I'm implementing a basic service to add usernames to user records in a database. The service first checks if the username exists and if it does returns some value to tell the client that the username is already taken. If the username is available it updates the user record and returns "OK". In this application the client is a native IOS mobile app and the server is node.js. But that shouldn't be relevant to this question.
For this service, what would you recommend I use as my return values? For example, when successful should I return a status code 200? A boolean value? A custom string? Similarly for the unsuccessful condition what would the recommended and customary return value be?
The status 201 is intented to be used when some resource is created. So when your user is created you should set status code 201 and set it to 200 when the same request does an update. Additionally you can return the ID id the created/updated user. IMHO you should keep create and update as separate services.
You can use apporpriate 4xx errors (Refer link) when errors happen. Always keep a status message attribute in your response if your response is XML or JSON. You can set appropriate messages into this and the mobile app can check this message based on the HTTP Status Code you give.
I would return a 201 for the successful condition and a 400 or 409 for the unsuccessful condition.
Hope that helps!
Brandon
Related
I have some records in the database that may or may not have some information for a certain column, and that's OK.
If a consumer of the endpoint runs into one of these records, I'd like to return "NoContent", because, well, there's No Content for that record that we can execute on. BUT ... I'd like to give them a message why, as there are two distinct reasons.
When looking at other status codes, this works:
return Accepted("I SEE THIS STRING!");
It actually shows up in the Response Header as the field location (I think, don't make me run this project again!)
This works for say Internal Server error:
return StatusCode(500, "I SEE THIS TOO!");
But, for NoContent there is no constructor like Accepted, where you can pass an object. Also, this shows me no string whatsoever:
return StatusCode(204, "WHY CAN'T I SEE THIS STRING?!");
Help!
204 (No Content) returns an HttpResponseMessage with, well, No Content.
If you do have content to return that the user can consume (the two reasons), then you don't have a No Content scenario.
Perhaps an Ok (200) with a custom ContentNotProvided class that holds a message, which can be consumed by the client, will do the trick?
Alternatively, return a BadRequest (400) with a message.
I am building an API about email auth code.
Its process is simple.
input random code (client browser)
request with input code. (client browser)
receive the request (server)
scan the code from DB (server)
there is no code matched (server)
return a response with status code.
There are many status code, (2xx, 4xx, 5xx);
but I don't know which status code number is the most proper for this case.
It depends on the semantics you want to give your request. E.g.:
The API should search for items matching the query and return a list of results, like GET /codes?q=4ba69g. Think a "search page". In this case, an empty result [] is a perfectly valid result; nothing was wrong with the query, it just didn't return any matches. That's a 200 OK, or maybe a 204 No Content if you want to omit the empty response body entirely.
The code is treated like a resource, e.g. GET /codes/4ba69g. In this case a missing code would result in a 404 Not Found.
It's an action you want to perform which may fail, e.g. POST /login. If the user supplied the wrong credentials/code and hence the action cannot complete, that's a client-side error and therefore a 400 Bad Request.
I'm contacting the API of my client's store on BigCommerce. I've verified the option set has a bunch of rules associated with it (8 product rules).
When I contact the api with
/api/v2/products/181/rules I get a 204 response.
This seems to be an incorrect response.
I tried then contacting
/api/v2/products/181/rules/count
and I get a response of:
{ count:0 }
How do I get a proper representation of these rules, as the API specification describes?
Thanks for any help you can provide. I'm stuck.
The response indicates that there are no rules associated with the product ID in your request. Are you sure that the option set you're referring to has been assigned to the product ID referenced in your request? It is possible that the option set has rules but the product does not have an option set assigned to it.
I build a simple API for a bookmark manager, where the URL of record should only be stored once. Record 001 with www.example.com already exists beside record 002 with www.stuff.com.
If I update record 002 with the url www.example.com, should I ignore the complete request and send back an error message or is it better to update all valid parts and just send an errror message, that says, that the url/bookmark already exists?
With a PUT, the expectation is that the entire operation will succeed or fail:
The PUT method requests that the state of the target resource be
created or replaced with the state defined by the representation
enclosed in the request message payload. A successful PUT of a given
representation would suggest that a subsequent GET on that same
target resource will result in an equivalent representation being
sent in a 200 (OK) response.
https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7231#section-4.3.4
You should send an error for an invalid PUT (since the URL already exists and cannot be in two records at the same time) and not apply any of the other updates.
For partial updates you might consider a PATCH, but in this case I don't think you would go this direction since:
If the entire patch document
cannot be successfully applied, then the server MUST NOT apply any of
the changes.
https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc5789
I'm trying to use the http://Astrid.com API, specifically to get data using the method under the "Request Format" section on this page - http://astrid.com/apidoc/file.README.html
The URL I built is:
https://astrid.com/api/7/task_list?app_id=[MY APP ID]&time=1&user_id=[MY USER ID]&sig=[MY REQUEST SIGNATURE]
And it returns this:
{"list":[],"time":1363131562,"status":"success"}
Seems like it worked, but does anyone know why the "list" array might be returning empty? I've created a bunch of tasks in my profile so it should be showing those.
Thanks!
You need to sign in first with the method user_signin. If successful you get a token.
Then you need to call the task_list method providing the token.
You do not need to provide a user id with the task_list method. It is only used to select tasks that you share with this user.
Example for signing in:
https://astrid.com/api/7/user_signin?provider=password&app_id=YOUR_APP_ID&secret=YOUR_ASTRID_PASSWORD&sig=SIGNATURE&time=1365715302.36&email=YOUR_EMAIL
Example for getting your tasks:
https://astrid.com/api/7/task_list?active=true&token=THE_TOKEN&sig=SIGNATURE&app_id=YOUR_APP_ID&time=1365715304.41