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Searching with Nylas

Depending on the number of users authenticated to your project, Nylas might return a lot of data for “Get all” requests. This page explains how you can search and filter your users’ data.

How searching works in Nylas

Generally, filtering for data follows this flow:

  1. Determine the query parameters you plan to use.
  2. Make a “Get all” request (for example, Get all Messages) with your query parameters.
  3. Inspect the results to find the ID of the object you want to work with.

To get more information about a specific object, you can make a GET request with the object’s ID.

Search for grants

Nylas supports the following standard query parameters for Get all Grants requests:

  • before, since
  • grant_status, email, provider, ip
  • account_id, account_ids

account_id and account_ids are populated for grants created during the v2-to-v3 migration process only. For all other grants, these fields are blank.

Search for calendars

Calendars are tied to users’ grants, so you have to specify a grant ID when you make a Get all Calendars request. We don’t expect users to have a large number of individual calendars, so the search options Nylas offers for calendars are minimal.

If you know that the calendar you want to work with is the user’s primary calendar (for providers that support it), you can use primary as the calendar locator instead of searching for a calendar ID.

Search for events

You can only search for events from one calendar at a time. You need to include a calendar ID (or primary, for providers that support it) in your Get all Events request to search for events. Nylas returns a 400 error if you don’t specify a calendar.

Nylas supports the following standard query parameters for Get all Events requests:

  • title, description, location
  • start, end
  • event_type - Google only.
  • updated_before, updated_after - Google, Microsoft, and EWS only.
  • ical_uid, master_event_id, busy - Not supported for iCloud.
  • attendees - Not supported for virtual calendars.
  • show_cancelled - Not supported for iCloud or EWS.

Microsoft Graph query considerations for events

When you search for events on Microsoft Graph, the number of days between the start and end values can’t be greater than 1,825 days. If you need to find events over a longer time period, you’ll need to make multiple requests.

iCloud query considerations for events

If you’re searching for an event within a certain time range on iCloud, the difference between start and end can’t be greater than six months. If you include a time range greater than six months, Nylas returns an “Invalid request” error.

Search for drafts

Nylas supports the following standard query parameters for Get all Drafts requests:

  • subject, thread_id
  • any_email, to, cc, bcc
  • starred, has_attachment

Search for messages

Nylas supports the following standard query parameters for Get all Messages requests:

  • subject, thread_id
  • any_email, to, from, cc, bcc
  • received_before, received_after
  • in, unread, starred, has_attachment
  • fields

Nylas doesn’t support filtering for folders using keywords or attributes. For example, in:inbox returns a 400 error. Instead, you should use the folder ID with in to get the data you need.

You can also use the search_query_native parameter to define URL-encoded provider-specific query strings for Google, Microsoft Graph, EWS, and IMAP.

Search for threads

Nylas supports the following standard query parameters for Get all Threads requests:

  • subject
  • any_email, to, from, cc, bcc
  • latest_message_before, latest_message_after
  • in, unread, starred, has_attachment

Nylas doesn’t support filtering for folders using keywords or attributes. For example, in:inbox returns a 400 error. Instead, you should use the folder ID with in to get the data you need.

You can also use the search_query_native parameter to define URL-encoded provider-specific query strings for Google, Microsoft Graph, EWS, and IMAP.

Search messages and threads using search_query_native

You can include the search_query_native query parameter in Get all Messages and Get all Threads requests to search using a URL-encoded provider-specific query string. Nylas supports search_query_native for Google, Microsoft Graph, EWS, and IMAP.

Some IMAP providers don’t support the SEARCH operator. If you try to use it, you might get a 400 error. In these cases, we recommend using the standard query parameters for messages and threads instead.

For example, if you want to search a Google account for messages with “foo” or “bar” in the subject, you first create the provider-specific query string (subject:foo OR subject:bar), then URL-encode it (subject%3Afoo%20OR%20subject%3Abar) and include it in your request.

curl --request GET \
  --url "https://api.us.nylas.com/v3/grants/<NYLAS_GRANT_ID>/messages?search_query_native=subject%3Afoo%20OR%20subject%3Abar" \
  --header 'Accept: application/json, application/gzip' \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer <NYLAS_API_KEY>' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json'

You can also use Microsoft Graph $filter queries in the search_query_native parameter. For example, if you want to find messages where one of the participants is [email protected], first create the query string ($filter=from/emailAddress/address eq '[email protected]'), then URL-encode it (%24filter%3Dfrom%2FemailAddress%2Faddress%20eq%20%27leyah%40example.com%27) and include it in your request.

curl --request GET \
  --url "https://api.us.nylas.com/v3/grants/<NYLAS_GRANT_ID>/messages?search_query_native=%24filter%3Dfrom%2FemailAddress%2Faddress%20eq%20%27leyah%40example.com%27" \
  --header 'Accept: application/json, application/gzip' \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer <NYLAS_API_KEY>' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json'

If you include search_query_native in a Get all Messages request, you can only use a limited set of query parameters with it, depending on the provider:

  • Microsoft: in, limit, and page_token
  • Google: in, limit, and page_token
  • EWS: All query parameters except thread_id

Similarly, you can only use the in, limit, and page_token parameters with search_query_native in Get all Threads requests on all providers except EWS. If you include any other query parameters, Nylas returns an error.

Search for folders

Nylas supports the parent_id query parameter for folders in Microsoft and EWS accounts only. You can use it to get all of the sub-folders under a specific folder.

Nylas doesn’t support filtering for folders using keywords or attributes. For example, in:inbox returns a 400 error. Instead, you should use the folder ID with in to get the data you need.

Search for attachments

You can search for attachments by making a Get all Messages or Get all Threads request that includes the has_attachment query parameter. Nylas returns only the objects that include attachments, so you can sort through them to find the file you want to work with, then make a Get Attachment Metadata or Download Attachment request using the attachment ID and the associated message ID.

Search for contacts

Nylas supports the following standard query parameters for Get all Contacts requests:

  • email, source
  • phone_number - Google only.
  • group - Not supported for EWS.
  • recurse - Microsoft only.

Search for contact groups

You can search for contact groups on all providers except EWS. The Get all Contact Groups endpoint only accepts the query parameters that allow you to sort responses and those that limit the results Nylas returns.

Microsoft Graph immutable identifiers

Generally, Nylas returns globally unique, immutable identifiers for messages and threads. This means that if you store a Nylas message_id or thread_id in your database, you can use it to get the same message or thread at any time in the future. In some cases with Microsoft Graph, however, Nylas can’t guarantee that the identifiers are immutable.

You might encounter this when moving the message across folders.

Microsoft Graph mutually exclusive query parameters

When you list messages or threads for Microsoft Graph accounts, certain types of query parameters become mutually exclusive. This means that if you use any parameters from the first group, you cannot use any from the second, and vice versa.

  • Group 1: Specific, broadly defined provider categories (thread_id, unread, and starred).
  • Group 2: Specific envelope fields (subject, to, cc, bcc, and any_email).

For example, you can’t use the starred query parameter while also filtering for threads to a specific email address.

Historically, Nylas hasn’t seen many combinations of these query parameters. If this limitation is negatively impacting your experience, contact Nylas Support.

EWS query considerations

Nylas query parameters can only work for on-premises Microsoft Exchange servers if an administrator has enabled search indexing for all mailboxes, and the Advanced Query Syntax (AQS) parser is supported. If query parameters are not returning expected results, contact the server administrator to check if this setting has been enabled.

Even though Nylas accepts any Unix timestamp for received_before, received_after, latest_message_before, and latest_message_after, the filtering on EWS is limited to the same day (for example, 01/01/2001), and the results are inclusive of the specified day. For more information, see Microsoft’s notes on AQS query strings.

The accuracy of search results using to, from, cc, bcc, or any_email depends on the search indexing speed of your on-premises Microsoft Exchange server. For example, if you try to query Nylas for a message that just came in, but the Exchange server hasn’t indexed it yet, Nylas doesn’t return it. However, the message will be available after the next search index refresh.