JSON Merge Patch
RFC 7386
| Document | Type |
RFC - Proposed Standard
(October 2014; Errata)
Obsoleted by RFC 7396
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Last updated | 2015-10-14 | ||
| Replaces | draft-snell-merge-patch | ||
| Stream | IETF | ||
| Formats | plain text pdf html bibtex | ||
| Reviews | |||
| Stream | WG state | Submitted to IESG for Publication (wg milestone: Aug 2014 - Publication requeste... ) | |
| Document shepherd | Murray Kucherawy | ||
| Shepherd write-up | Show (last changed 2014-07-23) | ||
| IESG | IESG state | RFC 7386 (Proposed Standard) | |
| Consensus Boilerplate | Yes | ||
| Telechat date | |||
| Responsible AD | Barry Leiba | ||
| Send notices to | (None) | ||
| IANA | IANA review state | Version Changed - Review Needed | |
| IANA action state | RFC-Ed-Ack | ||
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) P. Hoffman
Request for Comments: 7386 VPN Consortium
Category: Standards Track J. Snell
ISSN: 2070-1721 October 2014
JSON Merge Patch
Abstract
This specification defines the JSON merge patch format and processing
rules. The merge patch format is primarily intended for use with the
HTTP PATCH method as a means of describing a set of modifications to
a target resource's content.
Status of This Memo
This is an Internet Standards Track document.
This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has
received public review and has been approved for publication by the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Further information on
Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 5741.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7386.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2014 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
publication of this document. Please review these documents
carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
described in the Simplified BSD License.
Hoffman & Snell Standards Track [Page 1]
RFC 7386 JSON Merge Patch October 2014
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Processing Merge Patch Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
5. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
6. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
6.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
6.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Appendix A. Example Test Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1. Introduction
This specification defines the JSON merge patch document format,
processing rules, and associated MIME media type identifier. The
merge patch format is primarily intended for use with the HTTP PATCH
method [RFC5789] as a means of describing a set of modifications to a
target resource's content.
A JSON merge patch document describes changes to be made to a target
JSON document using a syntax that closely mimics the document being
modified. Recipients of a merge patch document determine the exact
set of changes being requested by comparing the content of the
provided patch against the current content of the target document.
If the provided merge patch contains members that do not appear
within the target, those members are added. If the target does
contain the member, the value is replaced. Null values in the merge
patch are given special meaning to indicate the removal of existing
values in the target.
For example, given the following original JSON document:
{
"a": "b",
"c": {
"d": "e",
"f": "g"
}
}
Hoffman & Snell Standards Track [Page 2]
RFC 7386 JSON Merge Patch October 2014
Changing the value of "a" and removing "f" can be achieved by
sending:
PATCH /target HTTP/1.1
Host: example.org
Content-Type: application/merge-patch+json
{
"a":"z",
"c": {
"f": null
}
}
When applied to the target resource, the value of the "a" member is
replaced with "z" and "f" is removed, leaving the remaining content
untouched.
This design means that merge patch documents are suitable for
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