Artifactory: REST API bad design

Question

When making a PUT request to create a new (local/remote/virtual) repository, the REST API of Artifactory will return:

• status 200 when creation is successful
• status 400 with the keywords already exists in the response content if the resource already exists

However , when performing the same operations on users/groups/permissions , the response is 201 in both cases, whether the resource

• exists or
• has just been created

Response content is the same also!

Isn't this a bad api design?

Answer 1

There is a difference between the REST API's.

The Repository creation is marked as "Create Repository" for the PUT call and the update repository is done by using POST.

In the Users / Groups / Permissions, the REST API, using PUT, is used to "Create or Replace User" as you can see in JFrog Artifactory Wiki page for REST API .

For that reason, even if the user exists in Artifactory, you will get a 201 as a reply to the REST API command will "replace" the existing user.