Scott, Christopher wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I'm putting together a RESTful webservice and I wanted to get
> some input about how one would design XML resource representations. The
> question has to deal with designing the resource with updates in mind.
> I've googled for examples but most articles outline what a resource
> should look like, but not how it should be updated.
>
> I would like to be able to update a representation without having to PUT
> the entire resource representation back to the server. For example,
> consider a simple resource which resides at a URL /Widget/001
>
> <Widget>
> <Id>0FAB7894C</Id>
> <CreatedDate>2009-03-05</CreatedDate>
> <State>INSPECTED</State>
> <Color>Blue</Color>
> <Whatsists>
> <Whatsist href="/Whatsist/1002"/>
> <Whatsist href="/Whatsist/1002"/>
> </Whatsists>
> </Widget>
>
> I'd like the client to be able to change the color or state of this
> widget to, say REJECTED, but not be able to change the id, or the
> CreatedDate.
Don't be afraid of having lots of URLs. In this case, I would also
define a URL at /Widget/001/Color to which you could PUT just the color.
I'm not sure about the best answer as to indicating which fields are
updateable. perhaps a separate custom document indicating this?
--
Elliotte Rusty Harold
Refactoring HTML Just Published!
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0321503635/ref=nosim/cafeaulaitA
