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Removing resources, media and files - DELETE Requests

Deleting is as easy as getting resources and more difficult than creating resources.

If you can perform a GET request then you have the information required to perform a DELETE request.

Check out the examples below.

Authorization

If you have restricted access to view your content, you will need to use one of the configured authorization methods to access your content, media and/or files.

These are defined under Authorization on the overview.

Content (Nodes)

You will need your node id, you can find more information in the GET documentation.

A delete is simply the same request as a GET but sending a DELETE http verb.

Our example node has a node id of 2

> curl -i -u admin:islandora -X GET 'http://localhost:8000/node/2?_format=json'

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2019 15:02:00 GMT
Server: Apache/2.4.18 (Ubuntu)
X-Powered-By: PHP/7.1.26-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1
Cache-Control: must-revalidate, no-cache, private
Link: <http://localhost:8000/node/2>; rel="canonical"
Link: <http://localhost:8000/node/2/delete>; rel="https://drupal.org/link-relations/delete-form"
Link: <http://localhost:8000/admin/content/node/delete?node=2>; rel="https://drupal.org/link-relations/delete-multiple-form"
Link: <http://localhost:8000/node/2/edit>; rel="edit-form"
Link: <http://localhost:8000/node/2/revisions>; rel="version-history"
Link: <http://localhost:8000/node/2>; rel="https://drupal.org/link-relations/revision"
Link: <http://localhost:8000/node?node=2>; rel="https://drupal.org/link-relations/create"
Link: <http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Collection>; rel="tag"; title="Collection"
Link: <http://localhost:8000/node/2?_format=jsonld>; rel="alternate"; type="application/ld+json"
X-Drupal-Dynamic-Cache: MISS
X-UA-Compatible: IE=edge
Content-language: en
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
Expires: Sun, 19 Nov 1978 05:00:00 GMT
Vary:
X-Generator: Drupal 8 (https://www.drupal.org)
Content-Length: 1564
Content-Type: application/json

{"nid":[{"value":2}],"uuid":[{"value":"413135a6-0bd1-4d6b-8bcb-059cf7784d83"}],"vid":[{"value":2}],"langcode":[{"value":"en"}],"type":[{"target_id":"islandora_object","target_type":"node_type","target_uuid":"62189bec-3ef3-4196-b847-b17e5ce61fd5"}],"revision_timestamp":[{"value":"2019-03-05T18:04:43+00:00","format":"Y-m-d\\TH:i:sP"}],"revision_uid":[{"target_id":1,"target_type":"user","target_uuid":"46a47057-de2d-4ce2-87ae-dbe4551209b8","url":"\/user\/1"}],"revision_log":[],"status":[{"value":true}],"title":[{"value":"Created a collection with POST"}],"uid":[{"target_id":1,"target_type":"user","target_uuid":"46a47057-de2d-4ce2-87ae-dbe4551209b8","url":"\/user\/1"}],"created":[{"value":"2019-03-05T18:04:43+00:00","format":"Y-m-d\\TH:i:sP"}],"changed":[{"value":"2019-03-05T18:04:43+00:00","format":"Y-m-d\\TH:i:sP"}],"promote":[{"value":true}],"sticky":[{"value":false}],"default_langcode":[{"value":true}],"revision_translation_affected":[{"value":true}],"content_translation_source":[{"value":"und"}],"content_translation_outdated":[{"value":false}],"field_access_terms":[],"field_alternative_title":[],"field_description":[],"field_display_hints":[],"field_edtf_date":[],"field_edtf_date_created":[],"field_edtf_date_issued":[],"field_extent":[{"value":"1 item"}],"field_identifier":[],"field_linked_agent":[],"field_member_of":[],"field_model":[{"target_id":23,"target_type":"taxonomy_term","target_uuid":"6a3b293d-4617-417b-99d2-23d75b57f7c2","url":"\/taxonomy\/term\/23"}],"field_pid":[],"field_resource_type":[],"field_rights":[],"field_subject":[]}%

Then we switch GET to DELETE

> curl -i -u admin:islandora -X DELETE 'http://localhost:8000/node/2?_format=json'

HTTP/1.1 204 No Content
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2019 15:02:30 GMT
Server: Apache/2.4.18 (Ubuntu)
X-Powered-By: PHP/7.1.26-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1
Cache-Control: must-revalidate, no-cache, private
X-UA-Compatible: IE=edge
Content-language: en
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
Expires: Sun, 19 Nov 1978 05:00:00 GMT
Vary:
X-Generator: Drupal 8 (https://www.drupal.org)
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

All subsequent requests to the above URI will return a 404 Not Found status code.

> curl -i -u admin:islandora -X GET 'http://localhost:8000/node/2?_format=json'

HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2019 15:12:58 GMT
Server: Apache/2.4.18 (Ubuntu)
X-Powered-By: PHP/7.1.26-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1
Cache-Control: must-revalidate, no-cache, private
X-UA-Compatible: IE=edge
Content-language: en
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
Expires: Sun, 19 Nov 1978 05:00:00 GMT
Vary:
X-Generator: Drupal 8 (https://www.drupal.org)
Content-Length: 149
Content-Type: application/json

{"message":"The \u0022node\u0022 parameter was not converted for the path \u0022\/node\/{node}\u0022 (route name: \u0022rest.entity.node.GET\u0022)"}

Media

You will need a media id as used in GET documentation.

A delete is simply the same request as a GET but sending a DELETE http verb.

With a media id of 1 for our example, I'll perform a GET

> curl -i -u admin:islandora -X GET 'http://localhost:8000/media/1?_format=json'

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2019 14:53:54 GMT
Server: Apache/2.4.18 (Ubuntu)
X-Powered-By: PHP/7.1.26-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1
Cache-Control: must-revalidate, no-cache, private
Link: <http://localhost:8000/media/add>; rel="https://drupal.org/link-relations/add-page"
Link: <http://localhost:8000/media/add/image>; rel="https://drupal.org/link-relations/add-form"
Link: <http://localhost:8000/media/1>; rel="canonical"
Link: <http://localhost:8000/admin/content/media>; rel="collection"
Link: <http://localhost:8000/media/1/delete>; rel="https://drupal.org/link-relations/delete-form"
Link: <http://localhost:8000/media/delete?media=1>; rel="https://drupal.org/link-relations/delete-multiple-form"
Link: <http://localhost:8000/media/1/edit>; rel="edit-form"
Link: <http://localhost:8000/media/1>; rel="https://drupal.org/link-relations/revision"
Link: <http://localhost:8000/node/1>; rel="related"; title="Media of"
Link: <http://pcdm.org/use#OriginalFile>; rel="tag"; title="Original File"
Link: <http://localhost:8000/media/1?_format=jsonld>; rel="alternate"; type="application/ld+json"
Link: <http://localhost:8000/media/1/source>; rel="edit-media"
Link: <http://localhost:8000/_flysystem/fedora/2019-03/Louis_Riel.jpg>; rel="describes"; type="image/jpeg"
X-Drupal-Dynamic-Cache: HIT
X-UA-Compatible: IE=edge
Content-language: en
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
Expires: Sun, 19 Nov 1978 05:00:00 GMT
Vary:
X-Generator: Drupal 8 (https://www.drupal.org)
Content-Length: 1937
Content-Type: application/json

{"mid":[{"value":1}],"uuid":[{"value":"d8893926-ddb7-4125-b2da-30428af0fe3d"}],"vid":[{"value":1}],"langcode":[{"value":"en"}],"bundle":[{"target_id":"image","target_type":"media_type","target_uuid":"3860e653-201b-4509-89dd-628c446d81cb"}],"revision_created":[{"value":"2019-03-01T19:43:46+00:00","format":"Y-m-d\\TH:i:sP"}],"revision_user":[{"target_id":1,"target_type":"user","target_uuid":"46a47057-de2d-4ce2-87ae-dbe4551209b8","url":"\/user\/1"}],"revision_log_message":[],"status":[{"value":true}],"name":[{"value":"An image"}],"thumbnail":[{"target_id":2,"alt":"A portrait of Louis Riel","title":null,"width":800,"height":1333,"target_type":"file","target_uuid":"b0625129-c592-463a-93c3-3eff7cd3567e","url":"http:\/\/localhost:8000\/_flysystem\/fedora\/2019-03\/Louis_Riel.jpg"}],"uid":[{"target_id":1,"target_type":"user","target_uuid":"46a47057-de2d-4ce2-87ae-dbe4551209b8","url":"\/user\/1"}],"created":[{"value":"2019-03-01T19:43:22+00:00","format":"Y-m-d\\TH:i:sP"}],"changed":[{"value":"2019-03-01T19:43:46+00:00","format":"Y-m-d\\TH:i:sP"}],"default_langcode":[{"value":true}],"revision_translation_affected":[{"value":true}],"content_translation_source":[{"value":"und"}],"content_translation_outdated":[{"value":false}],"field_access_terms":[],"field_file_size":[{"value":166613}],"field_height":[{"value":1333}],"field_media_image":[{"target_id":2,"alt":"A portrait of Louis Riel","title":"","width":800,"height":1333,"target_type":"file","target_uuid":"b0625129-c592-463a-93c3-3eff7cd3567e","url":"http:\/\/localhost:8000\/_flysystem\/fedora\/2019-03\/Louis_Riel.jpg"}],"field_media_of":[{"target_id":1,"target_type":"node","target_uuid":"8322e36e-f8ec-4fd9-919d-52aed7b17a52","url":"\/node\/1"}],"field_media_use":[{"target_id":16,"target_type":"taxonomy_term","target_uuid":"08e01ff9-eb72-42f5-ae3a-8b21ba0c0bc3","url":"\/taxonomy\/term\/16"}],"field_mime_type":[{"value":"image\/jpeg"}],"field_width":[{"value":800}]}

Then we replace GET with DELETE.

> curl -i -u admin:islandora -X DELETE 'http://localhost:8000/media/1?_format=json'

HTTP/1.1 204 No Content
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2019 14:54:55 GMT
Server: Apache/2.4.18 (Ubuntu)
X-Powered-By: PHP/7.1.26-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1
Cache-Control: must-revalidate, no-cache, private
X-UA-Compatible: IE=edge
Content-language: en
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
Expires: Sun, 19 Nov 1978 05:00:00 GMT
Vary:
X-Generator: Drupal 8 (https://www.drupal.org)
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

Subsequent requests to the media return 404 Not Found statuses.

> curl -i -u admin:islandora -X GET 'http://localhost:8000/media/1?_format=json'

HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2019 15:13:45 GMT
Server: Apache/2.4.18 (Ubuntu)
X-Powered-By: PHP/7.1.26-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1
Cache-Control: must-revalidate, no-cache, private
X-UA-Compatible: IE=edge
Content-language: en
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
Expires: Sun, 19 Nov 1978 05:00:00 GMT
Vary:
X-Generator: Drupal 8 (https://www.drupal.org)
Content-Length: 153
Content-Type: application/json

{"message":"The \u0022media\u0022 parameter was not converted for the path \u0022\/media\/{media}\u0022 (route name: \u0022rest.entity.media.GET\u0022)"}

Files

You'll need the file id, there is more information at the top of the GET requests for files documentation.

A delete is simply the same request as a GET but sending a DELETE http verb.

With a file id of 2 for our example, I can perform a test GET

> curl -i -u admin:islandora 'http://localhost:8000/entity/file/2?_format=json'

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2019 14:40:40 GMT
Server: Apache/2.4.18 (Ubuntu)
X-Powered-By: PHP/7.1.26-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1
Cache-Control: must-revalidate, no-cache, private
X-Drupal-Dynamic-Cache: MISS
X-UA-Compatible: IE=edge
Content-language: en
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
Expires: Sun, 19 Nov 1978 05:00:00 GMT
Vary:
X-Generator: Drupal 8 (https://www.drupal.org)
Content-Length: 617
Content-Type: application/json

{"fid":[{"value":2}],"uuid":[{"value":"b0625129-c592-463a-93c3-3eff7cd3567e"}],"langcode":[{"value":"en"}],"uid":[{"target_id":1,"target_type":"user","target_uuid":"46a47057-de2d-4ce2-87ae-dbe4551209b8","url":"\/user\/1"}],"filename":[{"value":"Louis_Riel.jpg"}],"uri":[{"value":"fedora:\/\/2019-03\/Louis_Riel.jpg","url":"\/_flysystem\/fedora\/2019-03\/Louis_Riel.jpg"}],"filemime":[{"value":"image\/jpeg"}],"filesize":[{"value":166613}],"status":[{"value":true}],"created":[{"value":"2019-03-01T19:43:35+00:00","format":"Y-m-d\\TH:i:sP"}],"changed":[{"value":"2019-03-01T19:43:46+00:00","format":"Y-m-d\\TH:i:sP"}]}

If this is the correct file, I can delete it.

> curl -i -u admin:islandora -X DELETE 'http://localhost:8000/entity/file/2?_format=json'

HTTP/1.1 204 No Content
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2019 14:43:22 GMT
Server: Apache/2.4.18 (Ubuntu)
X-Powered-By: PHP/7.1.26-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1
Cache-Control: must-revalidate, no-cache, private
X-UA-Compatible: IE=edge
Content-language: en
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
Expires: Sun, 19 Nov 1978 05:00:00 GMT
Vary:
X-Generator: Drupal 8 (https://www.drupal.org)
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

Subsequent requests to the URI now return a 404 Not Found status.

> curl -i -u admin:islandora 'http://localhost:8000/entity/file/2?_format=json'

HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2019 14:43:33 GMT
Server: Apache/2.4.18 (Ubuntu)
X-Powered-By: PHP/7.1.26-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1
Cache-Control: must-revalidate, no-cache, private
X-UA-Compatible: IE=edge
Content-language: en
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
Expires: Sun, 19 Nov 1978 05:00:00 GMT
Vary:
X-Generator: Drupal 8 (https://www.drupal.org)
Content-Length: 157
Content-Type: application/json

{"message":"The \u0022file\u0022 parameter was not converted for the path \u0022\/entity\/file\/{file}\u0022 (route name: \u0022rest.entity.file.GET\u0022)"}

Last update: March 15, 2024