RE: GET, POST, and side-effects

Paul Leach writes:
 > Shel said:
 > ] The GET can always be implemented as a POST -- you just get less
 > ] effective service from any caches in the chain.  But the POST couldn't
 > ] always be implemented as a GET (assuming a cachable response), since
 > ] the POST might have side effects that might be omitted if a GET were
 > ] handled entirely by a proxy cache.
 > 
 > I always asumed that the existence of a "?" in the request-URI 
 > prevented proxies from caching the result-entity, so that this couldn't happen?
 > 
 > Is this not a correct understanding of the practice?
 > 
 > Paul
 > 
 > 

I don't know - I think you're right that that's a common heuristic,
but if so, that's all it is.  What happens if you put a valid Expires
header in the response, for instance?  I don't know. Right now it's a
jungle of heuristics out there.

Received on Saturday, 6 January 1996 01:12:41 UTC