RESTful undelete

Question

It is a fairly common requirement to support undeletes or delayed/batched deletions for data services. What I\'m wondering is how to implement this in a RESTful way. I\'m torn b

Answer 1

I think the most RESTful way to solve this is to use HTTP PUT to mark the resource for deletion (and undelete) and then use HTTP DELETE to permanently delete the resource. To get a list of resources marked for deletion I would use a parameter in the HTTP GET request eg. ?state=markedForDeletion. If you requests a resource marked for deletion without the parameter, I think you should return a "404 Not Found" status.