CODEWITHSUNDEEP
jsonrestapi
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Reputation: 5654

PUT vs PATCH with example

Question on best practice on REST API design

Suppose I want to update only one property(lastN) of customer 

{id:1,firstN:fb,lastN:ln,dept:201,region:NA}

then one can/should send
{id:1,lastN:newLn} with PATCH/PUT or both ? {id:1,firstN:fb,lastN:newLn,dept:201,region:NA} with PUT/PATCH or both ?

I have already asked similar(not same) question here, and want to know the answer for this also.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 3668

Answers (1)

Dmitry S.
Dmitry S.

Reputation: 8503

PUT should be used to update the whole resource. For partial updates PATCH is the correct verb.

However, PATCH is not a straight replacement for PUT. If you only want to send partial properties to add/update, the content type "application/merge-patch+json" should be used. The body would only contain modified properties.

https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7396

Content-Type: application/merge-patch+json

{firstN:newFn,region:null,middleName:newMn}

Another, more descriptive alternative is to use JSON Patch document that actually defines operations.

https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6902#section-3

Content-Type: application/json-patch+json

[
   { "op": "add", "path": "/middleName", "value": newMn },
   { "op": "remove", "path": "/region" },
   { "op": "replace", "path": "/firstN", "value": newFn },
]

Upvotes: 5

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