Reference on how to implement idempotent rest api in asp.net core web api

Question

Reference on how to implement idempotent rest api in asp.net core web api

Alvin 1

Hi All,

I know that is too large topic, but I just want to ask any reference of that said pattern idempotent.

All reply must be appreciated

Anonymous

2021-12-10T02:12:12.91+00:00

Hi @Alvin ,

Here are some related articles you can refer to them:

Idempotent

Idempotent API

The GET, HEAD, OPTIONS and TRACE methods NEVER change the resource state on the server. They are purely for retrieving the resource representation or metadata at that point in time. So, invoking multiple requests will not have any write operation on the server, so GET, HEAD, OPTIONS, and TRACE are idempotent.

PUT APIs are used to update the resource state. If you invoke a PUT API N times, the very first request will update the resource; the other N-1 requests will just overwrite the same resource state again and again – effectively not changing anything. Hence, PUT is idempotent.

So, we can know that the GET, PUT, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS and TRACE are idempotent. But POST is NOT idempotent.

If you check the IdempotentAPI Works, we can know that, to implement the idempotent api, we could try to add a IdempotencyKey (which contains the unique identifier) in the request header, then in the server check whether it is if that unique identifier has been used previously for that request and either returns the cached response (without further execution) or save-cache the response along with the unique identifier.

Best regards,
Dillion

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Anonymous

2021-12-10T02:12:12.91+00:00

Hi @Alvin ,

Here are some related articles you can refer to them:

Idempotent

Idempotent API

The GET, HEAD, OPTIONS and TRACE methods NEVER change the resource state on the server. They are purely for retrieving the resource representation or metadata at that point in time. So, invoking multiple requests will not have any write operation on the server, so GET, HEAD, OPTIONS, and TRACE are idempotent.

PUT APIs are used to update the resource state. If you invoke a PUT API N times, the very first request will update the resource; the other N-1 requests will just overwrite the same resource state again and again – effectively not changing anything. Hence, PUT is idempotent.

So, we can know that the GET, PUT, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS and TRACE are idempotent. But POST is NOT idempotent.

If you check the IdempotentAPI Works, we can know that, to implement the idempotent api, we could try to add a IdempotencyKey (which contains the unique identifier) in the request header, then in the server check whether it is if that unique identifier has been used previously for that request and either returns the cached response (without further execution) or save-cache the response along with the unique identifier.

Best regards,
Dillion

Answer 1

Bruce (SqlWork.com) 77,686 Volunteer Moderator

The main design of your api is that put is used to update and posts are used to add data.

Also be careful of how puts work. Calling the same request twice should not change state. This means the server should not do something like increment a counter, or if it does detect it already been done.

For example, in a shopping bag, changing the unit count, you either want the total passed, or include a unique reference number used to detect the count has been updated.

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Reference on how to implement idempotent rest api in asp.net core web api

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