CODEWITHSUNDEEP
restrestful-url
Jeff
Jeff

Reputation: 1879

RESTful API for POST when other HTTP Verbs' paths have multiple Params?

Hello and happy January!

Reviewing my recently created a very simple RESTful API, I am wondering if I did the RESTful API signature for its POST.

This RESTful API queries a very simple MongoDB collection Apps, and its columns are:

Index:

Data structure:

The paths for HTTP Verbs GET DELETE and PATCH handling items in the collection Apps are:

My quandary is a follows: I want to POST a new app that will be associated with siteId + accountId.

I am wondering if how I defined this POST path makes sense, because the new app may be adding to this collection either siteId or accountId for the first time.

This is what I had implemented for HTTP Verb POST:

POST /api/v1/sites/:siteId/accounts/:accountId/apps

params: {
  siteId: string,
  accountId: string,
},
body: {
  provider: '[** Provider **]',
  description: '[** Description **]',

  siteId: '[** Site ID **]',
  accountId: '[** Account ID **]'
},
response: new `appId`

Or should it be (which I am starting to lean towards):

POST /api/v1/apps

body: {
  provider: '[** Provider **]',
  description: '[** Description **]',

  siteId: '[** Site ID **]',
  accountId: '[** Account ID **]'
},
response: new `appId`

Recommendations are truly welcomed!

Upvotes: 0

Views: 74

Answers (1)

ophychius
ophychius

Reputation: 2653

First of, it would be a little odd to have the siteId and accountId both in the url and the body. The url suggests you are creating an app for a specific site, and then the site is a variable in the message body, meaning it could be any site. This would only lead to confusion.

Do you want someone to be able to register a new app for any site/account combination? Or would someone go from selecting a site to registering a new app for that site. In the first case I would put it all in the body, in the second case go with the site in the url.

Considering RESTfulness; when you use the api to find sites or a specific site before you register an app to a specific site, the 'site' object in the response would have a reference to where one would register an app for that site. This link would probably contain the siteId. However if it were just a url where you could register any site, the siteId would have no place in the url and not even be part of that specific response.

I think I would take account out of the url regardless, this seems to be that it would always be the same and just something you have to pass on as a variable.

Upvotes: 2

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