Hey,
The regular search returns empty json [] if there are no results. https://api.tvmaze.com/search/shows?q=teststring
But the singlesearch returns null. https://api.tvmaze.com/singlesearch/shows?q=teststring
Is this on purpose? I would have expected them to have the same behaviour when not finding a match.
Has the tvmaze ship been abandoned??
@fredrikomfg wrote:
Has the tvmaze ship been abandoned??
Why aren't you checking the response code? singlesearch in your example returns 404 which is all you need.
@tallanvor wrote:
Why aren't you checking the response code? singlesearch in your example returns 404 which is all you need.
One response returns 200 and empty json, and the other one returns 404 null for the same result.
Is it too much to ask that the API responses are consistent?
@fredrikomfg wrote:
One response returns 200 and empty json, and the other one returns 404 null for the same result.Is it too much to ask that the API responses are consistent?
It is consistent with one view of REST principles. The search endpoint is a collection, so returning 200 with an empty collection if no responses are found is appropriate. For the singlesearch endpoint with a goal of matching a specific resource, returning a 404 is correct.
I can understand your argument since singlesearch is still a search, but ultimately it's semantics and the current functionality is within the spirit of REST design.
I would have expected 404 when using an endpoint that doesn't exist
Follow up: are you saying the null response is also on purpose? Afaik all other responses with 404 have a JSON payload except this one.
That I don't know, @david is probably the only one who can answer. I can only say that in my own work, if a call returns a 404, there's no reason to check for anything else.
Pretty much what tallanvor said :-) The search endpoint can return multiple results, so if there are no matches the appropriate output is an empty array. The singlesearch endpoint can only return one result, so if there are no matches the appropriate output is null. I think those are reasonable and pretty standard REST semantics.
@david wrote:
Pretty much what tallanvor said :-) The search endpoint can return multiple results, so if there are no matches the appropriate output is an empty array. The singlesearch endpoint can only return one result, so if there are no matches the appropriate output is null. I think those are reasonable and pretty standard REST semantics.
okay, but why don't the other endpoints with 404 response return null?
