# Collection exclude fields

**URL:** <https://discourse.getcockpit.com/t/collection-exclude-fields/2162>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [November 30, 2021, 1:45pm UTC](https://discourse.getcockpit.com/t/collection-exclude-fields/2162 "2021-11-30T13:45:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Jay](https://discourse.getcockpit.com/u/Jay)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2021, 1:45pm UTC](https://discourse.getcockpit.com/t/collection-exclude-fields/2162/1 "2021-11-30T13:45:36Z")

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Hey, new to Cockpit and attempting to create a simple collection that outputs its response via JSON. I’ve managed to get the collection outputting however, it’s including all the extra fields that are not needed. How can I simplify the output to only contain the data that’s needed? In the example below I’d only need the name and ID, not the rest - Thanks

Also, to clarify I don’t need front end logic 🙂

```auto
{
  "fields": {
    "name": {
      "name": "name",
      "type": "text",
      "localize": false,
      "options": []
    }
  },
  "entries": [
    {
      "name": "Test 1",
      "_mby": "660f0251383462e460000106",
      "_by": "660f0251383462e460000106",
      "_modified": 1638271909,
      "_created": 1638271909,
      "_id": "6626ede866333931ea00024b"
    },
    {

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ronaldaug](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.getcockpit.com/ronaldaug/32/260_2.png) [@ronaldaug](https://discourse.getcockpit.com/u/ronaldaug)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 7:58am UTC](https://discourse.getcockpit.com/t/collection-exclude-fields/2162/2 "2022-01-24T07:58:56Z")

</div>

I feel like this is a bit hacky, you can filter fields via URL like

> api/collections/entries/collectionname?fields[\_mby]=&fields[\_by]=&fields[\_modified]=&fields[\_created]=

OR

> api/collections/entries/collectionname?fields[name]=all&fields[\_id]=all

* * *

There are two more methods to achieve it.

## 1

If you only want to grab a few fields, you can use [graphql addon of Cockpit called CockpitQL](https://github.com/agentejo/CockpitQL)

## 2

You can modify the entry fields with this below method.

> [@API - Username instead of id on \_by/\_mby](https://discourse.getcockpit.com/t/api-username-instead-of-id-on-by-mby/2063/4):
>
> My bad, I should have mentioned that populate only work with collectionLink. And you can’t retrieve accountLink data with collection data at the same time. Maybe it could be the security reason. Option 1 Fire one more API request with account ID to get the user data Option 2 Ref answer by raffaelj: [How to refer to another Collections or "Accounts" - #7 by raffaelj](https://discourse.getcockpit.com/t/how-to-refer-to-another-collections-or-accounts/324/7) create config directory in the root folder, under that directory create bootstrap.php file. Add the below codes. Make sure you …