pageInfo

PageInfo is a term used in software development to describe a data structure that carries metadata about a page or a paginated collection. It is commonly employed in APIs, web applications, and content delivery scenarios to convey navigation information, page attributes, or contextual details needed by clients without exposing the full dataset.

In GraphQL, PageInfo (often capitalized as PageInfo) is a standardized type used with connection-based pagination, such as in Relay. It typically includes fields such as hasNextPage and hasPreviousPage to indicate whether more pages exist, and startCursor and endCursor to mark the positions of the current page. The cursor values are opaque strings used to fetch the next or previous page, enabling efficient and stateless navigation through large result sets.

Beyond GraphQL, pageInfo can appear in REST or custom APIs as a lightweight metadata object accompanying a page of results. Common fields may include the current page number, page size, total item count, and links or URLs for next and previous pages. In web content contexts, similar objects may be used to describe a page’s URL, title, description, and last modification time for SEO or client-side rendering purposes.

Considerations when using pageInfo include keeping the data minimal to reduce payload size, ensuring consistent field naming across endpoints, and safeguarding sensitive information. Clear documentation helps API clients reliably interpret and navigate paginated results.

See also: pagination, GraphQL, Relay, API design, metadata.