JSON Patch defines the media type "application/json-patch", a JSON document structure for expressing a sequence of operations to apply to a JSON document
Introduction
JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) [RFC4627] is a common format for the exchange and storage of structured data. HTTP PATCH [RFC5789] extends the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) [RFC2616] with a method to perform partial modifications to resources.
JSON Patch is a format (identified by the media type "application/ json-patch") for expressing a sequence of operations to apply to a target JSON document, suitable for use with the HTTP PATCH method.
This format is also potentially useful in other cases where necessary to make partial updates to a JSON document, or to a data structure that has similar constraints (i.e., they can be serialised as an object or an array using the JSON grammar).
Conventions
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].
See Section 5 for information about handling errors.
Document Structure
A JSON Patch document is a JSON [RFC4627] document that represents an array of objects. Each object represents a single operation to be applied to the target JSON document.
An example JSON Patch document, transferred in a HTTP PATCH request:
PATCH /my/data HTTP/1.1 Host: example.org Content-Length: 326 Content-Type: application/json-patch If-Match: "abc123"
[ { "op": "test", "path": "/a/b/c", "value": "foo" }, { "op": "remove", "path": "/a/b/c" }, { "op": "add", "path": "/a/b/c", "value": [ "foo", "bar" ] }, { "op": "replace", "path": "/a/b/c", "value": 42 }, { "op": "move", "from": "/a/b/c", "path": "/a/b/d" }, { "op": "copy", "from": "/a/b/d", "path": "/a/b/e" } ]
Bryan & Nottingham Expires July 24, 2013 [Page 3]
Internet-Draft JSON Patch January 2013
Evaluation of a JSON Patch document begins against a target JSON document. Operations are applied sequentially in the order they appear in the array. Each operation in the sequence is applied to the target document; the resulting document becomes the target of the next operation. Evaluation continues until all operations are successfully applied, or an error condition is encountered. Sources:
