Browser Interpretation of Location: Header

Hi Ya'll,

I'd be interested if there is concensus on this one.  I have a CGI program
for processing forms which, upon successful submission (i.e., POSTing),
issues a Location header, as follows:

Location: http://www.someplace.com/thankyou.html

That's it.  The server issues a 302 return code.

When using a Netscape 1.2 or Mosaic NCSA 2.0 browser, it works great.  It's
an easy way to report a "thank you" message, possibly directing a user
outside the scope of your own location if need be.  Unfortunately, SPRY's
2.0 browser returns a server error.  After reviewing the server access log,
I can see that it tried to "re-post" the request using (instead of the
original /cgi-bin/doit) /thankyou.html.  Yikes!

I've reviewed the HTTP spec, but it was not clear what is the correct
behavior here.  Should the browser interpret any redirection as a GET (as
Netscape and Mosaic do), OR, maintain the same operation (in this case,
POST) ?  In fact, am I (technically) abusing the ability to override the
Location header by using this methodology.  Should I be returning a status
code or something?

Thanx,

Jim Killian
Transphere Interactive
jkillian@access.digex.net

Received on Thursday, 31 August 1995 16:13:55 UTC