Mastering JSON:API in Drupal (Part 2): How to Query Smart with Fields, Includes, Sorting, and Pagination

Staff Reporter

Drupal Academy continues its JSON:API tutorial series with a focused lesson on advanced query techniques that help streamline API responses for headless and decoupled applications. This episode covers sparse fieldsets, entity includes, sorting rules, filtering strategies, and pagination mechanics, all using out-of-the-box Drupal capabilities.

The tutorial demonstrates how to use the fields parameter to return only specific attributes, reducing payload size and improving performance. It also explains the include parameter for embedding related entities, avoiding multiple requests. Viewers learn how to apply sorting using sort values and implement filters filter[field][value] for precise data queries. Additionally, the video walks through pagination using page[limit] and page[offset] to control response size and batch results.

By combining these parameters, developers can craft efficient, production-ready API calls tailored for frontend frameworks like React, Next.js, or Vue, as well as mobile and external systems. The tutorial emphasises that mastering these features is key to building high-performance decoupled applications with Drupal’s JSON:API module.

Reference: Drupal JSON:API Tutorial - Fields, Includes, Sorting, Filters & Pagination Explained, Drupal Academy (26 November 2025)

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