Is it possible to create field with defined internal name using rest api?

Question

Is it possible to create field with defined internal name using rest api in sharepoint 2013?

Answer 1

It does not seem possible to specify InternalName when creating a field using SharePoint REST since InternalName is ignored.

The workaround would be to:

1. Create a field and specify for a Title an InternalName value
2. Update a field by specifying actual Title

In that case InternalName will be preserved.

The following example demonstrates this approach:

function updateJson(endpointUri,payload, success, error) 
{
    var headers = {};
    $.ajax({       
       url: endpointUri,   
       type: "POST",   
       data: JSON.stringify(payload),
       contentType: "application/json;odata=verbose",
       headers: { 
          "Accept": "application/json;odata=verbose",
          "X-RequestDigest" : $("#__REQUESTDIGEST").val(),
          "X-HTTP-Method": "MERGE",
           "If-Match": "*"
       },   
       success: success,
       error: error
    });
}

function createJson(endpointUri,payload, success, error) 
{
    var headers = {};
    $.ajax({       
       url: endpointUri,   
       type: "POST",   
       data: JSON.stringify(payload),
       contentType: "application/json;odata=verbose",
       headers: { 
          "Accept": "application/json;odata=verbose",
          "X-RequestDigest" : $("#__REQUESTDIGEST").val()
       },   
       success: success,
       error: error
    });
}


function createListField(webUrl,listTitle,fieldProperties, success,failure)
{
   var fieldsUri =  webUrl + "/_api/web/lists/getbytitle('" + listTitle + "')/fields";   

    var fieldPayload = {
       '__metadata': {'type': 'SP.Field'}
    };
    var replaceTitle = false;
    for(var prop in fieldProperties){
        if(prop == 'InternalName' && fieldProperties.hasOwnProperty('Title')) {
            fieldPayload['Title'] = fieldProperties[prop];
            replaceTitle = true; 
        }
        else {
           if(prop == 'Title' && replaceTitle) continue; 
           fieldPayload[prop] = fieldProperties[prop];
        }
    }
    createJson(fieldsUri,fieldPayload,
       function(data){
          if(fieldProperties.hasOwnProperty('Title'))
          {
              var fieldUri = data.d['__metadata']['uri'];    
              fieldPayload = {
                   '__metadata': {'type': 'SP.Field'},
                   'Title': fieldProperties['Title']
              };
              updateJson(fieldUri,fieldPayload,success,failure);     
          }
          else {
             success(data.d);
          }   
        },
       failure);       
}

Usage

var fieldProperties = {'FieldTypeKind':31,'InternalName':'OfficeLocation','Title':'Office Location'};

createListField(_spPageContextInfo.webAbsoluteUrl,'Documents',fieldProperties,printInfo,logError);
function printInfo()
{
    console.log('Field has been created');
}
function logError(error){
    console.log(JSON.stringify(error));
}

Answer 2

Not entirely sure what you mean by 'defined internal', gonna take a leap here and assume you mean using a schema definition. Yes you can create a field using a schema in the REST api:

$.ajax({
    url: "http://<site url>/_api/web/lists(guid'da58632f-faf0-4a78-8219-99c307747741')/fields",
    type: "POST",
    data: { '__metadata': { 'type': 'SP.Field' }, 'FieldTypeKind': 20, 'Title':
        'Stakeholders', 'SchemaXml': '<Field Type=\"UserMulti\" Required=\"TRUE\"
        UserSelectionMode=\"PeopleAndGroups\" UserSelectionScope=\"0\" Mult=\"TRUE\" />' 
    },
    headers: { 
        "X-RequestDigest": <form digest value>,
        "accept": "application/json; odata=verbose",
        "content-type": "application/json;odata=verbose",
        "content-length": <length of body data>
    },
    success: successHandler,
    error: errorHandler
});

Normal way to define a field in REST:

$.ajax({
    url: "http://<site url>/_api/web/lists(guid'da58632f-faf0-4a78-8219-99c307747741')/fields",
    type: "POST",
    data: "{ '__metadata': { 'type': 'SP.Field' }, 'Title': 'Comments', 'FieldTypeKind': 3 
    }",
    headers: { 
      "X-RequestDigest": <form digest value>,
      "accept": "application/json; odata=verbose",
      "content-type": "application/json;odata=verbose",
      "content-length": <length of body data>
    },
    success: successHandler,
    error: errorHandler
});

Here is more on the SharePoint fields REST API. Here is a list of the FieldTypeKind enumeration.