Re: NEW PREFERENCE - return=query-result

On 12/09/2015 7:54 AM, "Phil Hunt" <phil.hunt@oracle.com> wrote:
>
> If you mean have multiple endpoints I agree.
>

Yep, that was what I meant.

[...]

>
> "post creates a resource" becomes nice and consistent if we move
reporting processing functions out of POST(things that do not change state)
into a new method like SEARCH.
>

If we say "post modifies a resource" (including append, delete, etc.) then
I half agree; but POST has been fuzzy for a long time, and no amount of
decree from us will change people's behaviour. (I.e. many people using POST
for SEARCH will continue to do so.)

If SEARCH is to be the unambiguous read-only-POST, you'd need an
unambiguous writing-POST method too. That way things like response status
codes could be clearly reasoned for each (especially things like 200, 303,
maybe 404.)

That said, I have no problem with a fuzzy POST, be it mixing POST and
SEARCH, or using a different POSTed-to endpoint for each action (including
'?action=...' query parameters), or embedding action instructions in the
POST body (SOAP anyone?).

The prefer(ence-applied) mechanism seems like a convenient fourth channel,
but I'm with James that it's not the right use of 'prefer.'

Cheers