Passing array in GET for a REST call

Question

I have a url to fetch appointments for a user like this:

/user/:userId/appointments 

How should the url look like if I want to get appointments for multiple users?

should it be:

/appointments?users=1d1,1d2.. 

Thanks, Chris.

Answer 1

Collections are a resource so /appointments is fine as the resource.

Collections also typically offer filters via the querystring which is essentially what users=id1,id2... is.

So,

/appointments?users=id1,id2  

is fine as a filtered RESTful resource.

Answer 2

I think it's a better practice to serialize your REST call parameters, usually by JSON-encoding them:

/appointments?users=[id1,id2] 

or even:

/appointments?params={users:[id1,id2]} 

Then you un-encode them on the server. This is going to give you more flexibility in the long run.

Just make sure to URLEncode the params as well before you send them!