Describe Calls

The following table lists supported describe calls in the API in alphabetical order, and provides a brief description for each. Click a call name to see syntax, usage, and more information for that call.

Note

For a list of API utility calls, see Utility Calls, and for a list of general calls (calls that query, retrieve, or modify data), see Core Calls.

Call	Description
`describeGlobal()`	Retrieves a list of available objects for your organization’s data.
`describeDataCategoryGroups()`	Retrieves available category groups for entities specified in the request.
`describeDataCategoryGroupStructures()`	Retrieves available category groups along with their data category structure for entities specified in the request.
`describeLayout()`	Retrieves metadata about page layouts for the specified object type.
`describeSearchScopeOrder()`	Retrieves an ordered list of objects in the logged-in user’s default global search scope, including any pinned objects in the user’s search results page.
`describeSObject()`	Retrieves metadata (field list and object properties) for the specified object type. Superseded by `describeSObjects()`.
`describeSObjects()`	An array-based version of describeSObject.
`describeSoftphoneLayout()`	Describes the softPhone layout(s) created for an organization.
`describeTabs()`	Describes the apps and tabs that have been configured for the user.

Samples

The samples in this section are based on the enterprise WSDL file. They assume that you have already imported the WSDL file and created a connection. To learn how to do so, see the Quick Start tutorial.