Retrieving lists of groups with the Conversation Web Service

To retrieve a list of attribute groups, use a request with the AttributeGroupListConfig type.

The AttributeGroupListConfig syntax is: 
<AttributeGroupListConfig Id="?">
    <StateName>?</StateName>
</AttributeGroupListConfig>
where:
  • Id is an optional attribute that provides an arbitrary identifier for this configuration.
  • StateName is an optional attribute that specifies the name of a state in the request. Note that specifying a state has no effect on the results (even in a request with multiple states).

To retrieve a list of groups:

Use a request similar to the following example: 
<Request xmlns="http://www.endeca.com/MDEX/conversation/3/0">
   <State/>
   <AttributeGroupListConfig Id="AttrGroups"/>
</Request>
The Conversation Web Service request contains a list of groups that are currently defined, specifying each group's display name and the number of attributes in each group. Information about each group is returned inside the GroupSummary element of the AttributeGroupList response, as shown in this example: 
<cs:Results ...>
   <ns:State .../>
   <cs:AttributeGroupList Id="AttrGroups">
      <cs:GroupSummary Key="WineGroup" Cardinality="4">
         <cs:Record>
            <cs:attribute name="system-group_DisplayName" type="mdex:string">Wine Refs</cs:attribute>
            <cs:attribute name="system-group_Key" type="mdex:string">WineGroup</cs:attribute>
         </cs:Record>
         <cs:GroupMembers>
            <cs:attribute name="mdex-property_Key">WineType</cs:attribute>
            <cs:attribute name="mdex-property_Key">Wine</cs:attribute>
            <cs:attribute name="mdex-property_Key">Region</cs:attribute>
            <cs:attribute name="mdex-property_Key">Flavors</cs:attribute>
         </cs:GroupMembers>
      </cs:GroupSummary>
   </cs:AttributeGroupList>
</cs:Results>

In this example, one group (named WineGroup) is returned. The Cardinality attribute specifies the number of attributes in the group. The attributes for each group member are also listed.

Note: In a response, you may also notice a group system-navigation_InternalGroup (not shown in this example), which contains all of the attributes that are not members of any other user-created groups. This group is used by the Oracle Endeca Server and Studio and is not intended to be used in your application.