PATCH & Oracle JSON Relational Duality Views REST APIs

This is a follow-up to our discussion and demo of REST API support for JSON Relational Duality Views, so READ THIS FIRST.

Oracle Database 23c Free – Developer Release is the first release of the next-generation Oracle Database, allowing developers a head-start on building applications with innovative 23c features that simplify development of modern data-driven apps. The entire feature set of Oracle Database 23c is planned to be generally available within the next 12 months.

ORDS 23.2 Adds Support for PATCH

PATCH is an HTTP method for doing partial updates to a resource, vs say a PUT that replaces (or adds) the ENTIRE resource.

An Example

If we look at the OpenAPI doc for our races duality view, DRIVER_DV, we can see two new entries!

So I can PATCH a specific item, or I can use a query parameter filter to patch multiple records.

I want to update a RACE, but I don’t know the ID

Step 1: Find the Race

I’m looking for the race in Bahrain, so I will do a GET on race_dv/

GET http://localhost:8080/ords/janus/race_dv/?q={"name":{"$eq":"Bahrain Grand Prix"}}

And doing that I can see something like this –

There’s 1 race, and it happens to be RACE 201.

So if I ONLY wanted to change the name of the race, I could either PATCH 201 or PATCH everything with the same query parameter filter.

Step 2: Patch the Races

Don’t like reading the docs? Enjoying running fast, with scissors? You may run into this.

Our Content-type for PATCH will be different than ‘application-json’ !

Our nicer, easier to use error messages are sharing we did something, wrong.

If we re-inspect the OpenAPI doc, we can see the PATCH is expecting a payload of type ‘application/merge-patch+json’

Step 2: Patch the Races, with the right Content Type

PATCH http://localhost:8080/ords/janus/race_dv/?q={"name":{"$eq":"Bahrain Grand Prix"}}
--header 'Content-Type: application/merge-patch+json' \
  --data '{"name": "Blue Air Bahrain Grand Prix"}'