Rest api - update single field of resource

Question

Lets say I have rest endpoint for my Driver resource. I have PUT method like this

myapi/drivers/{id}  {body of put method} 

I need to add functionality which will allow to 'enable' and 'disable' driver

Is it good idea to create new endpoint for that like this?

PUT myapi/drivers/{id}/enable/false 

or it is better to use existing endpoint ? One problem with using existing endpoint is that driver has lot's of fields(almost 30) and sending all those fields just for updating only 'enabled' or 'disable' driver is something overkill.

What do you think?

Answer 1

This is exactly what the HTTP method PATCH is made for. It is used in cases where the resource has many fields but you only want to update a few.

Just like with PUT, you send a request to myapi/drivers/{id}. However, unlike with PUT, you only send the fields you want to change in the request body.

Creating endpoints like myapi/drivers/{id}/enable is not very RESTful, as "enable" can't really be called a resource on its own.

For an example implementation of a Spring PATCH endpoint, please see this link.