Update a single property in a REST API
rest
Solution
Actually, I think that the PATCH method is designed specifically for this purpose. You should use it to provide a partial update to the object, rather than a full update. Here is a blog entry that explains this in more detail.
Problem
In designing a new API, we are doing our best to follow the patterns established by REST. The question I have is the best method to follow when trying to update a single property. For example: Imagine you have a simple Car resource: ``` { "make": "Chevrolet", "model": "Chevelle", "year": 1966, "color": "black", "for_sale": true } ``` Let's assume that the property `for_sale` is something that you anticipate will be updated regularly by the user. I have a couple options: `PUT` the entire resource with `for_sale` set to `false`. For a reasonably small resource, this seems fine, however, in most cases our resources are quite large so a lot of waste in sending the entire resource to update a single, often changed property. `POST` and do a partial update by only including the element to update, such as: `{"for_sale":false}` This is better as it requires a lot less overhead. But I somehow seem to be reaching for something even more simple, but I don't seem to find the right approach. It would be quite convenient to offer a simple `PUT` to a URL (that doesn't require any request body) to update this property. I see what Google is doing in their API to accomplish this, but it feels just a bit RPC-ish, although I like the simplicity. `POST` `/blogs/blogId/posts/postId/comments/commentId/approve` (marks a comment as not spam) `POST` `/blogs/blogId/posts/postId/comments/commentId/spam` (marks a comment as spam) Can someone offer some advice on the best way to approach updating a single property within a resource (in a preferably lightweight manner) that followed REST principles?