[API-users] Limits on the occurrence search API

[Markus Döring]

Hi Nico,
see anserws inline below.
Makrus



> I'm having some doubts about how the hard limits work when using the occurrence search API. I think this is a documentation/error message issue rather than a technical one:
> 
> Here is what the doc says:
> 
> - max value for "limit" = 300
> - max total records = 1.000.000 (does that means limit * offset?)
no, it means offset + limit
and like you discovered below the limit is actually at 200.000 not 1 million


> What my tests says:
> 
> - http://api.gbif.org/v1/occurrence/search?hasCoordinate=true&limit=300&offset=3335
> => works, but shouldn't since 300*3335 = 1000500 total records
the offset is not in pages but absolute records. So you actually are looking at records 3335 to 3634

> - http://api.gbif.org/v1/occurrence/search?hasCoordinate=true&limit=1&offset=200000
> => "maximum offset allowed is 200000", but offset IS 200000 (message should be "less than"? 199999 works) Also, this limit on the offset parameter should be stated in the doc page.
I believe we have not updated the docs and the 1 million limit actually is 200.000 which you can see here in your example!

> - http://api.gbif.org/v1/occurrence/search?hasCoordinate=true&limit=300&offset=199998
> => "maximum offset allowed is 200000": here, we probably hit the 1.000.000 total limit, but the error message refer to the undocumented (and not hit here) max offset limit.
> 
> Could you clarify a bit ? 
> 
> All the best,
> 
> Nico
> 
> 
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