html_url,issue_url,id,node_id,user,user_label,created_at,updated_at,author_association,body,reactions,issue,issue_label,performed_via_github_app
https://github.com/simonw/datasette/issues/1868#issuecomment-1294003701,https://api.github.com/repos/simonw/datasette/issues/1868,1294003701,IC_kwDOBm6k_c5NIO31,9599,simonw,2022-10-27T20:02:26Z,2022-10-27T20:02:26Z,OWNER,"The problem with the above design is that I want to support a bunch of different actions that can be taken against a table:
- insert a single row
- insert multiple rows
- bulk update rows
- rename table
- alter table
- drop table
I could have ALL of those be a `POST /db/table` with different JSON root keys (`{""drop"": true}` for example, but this raises two problems:
1. Server logs that only show `POST /db/table` will be less useful, they won't reveal what action was performed
2. What happens if you send `{""insert"": {""title"": ""New record""}, ""drop"": true}`? Does that return an error, or does it perform both of those actions?
This is already slightly confusing in that `POST /db/name-of-query` is the existing API for executing a writable canned query: https://docs.datasette.io/en/stable/sql_queries.html#json-api-for-writable-canned-queries
So I'm ready to consider other design options.
Initial thoughts on possible designs (for the single row insert case, but could be expanded to cover other verbs):
- `POST /db/table?action=insert`
- `POST /db/table?nsert`
- `POST /db/table/-/insert`
I quite like that third one: it feels consistent with the existing `/-/actor` etc pages that Datasette serves already.
There's one slight confusion here in that it overlaps with the URL for a row with a primary key of `""-""` - which is currently at `/db/table/-` - but that might be OK.
Especially if I say that child pages of rows must theselves use the `/-/` pattern. So to update or delet a row you would use:
- `POST /db/table/row/-/update`
- `POST /db/table/row/-/delete`
So a row with primary key `-` would end up as `/db/table/row/-/-/update` - which I think is OK.","{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",1426195437,Design URLs for the write API,
https://github.com/simonw/datasette/issues/1868#issuecomment-1294004308,https://api.github.com/repos/simonw/datasette/issues/1868,1294004308,IC_kwDOBm6k_c5NIPBU,9599,simonw,2022-10-27T20:03:08Z,2022-10-27T20:03:08Z,OWNER,The other option here would be to lean into custom HTTP verbs like `DELETE` and `PATCH`. I'm not sold on those: they've never given me any convincing wins over just using `POST` for the many times I've encountered them in my career to date.,"{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",1426195437,Design URLs for the write API,
https://github.com/simonw/datasette/issues/1868#issuecomment-1294007024,https://api.github.com/repos/simonw/datasette/issues/1868,1294007024,IC_kwDOBm6k_c5NIPrw,9599,simonw,2022-10-27T20:05:44Z,2022-10-27T20:05:52Z,OWNER,"So given this scheme, the URL design would look like this:
- `POST /db/table/-/insert` - insert a single row
- `POST /db/table/-/insert-many` - insert multiple rows (might just keep that on `/-/insert` with a JSON array rather than object though)
- `POST /db/table/-/drop` - drop a table
- `POST /db/table/-/alter` - alter a table
- `POST /db/table/-/upsert` - upsert, https://sqlite-utils.datasette.io/en/stable/python-api.html#upserting-data
- `POST /db/table/-/create` - could be an endpoint for explicitly creating a table, or should that live at `/db/-/create` instead?
And for rows (`pks` here since compound primary keys are supported):
- `POST /db/table/pks/-/update` - update row
- `POST /db/table/pks/-/delete` - delete row","{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",1426195437,Design URLs for the write API,
https://github.com/simonw/datasette/issues/1868#issuecomment-1294008282,https://api.github.com/repos/simonw/datasette/issues/1868,1294008282,IC_kwDOBm6k_c5NIP_a,9599,simonw,2022-10-27T20:06:34Z,2022-10-27T20:06:34Z,OWNER,"I'm going to stick with one `/-/insert` endpoint which handles both single row inserts AND multiple row inserts I think - partly because I don't want to build both `/-/upsert` and `/-/upsert-many`, I'd rather just have `/-/upsert`.","{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",1426195437,Design URLs for the write API,
https://github.com/simonw/datasette/issues/1868#issuecomment-1294008733,https://api.github.com/repos/simonw/datasette/issues/1868,1294008733,IC_kwDOBm6k_c5NIQGd,9599,simonw,2022-10-27T20:07:01Z,2022-10-27T20:07:01Z,OWNER,I'm happy with this `/db/table/-/action` design for the moment. Will review it once I've built it to see if I still like it!,"{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",1426195437,Design URLs for the write API,