# Kibana REST API documentation lacking

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-rest-api-documentation-lacking/275521>\
**Category:** Kibana\
**Created:** [June 10, 2021, 6:54am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-rest-api-documentation-lacking/275521 "2021-06-10T06:54:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Sjaak01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sjaak01](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Sjaak01)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2021, 6:54am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-rest-api-documentation-lacking/275521/1 "2021-06-10T06:54:56Z")

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Hello,

I'm trying to use the REST API to import dashboards. It seems this shouldn't be that difficult but the due to the poor state of the documentation this is proving a lot harder than it should be.

> **[Import dashboard API | Kibana Guide \[7.13\] | Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/kibana/current/dashboard-import-api.html)**

The query parameter section provides no information on how a force or exclude array should look.

I only want to import a dashboard so I want to exclude everything else. In other elastic queries it would look something like this `array=option1,option2` but this does not work. Neither does something like `array=["option1", "option2"]`.

I've also looked at the normal export/import API's as I only need the dashboard anyway but if you copy the curl command for exporting a dashboard from [Export objects API | Kibana Guide [7.13] | Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/kibana/7.13/saved-objects-api-export.html) curl will always return a 400 error (obviously I changed the url and added user/pass).

At least this is the case on Elastic Cloud.

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**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2021, 7:02am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-rest-api-documentation-lacking/275521/2 "2021-06-10T07:02:32Z")

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To be fair, that documentation page also has the `experimental` tag on it at the top, which says;

> This functionality is experimental and may be changed or removed completely in a future release. Elastic will take a best effort approach to fix any issues, but experimental features are not subject to the support SLA of official GA features

Hopefully one of the Kibana team can chime in on a solution though.

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**Author:** ![Sjaak01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sjaak01](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Sjaak01)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2021, 12:07am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-rest-api-documentation-lacking/275521/3 "2021-06-11T00:07:31Z")

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That is fair. Its also why I tried to use the general import/export function but alas that doesn't appear to work at all. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong but to only see if it works, the examples in the docs should be pretty much copy & paste.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2021, 12:07am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-rest-api-documentation-lacking/275521/4 "2021-07-09T00:07:56Z")

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