REST Architecture for Multiple Deletes?

Question

I send a delete request to server as like:

@RequestMapping(value = "/user/{userId}", method = RequestMethod.DELETE)

for a single user delete. However what to do when multiple users wants to be deleted? I want to obey REST architecture but I want to see the another ways from sending multiple delete requests?

PS: Is this a suitable way:

@RequestMapping(value = "/user", method = RequestMethod.DELETE, headers = "Accept=application/json")
    public void deleteUser(HttpServletResponse response, @RequestBody String users) throws IOException {
        ...
}

Answer 1

since rest is resource oriented arch.

try design a higher level domain object which represents 'multiple users' resource ,

do delete on that object.

maybe

@RequestMapping(value = "/users/expired", method = RequestMethod.Delete)

the great book 'restful web services cookbook' by Subbu Allamaraju , oreilly , talk about this topic:

• chapter 11.10, how to batch process similar resources;
• chapter 11.11, how to trigger batch operation;
• chapter 11.12, when to use post to merge multiple request ;
• chapter 11.13, how to support batch request