GetFolderCatalog API¶

Builds a catalog of a folder: every subfolder at every depth, and every document in each of them. Each document carries its size, modification date and the checksums of its published and latest versions, so a client can tell which files have changed since it last looked. This is the call a synchronisation client uses. To show a folder in a UI, use the listings compared under Compared with GetFolders and GetDocuments.

Warning: large folders. Check the size first.

The whole catalog is built in one request. The server walks the entire tree, looks up two checksums for every document and holds the complete response in memory before sending any of it. On a large tree the call can run for many minutes, puts a sustained load on the database and the server while it runs, and can fail outright if the request times out or the server runs short of memory.

Before calling it, call GetFolderStatistics on the same folder and add SubFolderCount and TotalDocumentCount; both cover the whole tree.

Folders + documents	Advice
up to about 10,000	Call it when needed.
more than about 10,000	Call it outside business hours, or catalog the subfolders one at a time instead of the whole tree at once.

10,000 is a guideline, not a limit the server enforces: what is safe depends on the server's hardware and on how busy it is. Time a call on a folder of known size on your own server and adjust the threshold from that. The statistics count everything in the tree, including what the caller cannot see, so the total is an upper bound on what the catalog returns.

Endpoint¶

/srv.asmx/GetFolderCatalog

Methods¶

• GET /srv.asmx/GetFolderCatalog?authenticationTicket=...&folderPath=...
• POST /srv.asmx/GetFolderCatalog (form data)
• SOAP Action: http://tempuri.org/GetFolderCatalog

Parameters¶

Response¶

Success Response¶

<response success="true" error="">
  <folder id="167230" name="Reports">
    <document id="97196" name="page.htm" mdate="2026-10-01T10:31:17.960Z" Size="231" chksum="5E707270" chksumLastVersion="5E707270" />
    <folder id="167231" name="Sub">
      <document id="97197" name="page.htm" mdate="2026-10-01T10:31:18.200Z" Size="231" chksum="5E707270" chksumLastVersion="5E707270" />
      <folder id="167232" name="Deeper" />
    </folder>
  </folder>
</response>

<response> holds one <folder>: the folder named in folderPath. Every <folder> holds its own documents first, sorted by name, and then its subfolders, each nested the same way. An empty folder is an empty <folder/> element. There is no depth limit and no paging.

<folder> attributes¶

<document> attributes¶

If a checksum cannot be read, for example because the document is marked offline, the attribute holds N/A Error: followed by the reason instead of a checksum. The rest of the tree is still returned.

Error Response¶

<response success="false" error="Folder path not found." errorCode="4041" />

Compared with GetFolders and GetDocuments¶

The catalog is written in its own format, different from both listing formats:

So the catalog cannot be read with code written for the listings: the attribute names differ (name not n or Name, id not FolderID), and folders are nested rather than flat. It has fewer details per item than the listings (no creation date, format, version numbers, owner or check-out state) and adds the two checksums.

Required Permissions¶

The caller sees only what they may read. Subfolders they cannot see are left out, and so are the documents of any folder whose contents they may not list. Nothing in the response says that something was left out. The folder named in folderPath must be readable, or the call answers 4041.

Example¶

GET Request¶

GET /srv.asmx/GetFolderCatalog
  ?authenticationTicket=3f2504e0-4f89-11d3-9a0c-0305e82c3301
  &folderPath=/Finance/Reports
HTTP/1.1

POST Request¶

POST /srv.asmx/GetFolderCatalog HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

authenticationTicket=3f2504e0-4f89-11d3-9a0c-0305e82c3301
&folderPath=/Finance/Reports

SOAP Request¶

<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"
               xmlns:tns="http://tempuri.org/">
  <soap:Body>
    <tns:GetFolderCatalog>
      <tns:authenticationTicket>3f2504e0-4f89-11d3-9a0c-0305e82c3301</tns:authenticationTicket>
      <tns:folderPath>/Finance/Reports</tns:folderPath>
    </tns:GetFolderCatalog>
  </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

JavaScript¶

Every call answers XML with HTTP 200, success or not, so success is the thing to branch on and errorCode is the number to report.

async function call(action, params) {
  const response = await fetch(`/srv.asmx/${action}?${new URLSearchParams(params)}`);
  const root = new DOMParser()
    .parseFromString(await response.text(), 'text/xml')
    .documentElement;

  if (root.getAttribute('success') !== 'true') {
    throw new Error(`${root.getAttribute('errorCode')}: ${root.getAttribute('error')}`);
  }
  return root;
}

Walk the tree, building each document's path from the folder names above it:

const root = await call('GetFolderCatalog', {
  authenticationTicket: ticket,
  folderPath: '/Finance/Reports'
});

(function walk(folder, prefix) {
  for (const document of folder.querySelectorAll(':scope > document')) {
    console.log(prefix + document.getAttribute('name'), document.getAttribute('chksum'));
  }
  for (const child of folder.querySelectorAll(':scope > folder')) {
    walk(child, prefix + child.getAttribute('name') + '/');
  }
})(root.querySelector('folder'), '');

Notes¶

• On a large tree the call is slow and the response is large; see the warning at the top of this page. To browse a folder, use GetFoldersAndDocumentsByPage one folder at a time.
• A checksum that has never been stored is calculated from the file when it is first asked for, which makes the first call over old documents slower still.

Related APIs¶

• GetFolder - Get one folder's metadata and properties
• GetFoldersAndDocumentsByPage - List one folder's contents, a page at a time
• GetFolderStatistics - Count the folders and documents in a tree

Error Codes¶

The errorCode values this operation returns, checked against a running server:

A call with no ticket is not refused: it runs as the anonymous user, so a folder in a library that allows anonymous access can be read without signing in.