linked to a standard include. This shows their relationship.

Now you've learnt how to enrich your response. In the next chapter you will learn how you can filter, sort and limit the response.