How to use the dblp search API?

Part of the search API is still in flux. So please take the advice below as work-in-progress that may change in the future (although there are no current plans of doing so).

There are three major search services provided by dblp: one for publications, one for persons (authors/editors), and one for venues (journals/conferences/etc). The base search API URL of these services are:

Currently the following URL query parameters are recognized:

ParameterDescriptionDefaultExample
qThe query string to search for, as described on a separate page. ...?q=test+search
formatThe result format of the search. Recognized values are "xml", "json", and "jsonp".xml...?q=test&format=json
hMaximum number of search results (hits) to return. For bandwidth reasons, this number is capped at 1000.30...?q=test&h=100
fThe first hit in the numbered sequence of search results (starting with 0) to return. In combination with the h parameter, this parameter can be used for pagination of search results.0 ...?q=test&h=100&f=300
cMaximum number of completion terms (see below) to return. For bandwidth reasons, this number is capped at 1000.10...?q=test&c=0

Completions

The auto-completion of search terms is one of the major features of the CompleteSearch engine. The engine will automatically compute the top prefix-matching search terms for the right-most term given in the "q" query Parameter. E.g., "...?q=test+search" will provide completions for the term "search".

Example: