Using curl as tool to acces the Joomla webservices API

example that fetches articles from category ID 12 whose title or text matches “joomla”, sorted by newest first and limited to 5 results:

bash

curl -g -X GET \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.api+json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  "https://example.com/api/index.php/v1/content/articles?filter[category]=12&filter[search]=joomla&list[fullordering]=a.created DESC&page[limit]=5&page[offset]=0"

The URL broken down

Part	Meaning
`/api/index.php/v1/content/articles`	Articles endpoint of the Joomla 4/5 Web Services API
`filter[category]=12`	Only articles in category ID 12
`filter[search]=joomla`	Free-text search on the article
`list[fullordering]=a.created DESC`	Sort by creation date, newest first
`page[limit]=5`	Number of results per page
`page[offset]=0`	Starting point, for pagination

yyy

-g (globoff): curl otherwise interprets [ and ] as URL globbing patterns and throws an error. Alternatively, URL-encode them as %5B and %5D:

have to mask the square brackets for filter with backslashes. For example:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer MY_AUTH_TOKEN" "https://example.org/api/index.php/v1/content/articles?filter\[featured\]=1"

-------

Spaces in search:

In curl '-g (globoff)' may be used to

No. The brackets belong only to the parameter name (filter[search]), not to the value. The value just needs to be URL-encoded, and in curl the whole URL should be in quotes so the shell doesn’t misread it.

Option 1: encode the space yourself

curl -g -H "Accept: application/vnd.api+json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  "https://example.com/api/index.php/v1/content/articles?filter[search]=joomla%20web%20services"

+ instead of %20 also works in a query string: filter[search]=joomla+web+services.

Option 2: let curl do the encoding

curl -g -G -H "Accept: application/vnd.api+json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  --data-urlencode "filter[search]=joomla web services" \
  "https://example.com/api/index.php/v1/content/articles"

Here -G turns the --data-urlencode data into query-string parameters, so you can write the search text with normal spaces. This is the easiest form to read in an article.

Notes

A raw, unencoded space inside the URL string can cause a 400 error or be cut off, depending on the curl version and server, so don’t rely on it.
As far as I know, Joomla treats the whole value as one search string rather than splitting it into separate words, so joomla web services looks for that phrase. I haven’t confirmed this in the docs, so test it on your own installation before stating it in your article.