User Groups API Basics

You can Create and Manage User Groups from the Application menu, but you can also use Liferay’s REST APIs. Call these services to manage user groups.

Adding a User Group

Start a new Liferay DXP instance by running

docker run -it -m 8g -p 8080:8080 liferay/dxp:2025.q1.6-lts

Sign in to Liferay at http://localhost:8080 using the email address [e-mail] and the password test. When prompted, change the password to learn.

Then follow these steps:

1. Download and unzip User Groups API Basics.

   curl https://resources.learn.liferay.com/examples/liferay-y6f2.zip -O
   

   unzip liferay-y6f2.zip
   

2. Use the cURL script to add a new user group to your instance. On the command line, navigate to the curl folder. Execute the UserGroups_POST_ToInstance.sh script.

   ./UserGroups_POST_ToInstance.sh
   

   The JSON response shows a new user group has been added:

   {
     "description" : "",
     "externalReferenceCode" : "72c5739f-a6e9-d4b8-5481-7cf1a427ea79",
     "id" : 43099,
     "name" : "Able",
     "usersCount" : 0
   }
   

3. Navigate to Global Menu → Control Panel → User Groups. See that a new user group has been added.

   

4. The REST service can also be called using the Java client. Navigate out of the curl folder and into the java folder. Compile the source files with the following command:

   javac -classpath .:* *.java
   

5. Run the UserGroups_POST_ToInstance.java class with the following command.

   java -classpath .:* UserGroups_POST_ToInstance
   

Examine the cURL Command

The UserGroups_POST_ToInstance.sh script calls the REST service with a cURL command.

curl \
	"http://localhost:8080/o/headless-admin-user/v1.0/user-groups" \
	--data-raw '
		{
			"name": "Able"
		}' \
	--header "Content-Type: application/json" \
	--request "POST" \
	--user "[e-mail]:learn"

Here are the command’s arguments:

Arguments	Description
-H "Content-Type: application/json"	Indicates that the request body format is JSON.
-X POST	The HTTP method to invoke at the specified endpoint
"http://localhost:8080/o/headless-admin-user/v1.0/user-groups"	The REST service endpoint
-d "{\"name\": \"Able\"}"	The data you are requesting to post
-u "[e-mail]:learn"	Basic authentication credentials

Note

Basic authentication is used here for demonstration purposes. For production, you should authorize users via OAuth2. See Using OAuth2 to Authorize Users for a sample React application that uses OAuth2.

The other cURL commands use similar JSON arguments.

Examine the Java Class

The UserGroups_POST_ToInstance.java class adds a user group by calling the user-group-related service.

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
	UserGroupResource.Builder builder = UserGroupResource.builder();

	UserGroupResource userGroupResource = builder.authentication(
		"[e-mail]", "learn"
	).build();

	UserGroup userGroup = userGroupResource.postUserGroup(
		new UserGroup() {
			{
				name = "Dog";
			}
		});

	System.out.println(userGroup);
}

This class invokes the REST service using only three lines of code:

Line (abbreviated)	Description
UserGroupResource.Builder builder = ...	Gets a Builder for generating an UserGroupResource service instance.
UserGroupResource userGroupResource = builder.authentication(...).build();	Specifies basic authentication and generates a UserGroupResource service instance.
UserGroup userGroup = userGroupResource.postUserGroup(...);	Calls the userGroupResource.postUserGroup method and passes the data to post.

Note that the project includes the com.liferay.headless.admin.user.client.jar file as a dependency. You can find client JAR dependency information for all REST applications in the API explorer in your installation at /o/api.

Note

The main method’s comment demonstrates running the class.

The other example Java classes are similar to this one, but call different UserGroupResource methods.

Important

See UserGroupResource for service details.

Below are examples of calling other UserGroup REST services using cURL and Java.

Get User Groups from Instance

You can list User Groups by executing the following cURL or Java command.

UserGroups_GET_FromInstance.sh

Command:

./UserGroups_GET_FromInstance.sh

Code:

curl \
	"http://localhost:8080/o/headless-admin-user/v1.0/user-groups" \
	--user "[e-mail]:learn"

UserGroups_GET_FromInstance.java

Command:

java -classpath .:* UserGroups_GET_FromInstance

Code:

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
	UserGroupResource.Builder builder = UserGroupResource.builder();

	UserGroupResource userGroupResource = builder.authentication(
		"[e-mail]", "learn"
	).build();

	System.out.println(
		userGroupResource.getUserGroupsPage(
			null, null, Pagination.of(1, 2), null));
}

The Instance’s UserGroup objects appear in JSON.

Get a User Group

Get a specific user group with the following cURL or Java command.

Tip

Use UserGroups_GET_FromInstance.[java|sh] to get instance User Group IDs.

UserGroups_GET_ById.sh

Command:

./UserGroups_GET_ById.sh 1234

Code:

curl \
	"http://localhost:8080/o/headless-admin-user/v1.0/user-groups/${1}" \
	--user "[e-mail]:learn"

UserGroups_GET_ById.java

Command:

java -classpath .:* -DuserGroupId=1234 UserGroups_GET_ById

Code:

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
	UserGroupResource.Builder builder = UserGroupResource.builder();

	UserGroupResource userGroupResource = builder.authentication(
		"[e-mail]", "learn"
	).build();

	System.out.println(
		userGroupResource.getUserGroup(
			Long.valueOf(System.getProperty("userGroupId"))));
}

The UserGroup fields appear in JSON.

Patch a User Group

Do a partial edit of an existing user group with the following cURL and Java commands. Replace 1234 with your User Group’s ID.

UserGroups_PATCH_ById.sh

Command:

./UserGroups_PATCH_ById.sh 1234

Code:

curl \
	"http://localhost:8080/o/headless-admin-user/v1.0/user-groups/${1}" \
	--data-raw '
		{
			"name": "Baker"
		}' \
	--header "Content-Type: application/json" \
	--request "PATCH" \
	--user "[e-mail]:learn"

UserGroups_PATCH_ById.java

Command:

java -classpath .:* -DuserGroupId=1234 UserGroups_PATCH_ById

Code:

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
	UserGroupResource.Builder builder = UserGroupResource.builder();

	UserGroupResource userGroupResource = builder.authentication(
		"[e-mail]", "learn"
	).build();

	UserGroup userGroup = userGroupResource.patchUserGroup(
		Long.valueOf(System.getProperty("userGroupId")),
		new UserGroup() {
			{
				name = "Easy";
			}
		});

	System.out.println(userGroup);
}

Put a User Group

Completely overwrite an existing user group with the following cURL and Java commands. Replace 1234 with your user group’s ID.

UserGroups_PUT_ById.sh

Command:

./UserGroups_PUT_ById.sh 1234

Code:

curl \
	"http://localhost:8080/o/headless-admin-user/v1.0/user-groups/${1}" \
	--data-raw '
		{
			"name": "Charlie"
		}' \
	--header "Content-Type: application/json" \
	--request "PUT" \
	--user "[e-mail]:learn"

UserGroups_PUT_ById.java

Command:

java -classpath .:* -DuserGroupId=1234 UserGroups_PUT_ById

Code:

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
	UserGroupResource.Builder builder = UserGroupResource.builder();

	UserGroupResource userGroupResource = builder.authentication(
		"[e-mail]", "learn"
	).build();

	UserGroup userGroup = userGroupResource.putUserGroup(
		Long.valueOf(System.getProperty("userGroupId")),
		new UserGroup() {
			{
				name = "Fox";
			}
		});

	System.out.println(userGroup);
}

Delete a User Group

Delete an existing User Group with the following cURL and Java commands. Replace 1234 with your User Group’s ID.

UserGroups_DELETE_ById.sh

Command:

./UserGroups_DELETE_ById.sh 1234

Code:

curl \
	"http://localhost:8080/o/headless-admin-user/v1.0/user-groups/${1}" \
	--request "DELETE" \
	--user "[e-mail]:learn"

UserGroups_DELETE_ById.java

Command

java -classpath .:* -DuserGroupId=1234 UserGroups_DELETE_ById

Code:

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
	UserGroupResource.Builder builder = UserGroupResource.builder();

	UserGroupResource userGroupResource = builder.authentication(
		"[e-mail]", "learn"
	).build();

	userGroupResource.deleteUserGroup(
		Long.valueOf(System.getProperty("userGroupId")));
}

The API Explorer shows all of the UserGroup services and schemas and has an interface to try out each service.