Restler optional string parameter

Question

I want to mark a parameter as optional in a Restler patch method, and it's of type string, but I can't figure out how to do this. If I put $description = null as the parameter then the router is failing with a message saying description is a required parameter.

I can't just use an empty string either becuase this is a PATCH type method, so I have to be able to differentiate between them wanting to blank out the description by passing an empty string vs. a null value meaning they didn't pass in any update.

Answer 1

Keeping $description to null works fine. Just make sure all optional parameters appear after required parameters in your api method. This is a php restriction.

Here is how I have tested it

composer create-project restler/application=dev-basic rest

To create a basic restler project. Then edited rest/src/Home.php to add the patch method

<?php

class Home
{
    public function index()
    {
        return [
            'success' => [
                'code'    => 200,
                'message' => 'Restler is up and running!',
            ],
        ];
    }

    public function patch($name, $description = null)
    {
        return compact('name', 'description');
    }
}

Started the web server using php serve on the command line. Launched the explorer with http://localhost/explorer and then tested the patch method with the following json

{
  "name": "arul"
}

The api result is

{
  "name": "arul",
  "description": null
}

Which is the expected result