Merge updates on things

Date: 18.01.2021

Status

accepted

Context

We want to allow partial or merge updates of things with a single request.

Decision

A merge request

• uses HTTP PATCH method.
• has payload in JSON merge patch format defined in RFC-7396.
• has the request header content-type set to application/merge-patch+json.

Consequences

The merge requests in JSON merge patch format have a structure similar (except null values) to the original data structure (Thing JSON) which makes them easy and intuitive to use. The JSON merge patch approach was chosen over the JSON Patch format, which allows a more fine-grained control over the change
operations but is also more complex/verbose and less user-friendly.