Managing relations with API requests

Defining relations between content-types (that are designated as entities in the database layers) is connecting entities with each other.

Relations between content-types can be managed through the admin panel or through REST API or Document Service API requests.

Relations can be connected, disconnected or set through the Content API by passing parameters in the body of the request:

Parameter name	Description	Type of update
`connect`	Connects new entities. Can be used in combination with `disconnect`. Can be used with positional arguments to define an order for relations.	Partial
`disconnect`	Disconnects entities. Can be used in combination with `connect`.	Partial
`set`	Set entities to a specific set. Using `set` will overwrite all existing connections to other entities. Cannot be used in combination with `connect` or `disconnect`.	Full

✏️ Note

When Internationalization (i18n) is enabled on the content-type, you can also pass a locale to set relations for a specific locale, as in this Document Service API example:

await strapi.documents('api::restaurant.restaurant').update({ 
  documentId: 'a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8i9j0klm',
  locale: 'fr',
  data: { 
    category: {
      connect: ['z0y2x4w6v8u1t3s5r7q9onm', 'j9k8l7m6n5o4p3q2r1s0tuv']
    }
  }
})

If no locale is passed, the default locale will be assumed.

`connect`

Using connect in the body of a request performs a partial update, connecting the specified relations.

connect accepts either a shorthand or a longhand syntax:

Syntax type	Syntax example
shorthand	`connect: ['z0y2x4w6v8u1t3s5r7q9onm', 'j9k8l7m6n5o4p3q2r1s0tuv']`
longhand	`connect: [{ documentId: 'z0y2x4w6v8u1t3s5r7q9onm' }, { documentId: 'j9k8l7m6n5o4p3q2r1s0tuv' }]`

You can also use the longhand syntax to reorder relations.

connect can be used in combination with disconnect.

✋ Caution

connect can not be used for media attributes (see Upload plugin documentation for more details).

Shorthand syntax example
Longhand syntax example

Sending the following request updates a restaurant, identified by its documnentId a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8i9j0klm. The request uses the categories attribute to connect the restaurant with 2 categories identified by their documentId:

Example REST request

PUT http://localhost:1337/api/restaurants/a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8i9j0klm

{
  data: {
    categories: {
      connect: ['z0y2x4w6v8u1t3s5r7q9onm', 'j9k8l7m6n5o4p3q2r1s0tuv']
    }
  }
}

Example Node request

const fetch = require('node-fetch');

const response = await fetch(
  'http://localhost:1337/api/restaurants/a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8i9j0klm',
  {
    method: 'put',
    body: {
      data: {
        categories: {
          connect: ['z0y2x4w6v8u1t3s5r7q9onm', 'j9k8l7m6n5o4p3q2r1s0tuv']
        }
      }
    }
  }
);

Example REST request

PUT http://localhost:1337/api/restaurants/a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8i9j0klm

{
  data: {
    categories: {
      connect: [
        { documentId: 'z0y2x4w6v8u1t3s5r7q9onm' },
        { documentId: 'j9k8l7m6n5o4p3q2r1s0tuv' }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Example Node request

const fetch = require('node-fetch');

const response = await fetch(
  'http://localhost:1337/api/restaurants/a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8i9j0klm',
  {
    method: 'put',
    body: {
      data: {
        categories: {
          connect: [
            { documentId: 'z0y2x4w6v8u1t3s5r7q9onm' },
            { documentId: 'j9k8l7m6n5o4p3q2r1s0tuv' }
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  }
);

Relations reordering

Positional arguments can be passed to the longhand syntax of connect to define the order of relations.

The longhand syntax accepts an array of objects, each object containing the documentId of the entry to be connected and an optional position object to define where to connect the relation.

✏️ Different syntaxes for different relations

The syntaxes described in this documentation are useful for one-to-many, many-to-many and many-ways relations.
For one-to-one, many-to-one and one-way relations, the syntaxes are also supported but only the last relation will be used, so it's preferable to use a shorter format (e.g.: { data: { category: 'a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8i9j0klm' } }, see REST API documentation).

To define the position for a relation, pass one of the following 4 different positional attributes:

Parameter name and syntax	Description	Type
`before: documentId`	Positions the relation before the given `documentId`.	`documentId` (string)
`after: documentId`	Positions the relation after the given `documentId`.	`documentId` (string)
`start: true`	Positions the relation at the start of the existing list of relations.	Boolean
`end: true`	Positions the relation at the end of the existing list of relations.	Boolean

The position argument is optional and defaults to position: { end: true }.

✏️ Sequential order

Since connect is an array, the order of operations is important as they will be treated sequentially (see combined example below).

✋ Caution

The same relation should not be connected more than once, otherwise it would return a Validation error by the API.

Basic example
Combined example

Consider the following record in the database:

categories: [
  { documentId: 'j9k8l7m6n5o4p3q2r1s0tuv' }
  { documentId: 'z0y2x4w6v8u1t3s5r7q9onm' }
]

Sending the following request updates a restaurant, identified by its documentId a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8i9j0klm, connecting a relation of entity with a documentId of ma12bc34de56fg78hi90jkl for the categories attribute and positioning it before the entity with documentId z0y2x4w6v8u1t3s5r7q9onm:

Example request to update the position of one relation

PUT http://localhost:1337/api/restaurants/a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8i9j0klm

{
  data: {
    categories: {
      connect: [
        { documentId: 'ma12bc34de56fg78hi90jkl', position: { before: 'z0y2x4w6v8u1t3s5r7q9onm' } },
      ]
    }
  }
}

Consider the following record in the database:

categories: [
  { documentId: 'j9k8l7m6n5o4p3q2r1s0tuv' }
  { documentId: 'z0y2x4w6v8u1t3s5r7q9onm' }
]

Sending the following example in the request body of a PUT request updates multiple relations:

Example request to reorder several relations

PUT http://localhost:1337/api/restaurants/a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8i9j0klm

{
  data: {
    categories: {
      connect: [
        { id: '6u86wkc6x3parjd4emikhmx', position: { after: 'j9k8l7m6n5o4p3q2r1s0tuv'} },
        { id: '3r1wkvyjwv0b9b36s7hzpxl', position: { before: 'z0y2x4w6v8u1t3s5r7q9onm' } },
        { id: 'rkyqa499i84197l29sbmwzl', position: { end: true } },
        { id: 'srkvrr77k96o44d9v6ef1vu' },
        { id: 'nyk7047azdgbtjqhl7btuxw', position: { start: true } },
      ]
    }
  }
}

Omitting the position argument (as in documentId: 'srkvrr77k96o44d9v6ef1vu9') defaults to position: { end: true }. All other relations are positioned relative to another existing id (using after or before) or relative to the list of relations (using start or end). Operations are treated sequentially in the order defined in the connect array, so the resulting database record will be the following:

categories: [
  { id: 'nyk7047azdgbtjqhl7btuxw' },
  { id: 'j9k8l7m6n5o4p3q2r1s0tuv' },
  { id: '6u86wkc6x3parjd4emikhmx6' },
  { id: '3r1wkvyjwv0b9b36s7hzpxl7' },
  { id: 'a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8i9j0klm' },
  { id: 'rkyqa499i84197l29sbmwzl' },
  { id: 'srkvrr77k96o44d9v6ef1vu9' }
]

Edge cases: Draft & Publish or i18n disabled

When some built-in features of Strapi 5 are disabled for a content-type, such as Draft & Publish and Internationalization (i18), the connect parameter might be used differently:

Relation from a Category with i18n off to an Article with i18n on:

In this situation you can select which locale you are connecting to:

data: {
    categories: {
      connect: [
        { documentId: 'z0y2x4w6v8u1t3s5r7q9onm', locale: 'en' },
        // Connect to the same document id but with a different locale 👇
        { documentId: 'z0y2x4w6v8u1t3s5r7q9onm', locale: 'fr' },
      ]
   }
}

Relation from a Category with Draft & Publish off to an Article with Draft & Publish on:

data: {
  categories: {
    connect: [
      { documentId: 'z0y2x4w6v8u1t3s5r7q9onm', status: 'draft' },
      // Connect to the same document id but with different publication states 👇
      { documentId: 'z0y2x4w6v8u1t3s5r7q9onm', status: 'published' },
    ]
  }
}

`disconnect`

Using disconnect in the body of a request performs a partial update, disconnecting the specified relations.

disconnect accepts either a shorthand or a longhand syntax:

Syntax type	Syntax example
shorthand	`disconnect: ['z0y2x4w6v8u1t3s5r7q9onm', 'j9k8l7m6n5o4p3q2r1s0tuv']`
longhand	`disconnect: [{ documentId: 'z0y2x4w6v8u1t3s5r7q9onm' }, { documentId: 'j9k8l7m6n5o4p3q2r1s0tuv' }]`

disconnect can be used in combination with connect.

Shorthand syntax example
Longhand syntax example

Sending the following request updates a restaurant, identified by its documentId a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8i9j0klm, disconnecting the relations with 2 entries identified by their documentId:

Example request using the shorthand syntax

PUT http://localhost:1337/api/restaurants/a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8i9j0klm

{
  data: {
    categories: {
      disconnect: ['z0y2x4w6v8u1t3s5r7q9onm', 'j9k8l7m6n5o4p3q2r1s0tuv'],
    }
  }
}

Sending the following request updates a restaurant, identified by its documentId a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8i9j0klm, disconnecting the relations with 2 entries identified by their documentId:

Example request using the longhand syntax

PUT http://localhost:1337/api/restaurants/a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8i9j0klm

{
  data: {
    categories: {
      disconnect: [
        { documentId: 'z0y2x4w6v8u1t3s5r7q9onm' },
        { documentId: 'j9k8l7m6n5o4p3q2r1s0tuv' }
      ],
    }
  }
}

`set`

Using set performs a full update, replacing all existing relations with the ones specified, in the order specified.

set accepts a shorthand or a longhand syntax:

Syntax type	Syntax example
shorthand	`set: ['z0y2x4w6v8u1t3s5r7q9onm', 'j9k8l7m6n5o4p3q2r1s0tuv']`
longhand	`set: [{ documentId: 'z0y2x4w6v8u1t3s5r7q9onm' }, { documentId: 'j9k8l7m6n5o4p3q2r1s0tuv' }]`

As set replaces all existing relations, it should not be used in combination with other parameters. To perform a partial update, use connect and disconnect.

✏️ Omitting set

Omitting any parameter is equivalent to using set.
For instance, the following 3 syntaxes are all equivalent:

data: { categories: set: [{ documentId: 'z0y2x4w6v8u1t3s5r7q9onm' }, { documentId: 'j9k8l7m6n5o4p3q2r1s0tuv' }] }}
data: { categories: set: ['z0y2x4w6v8u1t3s5r7q9onm2', 'j9k8l7m6n5o4p3q2r1s0tuv'] }}
data: { categories: ['z0y2x4w6v8u1t3s5r7q9onm2', 'j9k8l7m6n5o4p3q2r1s0tuv'] }

Shorthand syntax example
Longhand syntax example

Sending the following request updates a restaurant, identified by its documentId a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8i9j0klm, replacing all previously existing relations and using the categories attribute to connect 2 categories identified by their documentId:

Example request using the shorthand syntax with set

PUT http://localhost:1337/api/restaurants/a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8i9j0klm

{
  data: {
    categories: {
      set: ['z0y2x4w6v8u1t3s5r7q9onm', 'j9k8l7m6n5o4p3q2r1s0tuv4'],
    }
  }
}

Example request using the longhand syntax with set

PUT http://localhost:1337/api/restaurants/a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8i9j0klm

{
  data: {
    categories: {
      set: [
        { documentId: 'z0y2x4w6v8u1t3s5r7q9onm' },
        { documentId: 'j9k8l7m6n5o4p3q2r1s0tuv' }
      ],
    }
  }
}

connect​

Relations reordering​

Edge cases: Draft & Publish or i18n disabled​

disconnect​

set​

`connect`

Relations reordering

Edge cases: Draft & Publish or i18n disabled

`disconnect`

`set`