GET safety, was: Review of Content Transformation Guidelines Last Call?

Jo Rabin wrote:
> ...
>> I don't understand; "purpose of the link"?
> Well a link on "Register for this Event" in an email might very well 
> cause an automatic registration, a link on an ad will generate a 
> click-through. Each of these different cases, today, uses a GET method. 
> The convenience of hyperlinks of this kind in email bodies is probably 
> sufficient, and common enough, to think that for most Web developers 
> by-definition safety and idempotency is a far-away country of which they 
> know little.
> ...

Following a link never should cause a registration. This would be a bug, 
and I think nowadays people are starting to understand that. The right 
thing is to link to a page that explains the registration process and 
contains a button (-> POST).

Clicking on an ad is totally safe (in the sense of HTTP); they key point 
is that the person following the link will not be made accountable for 
the outcome (it's contract between the owner of the page holding the ad 
and the advertiser, the user itself is not part of that relation).

BR, Julian

Received on Friday, 5 September 2008 14:22:06 UTC