Re: [cgiapp] POST or GET

[Greg Marr <suppressed>]

At 05:40 AM 9/5/2003, Dimitris Papaharisis wrote:
> a question of style (and maybe functionality).
>
> What is the recommended way of linking to other modules / runmodes. 
> Is GET
> good enough or should I be using POSTs?
>
> and when I went to the next mode, a GET was performed and all the 
> params
> where in the URL (including password which is not very nice)

If you use GET, the user can reload the page without being prompted 
by the browser.  It is generally used for fetching pages that don't 
have any side-effects, such as getting a list of items in a 
database.  You can also build your own "GET" inside an HREF.  For 
example, each of the items in that list page could have a link to a 
detail page for that item, with all the necessary data in the query 
string.  If you were to use POST, you'd have to create an actual form.

If you use POST, the user will be prompted by the browser if they 
want to resubmit the information when they reload.  It is generally 
used for things that have side effects, such as adding an entry to a 
database.  It is also used when you don't want the query string 
showing up in the returned page, or when there is a lot of data being 
sent, as there is a smaller limit on the length of GET requests.

The prompting is at least in IE 5+, I'm not sure about other 
browsers.  The separation of intents for GET and POST goes all the 
way back to the initial CGI spec, I believe.

--
Greg Marr
suppressed


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