On Thu, 17 Nov 2005 00:21:29 +0000 Richie Hindle wrote: > > > [Luke] > > I know some people want to use links (i.e. HTTP GET requests) which > > have side effects, which is Bad. > > [Jacob] > > if an app modifies > > data based on a GET, then the app should be considered broken. > > "Logout" is often a link, like it or not. (Amazon, Gmail, Yahoo...)
If you have to make it appear as a link, I would try these alternatives first: 1) have a <a> link which actually does a javascript submit of a POST form, and a <noscript> block which has an <input type=submit> which does the same thing (most people will never browse the site with javascript off so it doesn't matter that it doesn't look as good) 2) have an <input type=image> that looks like a link but as it is really an input button it can do a POST form submit. But I know that developers are not always given the freedom to do the right thing. At work I was forced to implement a non-idempotent GET request recently, despite my protests. At the time I didn't have the example of Google Web Accelerator to make my point more forcefully, or I might have won the argument. So now, if anyone browses the site we developed with GWA installed, they will mysteriously find themselves subscribed to every page they visit... Luke -- "My capacity for happiness you could fit into a matchbox without taking out the matches first." (Marvin the paranoid android) Luke Plant || L.Plant.98 (at) cantab.net || http://lukeplant.me.uk/
