Retrieve folders and sub folders from document library by REST call

Question

I need to get a list of folders and sub folders from document library. I feel that approaching this problem using REST call would be easier than the traditional CSOM query. Please suggest a relevant approach and solution.

Answer 1

You could utilize GetItems method and specify the following query:

<View Scope="RecursiveAll">
     <Query>
         <Where>
            <Eq>
               <FieldRef Name="FSObjType" /><Value Type="Integer">1</Value>
            </Eq>
         </Where>
     </Query>
</View>

to return all folder items in a library.

Example

function getListItems(webUrl,listTitle, viewXml) 
{
    var url = webUrl + "/_api/web/lists/getbytitle('" + listTitle + "')/getitems"; 
    var queryPayload = {  
               'query' : {
                      '__metadata': { 'type': 'SP.CamlQuery' }, 
                      'ViewXml' : viewXml
               }
    };

    return $.ajax({
           url: url,
           method: "POST",
           contentType: "application/json;odata=verbose",
           data: JSON.stringify(queryPayload),
           headers: {
              "X-RequestDigest": $("#__REQUESTDIGEST").val(),
              "Accept": "application/json; odata=verbose"
           }
     });
}

function getAllFolderItems(webUrl,listTitle)
{
    var viewXml = '<View Scope="RecursiveAll"><Query><Where><Eq><FieldRef Name="FSObjType" /><Value Type="Integer">1</Value></Eq></Where></Query></View>';
    return getListItems(webUrl,listTitle,viewXml);
}

Usage

//print folder names from Documents library
getAllFolderItems(_spPageContextInfo.webAbsoluteUrl,'Documents')
.done(function(data)
{
     var items = data.d.results;
     for(var i = 0; i < items.length;i++) {
         console.log(items[i].Title);
     }    
})
.fail(
function(error){
    console.log(JSON.stringify(error));
});

Answer 2

Recently I answered a very similar question here. If you need all of the folders and subfolders (but no documents) recursively from a document library, that is what you should use (send it via POST to the server due to GetItems method call):

/_api/web/Lists/GetByTitle('Title of your doc. lib.')/GetItems(query=@v1)?$expand=Folder&$select=Title,Folder/ServerRelativeUrl&@v1={"ViewXml":"<View Scope='RecursiveAll'><Query><Where><Eq><FieldRef Name='FSObjType' /><Value Type='Integer'>1</Value></Eq></Where></Query></View>"}

Alternatively, you could use the following REST query as well (via HTTP GET):

/_api/web/Lists/GetByTitle('Title of your doc. lib.')/Items?$expand=Folder&$select=Title,Folder/ServerRelativeUrl

It will return all of the items (documents and folders) in you library, you should filter them on the client side based on the FileSystemObjectType property, as you can't use this one in the $filter expression in REST (see details here).

Last, but not least, you can use the SharePoint 2010 compatible REST Interface as shown in option 3:

/_vti_bin/listdata.svc/YourDocLib?$filter=ContentType eq 'Folder'

Note, that the syntax is language-specific in this case. The query above is OK for English, but for German it would be:

/_vti_bin/listdata.svc/YourDocLib?$filter=Inhaltstyp eq 'Ordner'