Hi,
Thanks for your commnets, and yes this is a rare situation.
I develop a shopping system, in client side javascript.
I am interfacing to a payment system on a secure server.
I need to send the Payment Service Provider various data including several
URLs.
To one of these URLs they will be POSTing back data which is intended for
the merchant and not for the shopper. (The shopper already has what they
need on the browser screen).
In client side javascript I cannot receive POST data.
Our client/merchants do not usually have their own servers and may not have
cgi-bin privileges with the server space they rent. So I wish to provide a
mechanism for them to receive this POST data.
So for the URL I am sending a perl script in our own domain. I am also
sending the merchants URL and some other data in a query string that will be
returned untouched when the URL is called.
I then take data from the query string including the merchants email address
AND the POST data and compose an email to the merchant address.
Meanwhile the shopper is getting various screens from the secure server, and
an email of the original order, so the shopper is taken care of.
hth
Rodney
-----Original Message-----
From: Hasanuddin Tamir <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Rodney Myers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Wednesday, May 30, 2001 11:58
Subject: Re: Silent Ending
>I have two assumptions:
>
>First, you understand HTTP (how browser and web server communicate) well.
>And I say, your requirement is really rare. And perhaps you want to cheat a
>browser, or someone. Yet it doesn't make sense to me.
>
>Second, you don't understand HTTP (how browser and web server communicate)
>well. And I say, I don't understand it very well either.
>
>But let me tell you that the web server must always send (a proper, that
>is, at least with valid header) output to the browser. That's how, simply
>put, they work. The browser requests, the web server responds.
>
>And that's why you get the 'friendly' 500 error message, you break the
>rule, you don't respond nicely to the browser. And you see, even when
>you make a mistake by running away from your duty, the web server still
>try the last chance to communicate with the browser.
>
>So there's no such silent ending (if I understand what you mean clearly by
>that). You still have to say something to bring the communication back in
>fluent. Redirecting to another location, as your current ending, is one
>way. Is there a better way? Yes, of course :-) But the question is,
>what do you really want?
>
>Ok, Nigel just gave you a nice example. But if you really want no output
>at all, just sent the status code 204 along with the header as someone else
>previously posted.
>
>
