title: Use DELETE request for not purely deletion in REST
body: <p>I have a dilemma regarding the design of my REST API in Spring.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Situation</strong></p>
  
  <p>There is DELETE request to delete users by calling <code>DELETE: /v1/api/users/{userId}</code>, but it is not purely user deletion, i have to re-assign user tickets to another active user before deletion.</p>
  
  <p>User A has 5 tickets, when i delete User A, all of his/her tickets will be re-assigned to another selected user, then user A is being deleted from the system.</p>
  
  <p><strong>My Initial Proposal</strong></p>
  
  <p>I use the most simple solution</p>
  
  <p><code>DELETE: /v1/api/users/{userIds}</code></p>
  
  <p>And also with the following to accept id for re-assignment</p>
  
  <p><code>@RequestBody int assigneeId</code> </p>
  
  <p><strong>My Dilemma</strong></p>
  
  <p>My gut tells me that this is not a good way to design a DELETE request API, delete should just do what delete should do, i thought it for long time but can't figure out an elegant way to do so. Any ideas? </p>