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Cliff GilleyCliff Gilley 

Is there a reason the Salesforce REST API does not support converting leads to opportunities?

We're in the process of building workflow integration with Salesforce, but one of the key asks from our stakeholders is the ability to trigger a conversion event from leads to opportunities.  This functionality is available through the SOAP API but not the REST API, which we would prefer to use in order to re-use existing technology that we have.  Is there any plan to update the REST API to include this and other features offered by the SOAP API?

We're trying to create an OAuth-based solution that is generically applicable to our various clients, based on an unattended workflow process.  We need to be able to programmatically convert the entity and move on to the next step.  As noted, this capability exists in the SOAP API, but not the REST API; we'd rather not have to deal with WSDL and other SOAP overhead, as we have an existing REST infrastructure that we'd prefer to re-use.
Leslie KismartoniLeslie Kismartoni
Check this out: http://salesforce.stackexchange.com/questions/50045/how-do-you-convert-a-lead-via-the-rest-api

(you'll need some APEX, but it seems to work for me...)
Cliff GilleyCliff Gilley
Thanks -- unfortunately, we can't assume that our clients have an APEX web service created, nor the know-how to design, build, install, and deploy one on their Salesforce instance.  Since this is a capability that exists in the SOAP API, I'm struggling to understand why it's not also available via REST.
Leslie KismartoniLeslie Kismartoni
Not to sound uppity, but the questions of "why" SFDC does or doesn't do something has bitten me in the ass for ~10 years now... 

Honestly, they may never get around to doing something like this over REST - you can vote for it and hope they pull the trigger, or, in the immediate time, you might find a workaround.

If you clients might not have an Apex Web Service, you might consider creating a managed pacakge for them which exposes that functionality.

SOAP is a def. workaround, but it is also a hot mess to actually stand up sometimes... 

I dunno... I wish I had better news to tell you?