The Ownright Partner API uses the GraphQL “Connection” pattern for pagination — a powerful and flexible way to request data in chunks while maintaining full control over ordering and navigation.

If you’re used to page and per_page style pagination, this might feel different at first, but it offers more precision and consistency — especially in real-time environments where data can change frequently.

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🔄 What are GraphQL connections?

Connections are a GraphQL pattern for handling lists of objects (like referrals or matters) in a standardized way. Instead of simple arrays, connections return a structured object with:

A list of edges, each containing:

  • A node (the item you care about)
  • A cursor (a pointer used for pagination)

A pageInfo object that helps you know:

  • If there’s a hasNextPage or hasPreviousPage
  • What the startCursor and endCursor are for the current page

This model helps avoid missing or duplicate items when new data is created during pagination.

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📦 Example paginating matters

Let’s say you want to fetch a list of matters you have access to, 10 at a time:

query FetchMatters {
  matters(first: 10) {
    edges {
      node {
        id
        kind
        ...
      }
      cursor
    }
    pageInfo {
      hasNextPage
      endCursor
    }
  }
}

When you get the response, you’ll receive a list of matters, and if hasNextPage is true, you can request the next page using the endCursor:

query FetchMoreMatters {
  matters(first: 10, after: "cursor_from_previous_page") {
    ...
  }
}

This gives you cursor-based pagination, which is more reliable than offset-based pagination when the data is constantly changing.

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🧠 Common use cases

Here are a few common ways to use connections in the Partner API:

  • List all matters using matters(first: N) with pagination
  • Build an activity feed by scrolling through matter updates
  • Export historical data one page at a time for internal reporting
  • Sync new matters incrementally by storing the last cursor you’ve seen

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📚 Learn more about GraphQL connections

If you’re new to GraphQL pagination, here are some great resources:

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💡 Tips for implementation

  • Always check pageInfo.hasNextPage before paginating

  • Don’t assume cursors are sequential strings — treat them as opaque tokens

  • Use cursors to resume pagination if a sync job is interrupted

  • Avoid using GraphQL offset or skip patterns — they’re not supported in our API