Pagination related quries for Purview API

Hi @Balamurugan, Susinthika
Thanks for your question.

In Microsoft Purview APIs, pagination fields like skipToken or nextLink are returned only when the response contains more items than can be returned in a single page. If the total number of results is small, the API will return all data in one response, and you will not see these pagination fields.

There is no specific configuration or setting that needs to be enabled to get these fields. Pagination is handled automatically by the service.

Regarding the default page size, this is not always fixed or publicly documented for all Purview endpoints, and it may vary depending on the API and service behavior. Because of this, it is generally recommended to rely on the presence of nextLink / skipToken in the response rather than assuming a specific page size.

If you would like to test pagination behavior, you can try:

• Using query parameters such as $top (if supported by that endpoint)
• Testing in an environment with a larger number of items

If you are still not seeing pagination when you expect large results, please share a sample request and response (sanitized), and we can review further.

Hope this helps clarify.

Thanks.

For the Microsoft Purview REST APIs, pagination fields are only returned when the service actually needs to paginate the result set. There is no separate configuration switch to “turn on” skipToken or nextLink.

Key points based on the documented patterns:

1. Pagination is conditional on result size
   For list-style APIs, pagination metadata is emitted only when the response cannot return all items in a single page:
   • If the total number of items is less than or equal to the default page size, the response is returned as a single page and no pagination token/next link is included.
   • When the result set exceeds the default page size, the service returns a pagination mechanism (for example, a nextLink or token) that the client must follow to retrieve subsequent pages.
   This is consistent with other Microsoft services:
   • Microsoft Graph list APIs return an @odata.nextLink only when there are more pages to fetch and may use $skip or cursor-based tokens depending on the resource.
   • Learn Platform APIs use a nextLink field only when there is another page of results to retrieve.
   • Some OData-based services use $skiptoken for server-driven paging; the token appears only when the server decides to paginate.
2. Token/nextLink is opaque and request-driven
   When pagination is triggered, the service returns:
   • A cursor/URL (for example, nextLink) that already encodes the necessary state (such as a token or skip value).
   • Clients should not construct these tokens manually; instead, they should:
     1. Inspect the response for nextLink (or equivalent).
     2. If present, call that URL as-is to get the next page.
     3. Repeat until no nextLink is returned.
3. Purview Data Map APIs and pagination
   The Purview Data Map APIs show the same pattern:
   • For large result sets (for example, glossaries, terms, categories, or assigned entities), the documentation explicitly recommends using limit and offset query parameters to page through data when a single call would be too large or may time out.
   • When the dataset is small enough, a single call returns all results and no additional pagination metadata is needed.
   • When the dataset is large, using limit/offset or related pagination parameters is required to avoid timeouts and to retrieve data page by page.
4. Why skipToken/nextLink may not appear in current tests
   For the specific endpoints being tested (List Data Sources, List Scans by Data Source, List Scan History, List Policies):
   • If the environment currently has only a small number of data sources, scans, scan history entries, or policies, the responses will fit within the default page size.
   • In that case, the service returns a single page and does not include skipToken or nextLink, which matches the documented behavior of other Microsoft APIs that use server-driven paging.
5. How to validate pagination behavior
   To observe pagination in practice:
   • Ensure the relevant collection is large enough (for example, many data sources, scans, or policies) so that the service must paginate.
   • Call the list endpoint without specifying a very large page size (or using the default).
   • Inspect the response for a pagination field (nextLink or similar).
   • Follow that link to retrieve subsequent pages until it is no longer present.

In summary, no extra configuration is required. skipToken/nextLink (or equivalent pagination metadata) are returned only when the result set exceeds what the service returns in a single page, which is determined by the default or requested page size.

References:

• Troubleshoot Microsoft Purview Data Map API request timeout exceptions
• Use $skiptoken for server-driven paging
• Customize Microsoft Graph responses with query parameters
• Paging Parameters
• Get started with the Microsoft Learn Platform API
• Microsoft Purview Resource Provider Rest API