Create a collection

Creating collections

Before adding objects to Tallyfy Answers, you must first create a collection. Each collection requires a unique name, and the system will automatically detect the data types of your objects as you index them.

API endpoint

POST /v1/collections

Request body

The request body should contain a JSON object with the following properties:

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
name	string	Yes	Unique name for the collection (can include letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores)
description	string	No	Optional description explaining the collection’s purpose

Example request body:

{
  "name": "products",
  "description": "Collection of product information including names, descriptions, and pricing"
}

Response

A successful request returns a 201 Created status code and a JSON response containing:

{
  "name": "products",
  "description": "Collection of product information including names, descriptions, and pricing",
  "created_at": "2023-08-15T14:32:21Z"
}

Error scenarios

Status	Description
400	Invalid request format or collection name
409	Collection name already exists

Example request

curl -X POST https://go.tallyfy.com/api/v1/collections \
  -H "X-Answers-API-Key: <your_api_key>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "products",
    "description": "Collection of product information"
  }'

Supported data types

Tallyfy Answers automatically detects the following data types when you index objects:

Data Type	Example	Description
string	”Wireless Headphones”	Text values that can be searched and filtered
list of strings	[“electronics”, “audio”]	Arrays of text values for multi-value fields

Collection naming best practices

• Use lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores
• Choose descriptive names that reflect the content (e.g., “products”, “users”, “articles”)
• Avoid spaces and special characters
• Keep names concise but meaningful
• Use consistent naming conventions across collections

Related articles

Collections > Get a collection

The GET endpoint retrieves detailed collection information including metadata schema and object counts by using a unique collection name through the /v1/collections/[collection_name] path.

Collections > Get all collections

A paginated API endpoint that retrieves summaries of all collections sorted by creation date with support for limiting results and skipping records for efficient data browsing.

Answers > Objects

Objects in Tallyfy Answers serve as JSON-formatted data records with unique identifiers that can be flexibly structured indexed and searched within collections while supporting both custom and auto-generated IDs for efficient data management.

Answers > Collections

Collections in Tallyfy Answers serve as organizational containers that group similar objects together while enabling operations like searching filtering and managing data through dynamic schemas and efficient organization methods.