[Pulp-list] Returning created objects from "POST" APIs?

[Nick Coghlan]

In working on the test suite for the new pulpdist plugins, I was 
reminded of a practice some folks recommend for REST APIs that Pulp 
currently doesn't implement: for a successful POST request, return the 
object as if it had been a GET request.

The rationale is that there may be state in the object that the server 
populates rather than the client. If a policy of "always return the 
created object" is followed, then clients don't need to know whether or 
not that is the case, nor do they have to make a second round trip to 
the server (with a GET request) when it *is* the case.

Essentially, the idea is that, if this API pattern is followed, then:

   server.POST(collection_path, obj_id, details)
   obj = server.GET(collection_path, obj_id)

can consistently be replaced by:

   obj = server.POST(collection_path, obj_id, details)

While there's no additional state added by the server when you create a 
new repo, the same can't be said for arbitrary importer and distributor 
plugins.

Regards,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan
Red Hat Engineering Operations, Brisbane