Re: [apps-discuss] draft-pbryan-json-patch-04 - comments

["Paul C. Bryan" <[e-mail]>]

On Thu, 2012-03-08 at 13:46 -0800, Vadim Zaliva wrote:

> Hi!
> 
> I was looking for JSON patch formats available and found this draft.
> It looks nice - concise and to the point. I would like to share few
> comments I have.
> 
> 1. I am not sure if 'test' operation should be part of it. The purpose
> of the patch is to modify the document. 'test' operation either
> succeeds of fails, but it is unclear how this information will be
> communicated or used. It almost looks like a API operation rather than
> patch format instruction. I would argue that in current state it
> should not be included in the format. 
> 
> I could see a case when it could be included as a part of conditional
> syntax. In this case 'test' becomes a container for other operations
> which would be executed only if the test succeeds. For example:
> 
> 
> { "test": "/baz", "value": "qux",
> 	"onsuccess" : [
> 	 	{ "replace": "/baz", "value": "boo" },
> 	 	{ "add": "/baz1", "value": "qux" }
> 	]
> }


I'd be interested in others' views on this.


> 2. In most examples "value" property holds simple scalar values
> (strings or integers) or arrays of such. I think it should be possible
> to use arbitrary complex JSON data structures as such values. I hope
> this was the intention.


Yes, this was the intention.


>  Perhaps adding an example with more complex value (object or array)
> could illustrate this very powerful capability. For example A.1 could
> be modified as following;
> 
> An example target JSON document:
> 
>    {
>        "foo": "bar"
>    }
> 
>    A JSON Patch document:
> 
>    [
>        { "add": "/baz", "value": {"a":1,"b":2} }
>    ]
> 
>    The resulting JSON document:
> 
>    {
>        "baz": {"a":1,"b":2},
>        "foo": "bar"
>    }


Thanks, I'll aim to add this to -02. (-01 should be out tomorrow.)

Paul