CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaspringrestjakarta-ee
LuckyLuke
LuckyLuke

Reputation: 49097

Can I return a different resource from a POST request?

I am writing a RESTful web service API. I am going to post an Answer resource to a mechanical question. When I do this I want to know if I answered correct or not. For this I have a Result resource.

Is it wrong to return a different resource that the one you POSTed in a HTTP request?

Example: POST /mechanical-questions/4/answers - shoud return result.

The answer will be saved on the server, but so will the result. Should I return a HttpStatus 20x code together with a Location header indicating where I can find the quiz result or the answer, and what should the response entity be? The created answer or the quiz result?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 161

Answers (2)

user2923779
user2923779

Reputation: 230

Obviously there is no one 'correct' answer to this. I think you are right in saying that you should not return a RESULT object to an endpoint that receives an ANSWER object. To me I think it is a bit strange to return the Location: header. It should be up to the consuming client what they want to do with the ANSWER object after creation. What I sometimes see is a location property in the POST response object.

So you have a request like this

{
  'answer' : 'I hope I am correct'
}

And a response like this

{
   'id' : 12345
   'answer' : 'I hope I am correct'
   'result_id' : 68472
   'result_location' : '/mechanical-questions/4/result/68472'
}

This allows the client to determine the flow after a user makes an answer - maybe they immediately do a GET for the result and display it, or maybe the bundle up a multi-get response after a series of questions are answered.

Upvotes: 2

Aleksandar Stojadinovic
Aleksandar Stojadinovic

Reputation: 5049

I think you should certainly return an OK code since it is a completely valid situation. It is nor a server error or bad request or something like that.

As for the response entity, that really depends on your business logic, at least from my point of view. It's a bit controversial between developers. If you want your client to get a correct answer in either case then just put the answer itself. If the client should maybe have a few tries before he gets a answer, than maybe put a URL to the response entity. You could even do both...

Upvotes: 0

Related Questions