PATCH Member of a Collection Sends all Fields Instead of Changed Fields

[SpaceCondor]

Issue Description

When modifying a member of a collection property of an object and then issuing a PATCH request, the entire collection and all properties are sent as opposed to just the member and properties that have been updated.

A real world scenario would be updating the sales price of the second line of an order.

Example Code:

// build OData Request
var getDocumentRequest = service.withServicePath("example.com").getOrdersByKey(12345);
var getOrderResponse = getDocumentRequest.execute(....);
var order = getOrderResponse.get();

for (var orderLine : order.getLines()) {

    if(orderLine.getLineNum() == 2) {
          orderLine.setPrice(100);
    }

}

// build OData Request
var updateOrderRequest = service.withServicePath("example.com").updateOrders(order);

In the above scenario I'd expect to see a request like:

PATCH https://example.com/Orders(12345)

{
  "OrderLines": [
    {
      "LineNum": 2,
      "Price": 100
    }
  ]
}

But instead I am getting all order lines and all fields of all order lines.

I understand that I can exclude particular fields from updates and also force include fields, but I don't think I can specify the above behavior?

[Johannes-Schneider]

Hi @SpaceCondor,

thanks for reaching our to us.
The observed behavior is indeed a known shortcoming of the Cloud SDK.

I will reach out to our PO (@newtork) to discuss whether we can find time to implement this feature.
Would you mind elaborating a bit about the urgency from your side?
Is this issue blocking your development or is it more like an inconvenience?

Thanks and best regards,
Johannes

[SpaceCondor]

Hey @Johannes-Schneider

If needed I can construct the request directly as opposed to utilizing the cloud SDK so it is more of an inconvenience.

Within SAP B1, the Service Layer will often produce errors when doing PATCH requests and sending entire objects.

[newtork]

Hi @SpaceCondor,

Currently we are in preparation for the upcoming next major release. This will likely keep us busy within the next weeks.
As long as you have the option to use a temporary workaround, I would like to kindly ask for patience until Q4 2022.

Please let me know in case this request is much more urgent and requires higher priority.

The following request could be used as workaround while leveraging our Generic OData Client:

final String jsonPayload = "{"
        + "  \"OrderLines\": ["
        + "    {"
        + "      \"LineNum\": 2,"
        + "      \"Price\": 100"
        + "    }"
        + "  ]"
        + "}";

final ODataEntityKey entityKey = ODataEntityKey.of(Collections.singletonMap("OrderId", 12345), ODataProtocol.V2);

final ODataRequestUpdate request = new ODataRequestUpdate(
    "/service/path/", // service path
    "Orders", // entity set name
    entityKey,
    jsonPayload,
    UpdateStrategy.MODIFY_WITH_PATCH,
    null, // no version identifier
    ODataProtocol.V2);

final HttpDestination httpDestination = DestinationAccessor.getDestination("MyDestination").asHttp();
final HttpClient httpClient = HttpClientAccessor.getHttpClient(httpDestination);
request.execute(httpClient);

Best regards
Alexander

[SpaceCondor]

@newtork Thank you for the feedback and I completely understand regarding the launch of version 4 of the SDK being a priority.

I will use the provided workaround for now and if it becomes more urgent I will let you know. Thanks again!