CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

I need to retrieve the list of contacts modified since a certain date, or a list of contacts ordered by modified_date desc. Is there a simple way to do that with the API v3 (guess: api chaining with the log table and modified_date_low attribute)? If not, is it easy to add (point me in the right direction and I will do it)? If neither of the above, is that type of request built into the Contact BAO/DAO? If none of these works, I will hack a SQL query together ...

Thanks.

Hi,

Join us starting in about 12 hours for the code sprint on irc, we'll be able to help you

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If only there was an explanation, anywhere, on how to use the APIs ... I have no idea how to do the 'filter' you are talking about. I know there are also options to query only certain fields, or to do multiple queries in a single call, paginate and probably many more things, but I could not find any usable documentation on these APIs. (ex: http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC40/CiviCRM+Public+APIs does not give any concrete syntax, guidance or usage examples)

If anyone knowledgeable would give me 30 mins of their time on the phone or via email I am volunteering to write an in-depth API usage documentation for the community. Serious.

PS: I tried
    $params = array(
      'version' => 3,
      'return'  => 'display_name',
      'filters' => array(
          'modified_date_low' => '20111101',
          ),
    );
    $result = civicrm_api( 'Contact', 'get', $params);
And 1) I have many more fields than just 'display name' returned and 2) the filter does not seem to work at all as changing the date to anything else returns the same results.