REST URL convention [closed] - api

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I have an application table that has columns like quoteId, accountNumber, and few others. I have created a REST endpoint to update the account number on the basis of quoteId i.e Update account no. in the application that has quoteId = {quoteId}. Here is the endpoint:
PUT /applications/quotes/{quoteId}/accountNumber
Is it the correct REST convention?

Answer 1

Is it the correct REST convention?
Maybe.
If your PUT/PATCH/POST request uses the same URI as your GET request, then you are probably on safe ground. If PUT/PATCH/POST are using different URI, then something has Gone Wrong somewhere.
In other words, if /applications/quotes/{quoteId}/accountNumber is a resource that you link to, then it is the right idea that you send unsafe requests to that URI.
But if accountNumber is information normally retrieved via /applications/quotes/{quoteId}, then /applications/quotes/{quoteId} should be the target resource for edits (instead of creating a new resource used for editing only).
The reason for this is cache-invalidation, as explained in RFC 7234.
If this isn't immediately clear to you, then I suggest reviewing Jim Webber's 2011 talk on REST.

Answer 2

You should use PATCH instead of PUT for partial object updates.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Methods/PATCH
https://www.infoworld.com/article/3206264/how-to-perform-partial-updates-to-rest-web-api-resources.html

Answer 3

In my opinion, your url must be:
PUT /applications/quotes/{quoteId}
payload: {
accountNumber: <number>,
... any other field...
}
Because you only want to update a part of an object of the list of quotes that you identify uniquely with quoteId.
About the use of PUT or PATCH, it's true that PUT means that you want to keep the object as the updated copy that you are sending (you must send in this case the entire object to make the update) but the fact is (I think) that many of us use PUT like you, to do partial updates of object.