RE: FORMs and GET

> * maybe I don't understand something: the spec says that the group will
> remove the  "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" in a "future version of
> the XForms specification". I don't understand how GET will have even
> minimal utility once that happens.

The content-type header that specifies application/x-www-form-urlencoded
isn't talking about the query part of the URL, it's talking about the POST.
So I don't see how this effects the GET method.

I don't think the spec is saying the HTTP GET method will be deprecated,
it's saying that you will not be able to *POST* XForms instance data using
the GET method. For instance, the initial request to any given XForms
Document will most likely be a GET. 

> * why advise against GET? Most forms I use today use GET with good
> reason! Furthermore, deprecation is usually the step taken before
> removal!

1. Because most web servers and some browsers have limitations on the length
of URL's sent in a request.

2. Because trying to convert an XML document into name=value pairs is just
rediculous.

3. Because GET should be used to GET an initial (parameter-less)
representation of a resource. If you need to post data to a resource use
POST.

- Ryan

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Prescod [mailto:paul@prescod.net]
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2002 8:05 PM
To: www-forms@w3.org
Subject: Re: FORMs and GET


tvraman@almaden.ibm.com wrote:
> 
> This is gross miscommunicatio.
> XForms depricates  HTTP GET
> --depricates means we let you use it --but advise against it.
> 
> So how did this ever get interpreted as "XForms doesn't support GET"?

 * XForms use different rules serialization rules than HTML, which will
likely prevent the forms from being compatible with existing
HTML-form-based services.

 * HTML was not perfect with respect to URL generation to start with.
XForms could do better. No matter what method the end-user is using,
they should be able to generate the target URL from the content. Not
just keyword parameters: the path part should also be under user control
also.

XForms is great in its separation of presentation and model. In addition
to allowing the user to specify the details of their XML instance format
(instead of just blindly submitting RDF or SOAP), I would suggest that
they should be able to specify every detail of the URL format (instead
of blindly submitting a new form of x-www-form-urlencoded).

 Paul Prescod

Received on Thursday, 17 January 2002 21:14:27 UTC