CODEWITHSUNDEEP
resthttp
Yellowjacket
Yellowjacket

Reputation: 774

What error to throw when resource cannot be updated

I'm implementing CRUD operations on a REST resource. Service can perform update only when the resource is in state 'X' and I need to show an error if resource state is not 'X'. What error should I throw if resource is not in state 'X'? 400 or 405 or something else?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 64

Answers (1)

VoiceOfUnreason
VoiceOfUnreason

Reputation: 57204

What error should I throw if resource is not in state 'X'?

Either

the method received in the request-line is known by the origin server but not supported by the target resource.

the request could not be completed due to a conflict with the current state of the target resource.

the server understood the request but refuses to authorize it

Status codes are meta-data in the transfer of documents over a network domain. It's a hint that we give to general purpose clients to help them interpret the rest of the information in the response.

A way of deciding which code to use is to compose the response body, and then consider which of the codes is a best fit.

In practice, there doesn't seem to be a lot of difference between these codes (405 is cacheable? shrug). So you might do well to consider it an operator concern; which of these codes is going to make life easier for somebody reading the access log?

Upvotes: 1

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