REST API Multiple PUT or DELETE in one time - rest

Question

Greeting everyone, I have a datatable in my html page that I populated using REST API. I can create new row and also update or delete by selecting a row and clicking the edit or delete button.
But currently I am unable to delete update or delete multiple row at once due to url error,
e.g : PUT http://127.0.0.1:8000/dashboard/content_detail/5,7,9/ 404 (Not Found)
how can I split this this into several separate url with respective id when I update or delete.
e.g :
/dashboard/content_detail/5
/dashboard/content_detail/7
/dashboard/content_detail/9
Below is my code, any help is much appreciated thank you.
idSrc: 'id',
ajax: {
create: {
type: 'POST',
url: content_path,
data: function (content_data) {
var create_data = {};
$.each(content_data.data, function (id, value) {
create_data['name'] = value['name'];
create_data['description'] = value['description'];
create_data['category'] = value['category'];
});
return create_data;
},
success: function () {
content_table.api().ajax.reload();
}
},
edit: {
type: 'PUT',
url: '/dashboard/content_detail/_id_/',
data: function (content_data) {
var updated_data = {};
$.each(content_data.data, function (id, value) {
updated_data['description'] = value['description'];
updated_data['category'] = value['category'];
updated_data['name'] = value['name'];
});
return updated_data;
},
success: function () {
content_table.api().ajax.reload();
}
},
remove: {
type: 'DELETE',
url: '/dashboard/content_detail/_id_/',
data: function (content_data) {
var deleted_data = {};
$.each(content_data.data, function (id, value) {
deleted_data['id'] = id;
});
return deleted_data;
},
success: function () {
content_table.api().ajax.reload();
}
}
},

Answer 1

If you're going to allow the update of a large number of items at once, then PATCH might be your friend:
Looking at the RFC 6902 (which defines the Patch standard), from the client's perspective the API could be called like
PATCH /authors/{authorId}/book
[
{ "op": "replace", "path": "/dashboard/content_detail/5", "value": "test"},
{ "op": "remove", "path": "/dashboard/content_detail", "value": [ "7", "9" ]}
]

Answer 2

From a design perspective you don't want several ids in your url.
I would prefer single calls for each change, thinking in resources you only manipulate one at a time.
In case this is a perfomance issue, I recommend a special url marked with action or something simliar, to make clear this ist not REST.

Answer 3

In HTTP it is not required for information to only exist on a single resource. It is possible to have multiple resources that represent the same underlying data.
It's therefore not out of the question to create a resource that 'represents' a set of other resources that you wish to DELETE or PUT to.
I do agree that it might not be the most desirable. I think we tend to prefer having information only exist in a single part of tree, and I think we like to avoid situations where updating a resource effects a secondary resource's state. However, if you are looking for a strictly RESTful solution to solve this problem, I think it's the right way.
Therefore a url design such as:
/dashboard/content_detail/5,7,9/
Is not necessarily non-RESTful or goes against the HTTP protocol. The fact that you're getting a 404 on that URL currently has to do with your application framework, not the protocol (HTTP) or architecture (REST) of your API.
However, for cases such as these I feel I would personally be inclined to sometimes create a separate POST endpoint that, acting outside of REST like an RPC endpoint. Specifically for these types of batch requests.