Questions regarding API design

[ttomtsis]

This issue is referenced in Issue #3

1) Should the state changing endpoints be grouped under a single endpoint ?

HTTP methods should solely indicate the type of operation performed on the resource, so cannot group the reject endpoints ( which delete a resource ) under the same mapping

2) Is it better to use the PATCH http method when updating a single field like state ?

The PATCH method will be used when updating the state of an entity

[ttomtsis]

3) When should the PATCH HTTP method be used ?

4) Merge modify topic and update topic state into a single PUT endpoint ? PUT /topics/ {id}

Will not merge endpoints for the following reasons:

• Consistency: So far to change the state of other resources separate endpoints are used

• Simplicity: The resulting complexity of merging all these functions in 1 endpoint would be significant, hence i will keep them separate.

5) When updating the state of the topic, should the client request include an entire representation of the new Topic ?

If using PATCH to update the state, simply include the state field, else if using PUT include the entire object in the body

[ttomtsis]

6) Create a DELETE mapping in order to reject ( delete ) comments, topics and stories ?

• eg DELETE /api/v0/topics/1

DELETE mapping created, also removed the REJECTED state.

• see commits https://github.com/ttomtsis/newspaper-app/commit/68bd871a9ab126ac19920b9cd8c50704415ea104 https://github.com/ttomtsis/newspaper-app/commit/46fcfa15ec3d5c68e0f7069f55644e4c67a3eddd

Previous implementation violated the principle: HTTP Methods should be idempotent