View attendance

Attendance in Communal is tracked through two resources: attendance sheets (one per session per date) and attendance records (one per participant per sheet). This guide shows you how to list attendance sheets for a session, load records for a specific date, and retrieve individual attendance entries with participant details.

Before you begin

Authentication — you need a valid API key.
Programs & registration — understand how attendance sheets and records fit into the registration domain.

1. List attendance sheets for a session

Start by fetching the attendance sheets for a registration opportunity. Each sheet represents a single date, so a multi-day session will have one sheet per meeting date.

curl -X GET "https://api.getcommunal.com/api/attendance_sheets?filter[registration_opportunity_id]=101" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Accept: application/json"

The response includes a paginated list of sheets, each identified by its date and linked to the registration opportunity.

{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": 10,
      "registration_opportunity_id": 101,
      "date": "2025-06-15",
      "created_at": "2025-06-15T10:30:00.000000Z",
      "updated_at": "2025-06-15T10:30:00.000000Z"
    },
    {
      "id": 11,
      "registration_opportunity_id": 101,
      "date": "2025-06-16",
      "created_at": "2025-06-16T09:00:00.000000Z",
      "updated_at": "2025-06-16T09:00:00.000000Z"
    }
  ],
  "meta": { "current_page": 1, "last_page": 1, "per_page": 30, "total": 2 }
}

2. Filter sheets by date

When you need the attendance sheet for a specific day — for example to show today's roster — add the filter[date] parameter.

curl -X GET "https://api.getcommunal.com/api/attendance_sheets?filter[registration_opportunity_id]=101&filter[date]=2025-06-15" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Accept: application/json"

This returns at most one sheet matching that session and date. Use this to resolve the correct sheet ID before loading its attendance records.

3. Load a sheet with its attendance records

To get a complete attendance view for a single date, fetch the sheet by ID with include=records. Each record carries a status and optional notes for one participant.

curl -X GET "https://api.getcommunal.com/api/attendance_sheets/10?include=records" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Accept: application/json"

{
  "data": {
    "id": 10,
    "registration_opportunity_id": 101,
    "date": "2025-06-15",
    "records": [
      {
        "id": 501,
        "attendance_sheet_id": 10,
        "program_signup_id": 156,
        "status": "present",
        "notes": null
      },
      {
        "id": 502,
        "attendance_sheet_id": 10,
        "program_signup_id": 157,
        "status": "absent",
        "notes": "Left early due to illness"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Attendance statuses are: present, absent, late, excused, excluded, and unmarked (the default when a record is first created).

4. List attendance records with participant details

When building a roster view that shows participant names alongside their attendance status, query the records endpoint directly and include the program signup.

curl -X GET "https://api.getcommunal.com/api/attendance_records?filter[attendance_sheet_id]=10&include=programSignup" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Accept: application/json"

The programSignup include returns the signup record with participant contact details like associated_name and associated_email, so you can display a complete attendance list without additional requests.

To load the full context for a single attendance record — including both the sheet and the signup — use the show endpoint with both includes:

curl -X GET "https://api.getcommunal.com/api/attendance_records/501?include=attendanceSheet,programSignup" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Accept: application/json"

What's next

Retrieve program signups — list and filter the signups that attendance records link to
Browse registration opportunities — find the session IDs to query attendance for
See the Attendance Sheet and Attendance Record endpoints in the API Reference for the complete list of fields and includes

Retrieve program signups

Activities