client "delete" method missing "data" and "json" parameters

[matletix]

Hi,

I'm using the AsyncClient for making API calls to an external API.
I need to make DELETE calls with a JSON body (to specify a list of values to be deleted), but the 'json' or 'data' parameters are not present in the delete method definition (while they are present in the POST method for example).
For now I'm using the client.request method with the method='DELETE' parameter, and the 'json' parameter is available in this method.
Is this on purpose ? Can we consider adding the data and json parameters to the detele method of the client ?

[tomchristie]

Is this on purpose?

Yes.

Can we consider adding the data and json parameters to the detele method of the client?

Probably not, no.

See our docs at https://www.python-httpx.org/compatibility/#request-body-on-http-methods and the HTTP RFC https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7231#section-4.3.5

A payload within a DELETE request message has no defined semantics;
sending a payload body on a DELETE request might cause some existing
implementations to reject the request.

So, DELETE requests with a body are not completely disallowed, but it's discouraged as a usage. For this reason we don't support it in the general .delete() API, but we do still allow for it if that's really what you intended.

[matletix]

Ok, thank you for your answer. So using the request method instead of the delete method is my best option to accomplish this, right ?

[tomchristie]

Yup.

[shurshilov]

This is a mistake. What if I need to delete a list of IDs that has a long length, I can't put these parameters in the url because it is limited. All libraries allow you to transfer json body inside delete method.

[deanm0000]

@shurshilov As tom said httpx allows it but only through the request method not the delete method since it's discouraged. That's how you'd delete a list of IDs with a long length.