Limiting
In the previous tutorial, you’ve learnt the fundamentals of filtering API response, which allows you to request only the data you need. However, sometimes the response can be rather large. In such cases, you can use our limiting feature. In this part of our tutorial, you will learn how to limit your API responses.
Limiting, as its name suggests, will limit the response you get from our API to a specific amount. Limiting your API responses can come in handy when you want to avoid big API responses. In this tutorial, we'll show you how limiting is used and why it may be handy for you. Let's go!
In this tutorial, we will request all the fixtures from the 20/21 season from the Scottish Premiership (season id: 17141). As for the endpoint, we’ll go with season by id.
Furthermore, as discussed in our includes tutorial, we’ll enrich the response with an include. In this case, we’ll use the include called fixtures
The below request will give you all the fixtures of the 20/21 season of the Scottish Premiership (season id: 17141).
The response is enormous. Therefore, we've copied a small snippet instead of the full response.
https://soccer.sportmonks.com/api/v2.0/seasons/17141?api_token={API_TOKEN}&include=fixtures
{"data": {"id": 17141,"name": "2020/2021","league_id": 501,"is_current_season": true,"current_round_id": 194976,"current_stage_id": 77447501,"fixtures": {"data": [{"id": 16475283,"league_id": 501,"season_id": 17141,"stage_id": 77447501,"round_id": 194968,"group_id": null,"aggregate_id": null,"venue_id": 281425,"referee_id": 15818,"localteam_id": 496,"visitorteam_id": 258,"winner_team_id": 496,"weather_report": {"code": "clouds","type": "broken clouds","icon": "https://cdn.sportmonks.com/images/weather/04d.png","temperature": {"temp": 60.62,"unit": "fahrenheit"},"temperature_celcius": {"temp": 15.9,"unit": "celcius"},"clouds": "75%","humidity": "72%","pressure": 1013,"wind": {"speed": "5.82 m/s","degree": 300},"coordinates": {"lat": 55.83,"lon": -4.43},"updated_at": "2020-08-01T15:45:06.417645Z"},"commentaries": false,"attendance": null,"pitch": null,"details": null,"neutral_venue": false,"winning_odds_calculated": true,"formations": {"localteam_formation": "4-2-3-1","visitorteam_formation": "3-4-2-1"},"scores": {"localteam_score": 1,"visitorteam_score": 0,"localteam_pen_score": null,"visitorteam_pen_score": null,"ht_score": "1-0","ft_score": "1-0","et_score": null,"ps_score": null},"time": {"status": "FT","starting_at": {"date_time": "2020-08-01 14:00:00","date": "2020-08-01","time": "14:00:00","timestamp": 1596290400,"timezone": "UTC"},"minute": 90,"second": null,"added_time": null,"extra_minute": null,"injury_time": null},"coaches": {"localteam_coach_id": 1621,"visitorteam_coach_id": 22145896},"standings": {"localteam_position": 3,"visitorteam_position": 12},"assistants": {"first_assistant_id": 12770,"second_assistant_id": 36793,"fourth_official_id": 19329},"leg": "1/1","colors": {"localteam": {"color": "#F0F0F0","kit_colors": "#F0F0F0,#F0F0F0,#0A0A0A,#0A0A0A,#0A0A0A,#FFDF1B,#F0F0F0"},"visitorteam": {"color": "#FDBD0F","kit_colors": "#FDBD0F,#FDBD0F,#FAE403,#FAE403,#5C8FAE,#FFDF1B,#FDBD0F"}},"deleted": false},
Season Field Description
Field | Description |
| Opens an array of data you've requested |
| The unique season id |
| The name of the season |
| The unique league id the season belongs to |
| Indicates if the season is the current one. Possible values are "true" or "false" |
| The unique id of the current round |
| The unique id of the current stage |
Fixtures Field Description
Field | Description |
| Opens an array of data you've requested |
| A unique fixture id |
| The unique id of the league the fixture belongs to |
| The unique id of the season the fixture belongs to |
| The unique id of the stage the fixture belongs to |
| The unique id of the round the fixture belongs to |
| The unique id of the group the fixture belongs to |
| Indicates if the fixture has an aggregated score |
| The unique id of the venue the fixture is played at |
| The unique id of the referee that is in charge of the fixture |
| The unique id of the local team |
| The unique id of the visitor team |
| Contains the id of the team that won the fixture |
| Opens an array of weather details. Possible values of the data in this array can be found in our statuses and definitions |
| Indicates if this fixture has commentaries available |
| Give information about the visitor attendance of the fixture |
| Gives information about the pitch. Possible values can be found in our statuses and definitions |
| Optional additional information. |
| Indicates if the fixture was played at a neutral fixture. This often happens in cup finals |
| Opens an array containing the lineup formations of the teams. Possible values can be found in our statuses and definitions |
| Opens an array containing the scores of the fixture |
| The amount of goals the local team has scored in this fixture |
| The amount of goals the visitor team has scored in this fixture |
| The amount of penalty goals the local team has scored in this fixture (only available when the fixture goes into penalty shootout) |
| The amount of penalty goals the visitor team has scored in this fixture (only available when the fixture goes into penalty shootout) |
| The score at half time |
| The score at full time (90 minutes) |
| The score in extra time (only available when the fixture goes into extra time) |
| The score of the penalty shootout (only available when the fixture goes into penalty shootout) |
| Opens an array containing the time details of the fixture |
| Indicates in which phase the fixture is in. Possible values can be found in our statuses and definitions |
| Opens an array containing the time details of the fixture |
| Gives the date and time the fixture starts |
| Gives the date on which the fixture is played |
| Gives the starting time of the fixture |
| The timestamp notation of the match |
| Indicates in which timezone you've requested the data |
| Indicates in which minute the fixture is in |
| Indicates in which second the fixture is in |
| Indicates how many added time is added |
| Extra minute is when a fixture goes to extra time. Extra_minute will count from 0 to 15 and from 15 to 30. |
| In case of added time it will end up in injury_minute |
| Opens an array containing the unique id's of the coaches |
| The unique id of the coach from the local team |
| The unique id of the coach from the visitor team |
| Opens an array containing the standings of the local- and visitorteam |
| Indicates in which positions the local team is before the fixture |
| Indicates in which positions the visitor team is before the fixture |
| Opens an array containing the unique id's of the assistant referees |
| The unique id of the first assistant |
| The unique id of the second assistant |
| The unique id of the fourth official |
| Indicates in how many legs this fixture is played |
| Opens an array containing information about the team colors |
| Opens an array containing information about the local team colors |
| The main color code of the local team |
| The kit color codes of the local team |
| Opens an array containing information about the visitor team colors |
| The main color code of the visitor team |
| The kit color codes of the local team |
| Indicates if the team was deleted. More information: Keep in Sync |
| This property indicates if the resource is used to display dummy data. The false of this property will always be a |
Your first thought is probably: ‘Wow that’s an enormous response’. This is because football seasons tend to have a large number of matches. In order, to make the response more legible we can introduce a limit.
By limiting the response, we mean that you can limit the number of results per page. Let’s say we want to limit the response to only five results per page. You still need to use the fixtures include, but now you can add :limit(X|X).
The first attribute (X) is the number of records per page, while the second (X) is the page currently browsed.
For example, if you want 5 fixtures per page and you want to browse the first page: &include=fixtures:limit(5|1)
https://soccer.sportmonks.com/api/v2.0/seasons/17141?api_token={API_TOKEN}&include=fixtures:limit(5|1)
Now there are only five results per page! Moreover, you can simply replace the ‘1’ in (5|1) for a ‘2’, if you want to go to the second page. And just like that, you have successfully limited an API response!
Note that paginating through includes count towards your request limit
You’ve learnt how to filter and limit your response. Next up you will learn how to sort the API response.