Re: HTTP 402 (payment required) -- the missing link

On 17 June 2015 at 05:51, UniDyne <unidyne@gmail.com> wrote:

> Why limit yourself to a "Location" header? If you are expanding 402 into
> something useful, you might as well make use of additional headers to pass
> the payment requirements. The Location header might just be the endpoint
> payment must be submitted to. Other headers might include the payment
> parameters including amount, currency type, accepted methods.
>

Yes, this works.  Could do something along those likes, which is maybe like
HTTP 401?

However with the location header you could then have an arbitrary document
with both headers and content.  Im not sure this makes a big difference,
but would love to hear thoughts.  Of course headers can be pointers to
documents too, but I wonder if it's not just easier to bite the bullet and
parse another doc...


>
> In lieu of a user-agent that actually provides these functions, it could
> easily be handled by a web app.
>
> It seems we've had this discussion before.
>

We have!  But I think we're not yet at the point where we could write a
spec.  Very close tho, that's why I'd just like to get these final details
nailed.


>
> On Tue, Jun 16, 2015 at 11:40 PM, UniDyne <unidyne@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Yes, you can return headers including "Location" with a 402. The issue is
>> that user-agents today won't do anything with it. For now, you would also
>> need to include a page with a link as suggested by David.
>>
>> On Tue, Jun 16, 2015 at 8:34 PM, Melvin Carvalho <
>> melvincarvalho@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 17 June 2015 at 02:23, David I. Lehn <dil@lehn.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Tue, Jun 16, 2015 at 7:57 PM, Melvin Carvalho
>>>> <melvincarvalho@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> > I've implemented HTTP 402 a few times for payment protected resources.
>>>> > ...
>>>> > If payment is required, how does the client know what to do next?
>>>> > ...
>>>> > What about sending a Location: header telling the client where to go
>>>> next?
>>>> >
>>>> > Then the client can find all the information about how to pay, their
>>>> > balance, the cost etc.
>>>> > ...
>>>>
>>>> Won't user agents only follow that Location for 3xx codes?  How about
>>>> just including human and/or machine readable info in the 402 response
>>>> content?
>>>>
>>>
>>> Seems possible.  But are you allows to return data with a 4xx?  Im not
>>> sure on this ...
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> -dave
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>