Would it be better to do a PUT request to update a whole item or DELETE + POST?

Question

I was trying to update some customer records on an API when this question struck.

First I request the customer object from the API and transform it into an array, the update I have to perform consists on appending a quite big second array to the one I first got, so I decided to do so and then, use UPDATE to upload the whole new array as substitute for the old one.

Since this is the actual API and every change I made would go directly into production, I am not sure if this is going to work, and I thought that I could always delete the old object and make a simple POST request to upload the new one.

This is the method tasked to upload the new array ($response).

function updateReceipt($response, $receiptId, $uri4, $token){
    $ch = curl_init();

    $options = array(
        CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
        CURLOPT_URL => $uri4.$receiptId,
        CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => 'PUT',
        CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => http_build_query($response),
        CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => array("Content-Type: application/json", "key: ".$token)
    );
    curl_setopt_array($ch, $options);

    $response = curl_exec($ch);
    $response = json_decode($response, true);

    $http_code = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);

    echo "Status code: $http_code ";

    curl_close($ch);

    return $updated;
}

So, will the PUT method accept the whole array and update the customer record? Does PUT require more accurate changes to be done for it to wrok?

What do you think about the DELETE first, POST next solution? Is it going to be more efficient?

Thank you all for your help!

This really depends on how the API is developed - and also on what else DELETE will do. Have you considered the possibility that DELETE will not only delete your customer, but also all relationship, including addresses, orders, financial information, etc. When you then create a new one, none of the other relationships will be restored. — Aleks G, Feb 18 '20 at 13:20
Are both the API itself and the access/requests to it written/controlled by you? Or are you only in control of one half of the equation? — Patrick Q, Feb 18 '20 at 13:21
@AleksG answering PatrickQ's question also: I am not in control of the API, so yeah, I can't see how it works inside or the relations made. I think i will stick with PUT then, thank you guys I did not consider that issue at first! :) — Berny, Feb 18 '20 at 13:26
Does this answer your question? [How to make HTTP POST web request](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4015324/how-to-make-http-post-web-request) — Henry Henrinson, Feb 18 '20 at 23:29

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 18 '20 at 13:20

2

If you are sure about that the old object is not referenced to other data , then you can do delete_post, but if it is related to some other data then it is not the right solution.

answered Feb 18 '20 at 13:20

Saher Siddiqui

363
3
15

I see, the objects are customers and they have their purchases, services aquired, billing, etc. So whenever a new bill arrives I need to append it to those existing, but sometimes this array can be huge, that's why I was afraid of PUT method not working properly – Berny Feb 18 '20 at 13:22
Are you using nosql database ? – Saher Siddiqui Feb 18 '20 at 13:26
We are using MariaDB, but the API is in fact external, so we don't have any control over it – Berny Feb 18 '20 at 13:27
I think then put will be good for you. – Saher Siddiqui Feb 18 '20 at 13:32

Would it be better to do a PUT request to update a whole item or DELETE + POST?

1 Answers1