RE: GET, POST, and side-effects

RFC 1867 specifies a new media type, multipart/form-data, as an
appropriate container for the values resulting from filling out a form
being transmitted either via HTTP or mail.

RFC 1867 is 'Experimental'; I have indications that a number of
experimental implementations are underway.

FWIW, I am opposed to including an entity body in a 'GET' request, and
think POST-W-N-S-E is nonsense. Whether the results of a POST is
cachable might depend on the request! For example, you might POST
something which is syntactically invalid, and let the client cache the
error message telling you how it was wrong, but syntactically valid
POST requests would be sent along, have side effects, and thus not be
repeatable or cachable. The indication of the transaction status of a
request should be included in the response, not deduced from the
nature of the request, unless the response just doesn't say.

Received on Friday, 5 January 1996 22:47:55 UTC