PATCH method on HTTP
When I was reading github API documentation, I found that github is using PATCH method for updating data. (e.g. Gists API)
And Today Google posted an entry about using PATCH method for partial update at Google Code Blog. They mentioned Google Buzz sample at the entry.
PATCH method is very useful for compressing data. Although Google told us, we can get more faster for sending data. If we have an oppotunity for using PATCH method, I think that we should use it positively.
In REST(Representational State Transfer) world, to update resources uses PUT method. But we can start to consider PATCH method for updating resources.
I would like to quote following paragraph from RFC 5789 (PATCH Method for HTTP).
Clients need to choose when to use PATCH rather than PUT. For example, if the patch document size is larger than the size of the new resource data that would be used in a PUT, then it might make sense to use PUT instead of PATCH. A comparison to POST is even more difficult, because POST is used in widely varying ways and can encompass PUT and PATCH-like operations if the server chooses. If the operation does not modify the resource identified by the Request- URI in a predictable way, POST should be considered instead of PATCH or PUT.
via www.ietf.org