# Collections and objects

The API follows a typical RESTful pattern where it allows you to access collections of objects via HTTP. These Collections are paginated, and are always delivered in a structure that has a 'data' array and 'paging' meta-data, as shown below. This is true top level as well as nested collections.

Some objects returned by the API may have sub-collections. For example, a tags collection for a given user object. These sub-collections are paginated in the same manner as top level collections.


```
curl -X GET https://api.rm.smartsheet.com/api/v1/users \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json"
  -H "auth: TOKEN"
```

Will get a JSON response like,


```
{
  "data" : [
    { "id" : 1, "first_name" : "Tom", "last_name" : "Perera" },
    { "id" : 2, "first_name" : "Jane", "last_name" : "Albert" },
    ...
  ],
  "paging": {
    "page": 1,
    "per_page": 20,
    "previous": null,
    "self": "/api/v1/users/1/statuses?user_id=1&per_page=20&page=1",
    "next": null
  }
}
```

Unless otherwise noted, the API always responds with **JSON**.