Express.js Mastery / Express: Let’s Start Building The Natours API!

Handling DELETE Requests

📖 Context

The final CRUD operation to implement is DELETE. Just like with PATCH, the actual deletion logic won't be implemented in the route handler — this is because the app is only working with a JSON file, not a real database, so actually removing data isn't necessary for what this section is teaching.

🔹 Step 1: Building the DELETE Handler

The handler is copied from the PATCH handler and modified slightly:

app.delete('/api/v1/tours/:id', (req, res) => {
  if (req.params.id * 1 > tours.length) {
    return res.status(404).json({
      status: 'fail',
      message: 'Invalid ID'
    });
  }

  res.status(204).json({
    status: 'success',
    data: null
  });
});

💡 Why each part works:

  • 🔄 Method changed from patch to delete

  • 🆔 Still needs :id in the route — the app needs to know which tour to delete

  • ✅ ID validation logic reused exactly as before (checks if ID is out of range → 404, fail)

  • 🟢 Status code changed to 204 (No Content) — the standard response for a successful delete

  • 🚫 data: null — since the resource no longer exists, there's nothing to send back; null represents that emptiness

  • ✅ status: 'success' — the operation still succeeded, even though there's no data returned

💡 This is actually the same pattern used in real-world APIs — a real delete endpoint would send back this same 204/null response.

🔹 Step 2: Testing in Postman

  • 🗑️ Set the method to DELETE

  • 🎯 Target a tour ID (e.g., tour number 7) — again, this won't actually delete anything since the logic isn't implemented

  • 📤 Send the request → Postman shows 204 No Content, and doesn't even display a response body, since none was meaningfully sent

  • 💾 Save the request as "Delete Tour" — it now appears alongside the other saved requests in the collection

✅ Key Takeaway

  • 🗑️ DELETE requests conventionally return 204 No Content with data: null, since the deleted resource no longer exists.

  • ✅ The response still marks status: 'success' — a successful delete simply has nothing to return.

  • 🔁 The ID-validation pattern (req.params.id * 1 > tours.length → 404 fail) has now been reused across GET-single, PATCH, and DELETE — a consistent approach across all ID-based routes.

  • 🎉 This completes the full CRUD set:

    • ➕ Create (POST) → 201

    • 📖 Read (GET) → 200

    • ✏️ Update (PATCH) → 200

    • 🗑️ Delete (DELETE) → 204

➡️ What's Next

  • 🧹 The next step is to clean up and reorganize the code, applying best practices to make it less messy.