Boolean endpoint within a RESTful API

Question

I am currently designing a JSON RESTful API which should have a boolean endpoint such as /item/vote which can either be false meaning that a user has not voted for a specific item or true meaning that he has voted.

I am currently struggling to select one out of multiple possible designs:

HTTP status codes

PUT /item/vote => set to true
DELETE /item/vote => set to false
GET /item/vote => status code 204 => true | status code 404 => false

JSON

PUT /item/vote HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/json
{
 "vote": true
}

GET /item/vote HTTP/1.1
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json
{
 "vote": true
}

Is any of these two approaches better or is it just a matter of preference? I am currently preferring the HTTP status code approach because I have already seen it.

• user156792: How do you distinguish a real 404 from a successful no vote?
• 1' OR 1 --: There is such thing. You can just vote. Similar to the (old) way of liking on Facebook.
• user156792: What is your mechanism by which you know that a GET request to a resource actually completed? How do you distinguish this case from a the very real case where the endpoint could simply be Not Found.
• usr: In any case the resource should be named like a thing (voteStatus) and not like a verb vote.
• Eric Stein: vote can be a noun.

Answer 1

The second approach is highly preferable. PUT is intended to replace the resource on the server with the content you're PUTting. Likewise, DELETE is intended to delete a resource, not to set its value.