Overview of PATCHes

A PATCH is a REST API method that modifies an existing resource in PolicyCenter.

A PATCH consists of the PATCH method and the endpoint, such as PATCH /activities/{activityId}, and a request payload. The request payload contains the data to modify in the specified resource.

The response to a PATCH includes an HTTP code indicating success or failure. It also includes a response payload. The default response for a PATCH consists of a predetermined set of fields and resources. This may or may not include the data that the PATCH modified.

When a developer is configuring a consumer application to PATCH information to Cloud API, they will need to determine the correct structure for the request payload. They may also need to parse information out of the response payload.

The PUT operation

Within REST API architecture, there are two operations that modify existing resources - PATCH and PUT. PATCH is used to modify a portion of an existing resource (while leaving other aspects of it unmodified). PUT is used to replace the entire contents of an existing resource with new data. Cloud API supports the PATCH operation, but not the PUT operation. This is because nearly every operation that modifies an InsuranceSuite object modifies only a portion of it while keeping the rest of the object untouched. This behavior maps to PATCH, but not to PUT.