targetsbycollection

targetsbycollection is a term used in software design to describe an operation, function, or endpoint that retrieves or organizes “targets” according to their associated “collection.” In this context, a target is a data item representing an entity of interest—such as a person, device, record, or asset—and a collection is a labeled group or category to which targets can belong. The term is not tied to a single platform or standard, but is commonly used as a readable identifier in APIs and codebases that require grouping or segmentation by collection.

In practice, targetsbycollection can return results in two common forms. One form provides a mapping from collection identifiers to the list of targets within each collection. The other form returns a flat list of targets with an explicit collection field, allowing callers to group client-side if needed. Typical parameters include collectionId or collectionName to specify the target group, along with optional filters (such as status, type, or attributes), pagination controls, and field projections. The underlying data model usually involves a targets table with a foreign key to a collections table, or a many-to-many relationship via a join table.

Usage patterns vary by platform. In APIs, targetsbycollection might appear as a REST endpoint such as /targets/by-collection/{collectionId} or as a library function like getTargetsByCollection(collectionId). Implementations often optimize with indexes on collection identifiers and may support caching to improve performance on large datasets. Access control and validation are recommended to ensure that callers can only retrieve authorized collections.

See also: collection, target, grouping, aggregation, getTargetsByCollection.