Update contact via REST and JSON request body

Question

We are trying to update a contact via REST API. But instead of submitting the changed values as seperate post parameters (e.g. "nick_name")

http://d46.demo.civicrm.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/rest.php?api_key=myscretapikey&key=sitekey&json=1&version=3&contact_id=2&entity=Contact&action=create&nick_name=Kathy

we want to submit the whole contact JSON object with its changed values as part of the request body:

POST http://d46.demo.civicrm.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/rest.php?api_key=myscretapikey&key=sitekey&json=1&version=3&contact_id=2&entity=Contact&action=create
Content-Type: application/json 
{ "id":"2", "contact_type":"Individual", "contact_sub_type":"", "do_not_email":"0", "do_not_phone":"0", "do_not_mail":"0", "do_not_sms":"0", "do_not_trade":"0", "is_opt_out":"0", "legal_identifier":"", "external_identifier":"", "sort_name":"Adams, Kathleen", "display_name":"Kathleen Adams", "nick_name":"Kathy", "legal_name":"", "image_URL":"", "preferred_communication_method":["3"], "preferred_language":"", "preferred_mail_format":"Both", "hash":"163700750", "api_key":"", "first_name":"Kathleen", "middle_name":"", "last_name":"Adams", "prefix_id":"", "suffix_id":"", "formal_title":"", "communication_style_id":"", "email_greeting_id":"1", "email_greeting_custom":"", "email_greeting_display":"Dear Kathleen", "postal_greeting_id":"1", "postal_greeting_custom":"", "postal_greeting_display":"Dear Kathleen", "addressee_id":"1", "addressee_custom":"", "addressee_display":"Kathleen Adams", "job_title":"", "gender_id":"1", "birth_date":"1979-03-17", "is_deceased":"0", "deceased_date":"", "household_name":"", "primary_contact_id":"", "organization_name":"", "sic_code":"", "user_unique_id":"", "created_date":"", "modified_date":"2015-05-14 06:03:56"}

Mostly this seems to work but we have some issues. Is this an official way to update a contact? And if not, which would be a better one?

Answer 1

Please, do not put the api_key nor key into the get parameter, to they don't end up in logs and other places, they are better as a post param.

As for your question, you can have json="{'id':2..."} as a param, ie json encode the whole contact and put as as a string param into a (post) json param

You might be safer to return only the modified param, as some are likely to be ignored (eg. the modification_date) or might expect a different format when modified than read (less and less a problem, but you might bump into edge cases still)