REST API to check if an object exists

Question

I have currently a webservice that load an object which looks like /object/load?id=100, the problem is that my object is really huge and it takes a long time to get the full response of the webservice just to see if the object exists or not.

What is the best pratice here ?

• Creating a new webservice /object/exists?id=100 thats only use HTTP status code (200 if object exists, 404 if not) ?

• Add parameter to the /object/load webservice to return only simplified object ?

Answer 1

If you are only interested in existence, or knowing in advance how the API will respond if you do a real GET request, HTTP actually has a built-in method for that: HEAD.