How to unpublish a document using REST API?

Questions and Answers
1

Hello all,
I tried many ways to unpublish a document but seems it not work.
I update a document with the body
http://localhost:1337/api/apps/[:documentId]
{
“data”: {
“publishedAt”: null
}
}
Could you please support to point out which is the correct way to unpublish a document?
ps: I’m using strapi 5 and already enabled draft & published

Thank you so much!

3

You can handle this by customizing the controller for your content type. I had a similar use case where I needed to unpublish an entry when publishedAt: null was sent in a PUT request. Here’s how I solved it:

In the controller for my content type (e.g., category), I extended the update action to check if publishAt is null. If it is, I set the publishedAt field to null, effectively unpublishing the entry. This is similar to what Strapi does internally when you unpublish something manually.

  async update(ctx) {

    const {id} = ctx.params;
    const {publishedAt} = ctx.request.body.data;

    if (publishedAt === null) {
      await strapi
        .documents('api::category.category')
        .unpublish({ documentId : id, locale: '*' });

      return await strapi.documents('api::category.category').findOne({
        documentId: id,
        status: 'draft'
      });
    }

    return await super.update(ctx);
  }
}));```
1 Like
4

In Strapi 5.12.4 I got it work with this code:

module.exports = createCoreController('api::paper.paper', ({ strapi }) => ({
  async update(ctx) {
    //console.log('update paper controller, ctx.params:', ctx.params, 'ctx.request.body:', ctx.request?.body);
    const { id } = ctx.params;
    const { publishedAt } = ctx.request.body.data;

    const res = await super.update(ctx);

    if (publishedAt === null) {
      console.log('Unpublishing document triggered by publishedAt:null', id);
      await strapi
        .documents('api::paper.paper')
        .unpublish({ documentId: id, locale: '*' });

      /*return await strapi.documents('api::paper.paper').findOne({
        documentId: id,
        status: 'draft'
      });*/
    }

    return res;
  }
}));

If I do return await super.update(ctx); then .unpublish method will trigger this error:
Error: Undefined binding(s) detected when compiling WHERE. Undefined column(s): [t0.id] query: where t0.id = ?

Also unpublishing the document before the actual update misses the whole point as with an update it gets published again.