How to make rest or soap queries on a large list in SP2010

Question

I have a list which has exceeded the sp2010 list view threshold of 5000 items. Despite filtering the default view (or creating a new filtered view) with less than 5000 items, SOAP and REST queries still result in errors.

Is there any way to use SOAP or REST to interface with large lists? The queries I make will never return more than about 500 items.

Answer 1

You will need to disable resource throttling on a particular list. You can use following powershell script to do that:

$web = Get-SPWeb -Identity http://intranet.contoso.com/sites/contracts
$web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = $True
$list = $web.Lists["Projects"]
$list.EnableThrottling = $False
$list.Update()
$web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = $False
$web.Update()
$web.Dispose()

Answer 2

It turns out that if you index a column, then filter against the indexed column, as long as what passes that filter is under the item limit the call will work.