Hi Mark, On Tue, 2011-10-11 at 16:17 +1100, Mark Nottingham wrote: > On 19/09/2011, at 4:03 PM, Mark McLoughlin wrote: > > > OTOH, POST to update the object's metadata doesn't make much sense. We > > don't "accept the entity enclosed in the request as a new subordinate". > > PATCH[1] would probably have made more sense. > > > > The spec is actually quite clear on the different between PUT and POST: > > > > "The fundamental difference between the POST and PUT requests is > > reflected in the different meaning of the Request-URI. The URI in a > > POST request identifies the resource that will handle the enclosed > > entity. That resource might be a data-accepting process, a gateway to > > some other protocol, or a separate entity that accepts annotations. > > In contrast, the URI in a PUT request identifies the entity enclosed > > with the request" > > > > So, perhaps the guidelines should be: > > > > * Either POST or PUT creates things, depending on the meaning of the > > request URI > > > > * PUT or PATCH modifies existing things > > No, no, no. > > The definitions of POST and PUT in RFC2616 are more harmful than > helpful, and we (the HTTPbis WG in the IETF) have updated them; see > > http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-httpbis-p2-semantics-16#section-7.5 > http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-httpbis-p2-semantics-16#section-7.6 > > In a nutshell, POST is "here, process this" while PUT is "store this > here"; both can be used to create things (if they aren't there) or > update things (if they are). > > POST can do anything; there may be another method that has more > specific semantics that are appropriate, but because of its > escape-hatch nature, there really isn't anything it isn't allowed to > do, semantically.
We're not attempting to enumerating all the valid ways that POST can be used, we're trying to narrow down those possibilities to a set of guidelines which describe the general style and idioms of OpenStack APIs. Cheers, Mark. _______________________________________________ Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~openstack Post to : [email protected] Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~openstack More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
