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resourcesrestserviceput

Should a RESTful 'PUT' operation return something....

I was wondering what people's opinions are of a RESTful PUT operation that returns nothing (null) in the response body.

Solution

  • The HTTP specification (RFC 2616) has a number of recommendations that are applicable. Here is my interpretation:

    • HTTP status code 200 OK for a successful PUT of an update to an existing resource. No response body needed. (Per Section 9.6, 204 No Content is even more appropriate.)
    • HTTP status code 201 Created for a successful PUT of a new resource, with the most specific URI for the new resource returned in the Location header field and any other relevant URIs and metadata of the resource echoed in the response body. (RFC 2616 Section 10.2.2)
    • HTTP status code 409 Conflict for a PUT that is unsuccessful due to a 3rd-party modification, with a list of differences between the attempted update and the current resource in the response body. (RFC 2616 Section 10.4.10)
    • HTTP status code 400 Bad Request for an unsuccessful PUT, with natural-language text (such as English) in the response body that explains why the PUT failed. (RFC 2616 Section 10.4)

    Note: RFC 2616 was the latest specification when this answer was written, but the RFC has since been superseded. When referring to any standard, it can be useful to verify that you are using the latest one.