Create a metadata query

As a final step, let's look at how you can create a query to find specific files and folders based on the metadata attached to those files/folders.

A metadata query provides a way to find files and folders by searching for the metadata attached to them. The search syntax is similar to SQL and it supports boolean operations and comparative operators to perform powerful searches.

In our case, let's create a query to find any files or folders that have an instance of the customerInfo metadata template attached to them. We will filter this list down to any files that belong to a customer who's total account value is more than $200,000.

curl -X POST https://api.box.com/2.0/metadata_queries/execute_read \
    -H 'Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>" ' \
    -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    -d '{
      "from": "enterprise_123456.customerInfo",
      "fields": [
        "name",
        "enterprise_123456.customerInfo.name"
        "enterprise_123456.customerInfo.tav"
      ],
      "query": "tav >= :value",
      "query_params": {
        "value": 200000
      },
      "ancestor_folder_id": "0"
    }'

This API will return a list of matched files and folders, as well as the metadata that matched the query for that file.

{
  "entries": [
    {
      "type": "file",
      "id": "11111",
      "etag": "0",
      "metadata": {
        "enterprise_123456": {
          "customerInfo": {
            "name": "Box",
            "tav": 1000000,
            "$parent": "folder_12345,",
            "$scope": "enterprise_123456",
            "$template": "customerInfo",
            "$version": 1
          }
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "limit": 20,
  "next_marker": "AAAAAmVYB1FWec8GH6yWu2nwmanfMh07IyYInaa7DZDYjgO1H4KoLW29vPlLY173OKsci6h6xGh61gG73gnaxoS+o0BbI1/h6le6cikjlupVhASwJ2Cj0tOD9wlnrUMHHw3/ISf+uuACzrOMhN6d5fYrbidPzS6MdhJOejuYlvsg4tcBYzjauP3+VU51p77HFAIuObnJT0ff"
}

By default this API returns 20 items per page, but more items can be requested using marker-based pagination.