Supported HTTP Methods

The most commonly used HTTP methods (or verbs) are GET, POST, PATCH, and DELETE. The building blocks of REST APIs, these methods define actions applied to REST resources using their URLs.

Note:

Child resources usually inherit security privileges from their parent resource. Therefore, to use a method on a child resource, you need to have access to use that method on the parent resource. However, there maybe some child resources with different privilege requirements to access them.

The following table lists the methods and their scope for singular and collection resources.

Method	Works with a Singular Resource?	Works with a Collection Resource?
GET	Yes. Gets a single resource.	Yes. Gets a subset, or all of the resources in the collection.
POST	Yes. Creates a single resource.	Yes. Creates a new resource in the collection.
PUT	Yes. Updates a resource.	No.
PATCH	Yes. Replaces objects related to a resource.	No.
DELETE	Yes. Deletes a resource.	No.
OPTIONS	Yes. Gets the supported methods for a resource.	No.

The GET Method

Use this method to query and retrieve resource information. To query both a singular resource and a collection resource, use query parameters. To filter the queried result, use different parameters for a singular resource and a collection resource. For more information, see Manage Collections. Use the following media types along with this method to request:

• A collection of resources or a resource:
  • application/json
  • application/xml
• The catalog information of a resource:
  • application/json
• The catalog schema information of a resource:
  • application/schema+json

The POST Method

Use to create a new resource. The media types allowed with this method are application/json and application/xml.

The PUT Method

Use to update a resource. The media types allowed with this method are application/json and application/xml.

The PATCH Method

Use to replace the objects related to a resource. The media types allowed with this method are application/json and application/xml.

The DELETE Method

Use to delete a resource. This request method does not require a request body.

The OPTIONS Method

Use to find the HTTP methods available for a resource. The only media type allowed with this method is application/json. This request method does not require a request body.