Delete

DELETE [base]/[type]/[id]

Responds with 200 OK on the successful deletion, but when removing a resource deleted earlier, responds with 204 No Content (conforming FHIR specification). This feature was added to make deletion work the same way as in SQL DELETE RETURNING *.

Supports If-Match header, with versionId as ETAG.

To get 204 No Content instead of 200 OK, use the _no-content=true query parameter.

• 200 OK - resource successfully deleted

• 204 No Content - resource already deleted

• 404 Not Found - resource not found

• 412 Precondition Failed - requested ETAG doesn't match actual

Delete of non-existing resource will return 204 status and no body. Read this thread for more details.

Conditional Delete

DELETE [base]/[type]?[search parameters]

It's not clear how to perform an ordinary delete on no matches. That's why 404 Not Found will be returned in this case.

• No matches: The respond with 404 Not Found

• One Match: The server performs an ordinary delete on the matching resource

• Multiple matches: Servers respond with 412 Precondition Failed error indicating the client's criteria were not selective enough

delete

DELETE [base]/[type]/[id]

This interaction deletes a resource, responds with 200 OK on the successful deletion, but when removing an already deleted resource, it responds with 204 No Content.

To always get 204 No Content instead of 200 OK, use _no-content=true query parameter.

• 200 OK — resource successfully deleted

• 204 No Content — resource already deleted

200 OK

Delete a patient by id:

Request

DELETE /Patient/tom-id

Response

Status: 200

name:
- given: [Tom]
gender: male
id: tom-id
resourceType: Patient
meta:
  lastUpdated: '2018-11-29T14:33:17.429Z'
  versionId: '44'
  tag:
  - {system: 'https://aidbox.app', code: deleted}

204 No Content

Attempt to delete an already deleted resource:

Request

DELETE /Patient/tom-id

Response

Status: 204

conditional delete

DELETE [base]/[type]?[search parameters]

Depending on the number of resources meeting the search criteria, different actions will be performed and response codes will be returned:

• No matches: Respond with 404 Not Found

• One Match: The server performs an ordinary delete on the matching resource

• Multiple matches: Servers respond with 412 Precondition Failed error indicating the client's criteria were not selective enough