GET All Items

Relax. We'll talk through this in plain words — no textbook voice.

One of the most commonly used API endpoints is the GET all route, which returns the entire data list — for example, all users, all products, or all posts.

javascript

const express = require('express');
const app = express();

let users = [
  { id: 1, name: 'Aung Aung' },
  { id: 2, name: 'Mya Mya' }
];

app.get('/api/users', (req, res) => {
  res.json({
    count: users.length,
    data: users
  });
});

app.listen(3000, () => console.log('API running on port 3000'));

app.get('/api/users') is called by the client, it returns the users array as JSON. Including count makes it easy for the frontend to know the total number of items.

You should see

GET /api/users { "count": 2, "data": [ { "id": 1, "name": "Aung Aung" }, { "id": 2, "name": "Mya Mya" } ] }

Info

You could return just an array as the API response too. But using an object structure like { count, data } makes it easy to add things like pagination, message, or status later on.

Easy traps

You can return an object with res.send() too, but for API data, using res.json() is clearer.

Exercise

This GET all pattern is used to show a users list on an admin dashboard, a products list on a shop page, and a posts list on a blog page.

You'll know it worked when: