Adjusting itemsPerPage and Setting Limits

The DEFAULT value of 30 can be overridden BOTH by the client PER request AND configured globally PER resource.

Overriding itemsPerPage per request

curl -k 'https://localhost/api/projects?itemsPerPage=10'

Returns ONLY 10 instead of 30 projects – the itemsPerPage query parameter ALWAYS works, with NO further configuration needed.

Changing the default page size

api/src/Entity/Project.php

#[ApiResource(
    paginationItemsPerPage: 10,
    normalizationContext: ['groups' => ['project:read']],
    denormalizationContext: ['groups' => ['project:write']]
)]

From now on, GET /api/projects returns 10 per page BY DEFAULT instead of 30 – ?itemsPerPage=X STILL works to override this new default when needed.

Setting an upper limit

#[ApiResource(
    paginationItemsPerPage: 10,
    paginationMaximumItemsPerPage: 50,
    // ...
)]

curl -k 'https://localhost/api/projects?itemsPerPage=1000'

Achtung: WITHOUT paginationMaximumItemsPerPage, ONE client could request ?itemsPerPage=100000 and thereby UNNECESSARILY strain the database – the upper limit CAPS the value actually applied at the configured maximum, WITHOUT throwing an error.

Disabling pagination entirely

#[ApiResource(
    paginationEnabled: false,
    // ...
)]

USEFUL for resources with a GUARANTEED small number of entries, like Tag (chapter 12) – there, a fixed, short list WITHOUT pagination overhead is the MORE PRACTICAL choice.

Tipp: ALL three parameters (paginationItemsPerPage, paginationMaximumItemsPerPage, paginationEnabled) can ALSO be set per operation instead of per whole resource – EXACTLY like description in chapter 11.