Re: request for new forms submission consensus

Tony Sanders (sanders@bsdi.com)
Mon, 11 Oct 1993 10:53:43 -0500

> All things being equal, I think I'd be happy with the current encoding
> method (name=value&name=value with escaping) just slapped into the
> body of an HTTP/1.0 'SUBMIT' request -- keeps things simple and
> straightforward, avoids creating a new syntax, is known to properly
> handle escaping issues, and servers and code already exist for
> decoding/handling it.
As you know I'm for just using the POST method. See example below of how
I think this should work.

As you can see I've used a "www" class content-type. I think that it's
important to allocate a www class for our internal protocol messages.
A content-type of text/plain might have a different affect
(like just sending the owner of the posted to document email, or
maybe making an annotation).

If the form required authentication to submit then the user could edit
the returned URL before the form was processed.

> To be honest, the idea of encoding it in some kind of SGML format does
> not excite me in the least -- what would be the added value?
Agreed.

Example form:
<FORM ACTION="http://www.bsdi.com/hyplan/sanders.html">
<INPUT NAME="name">
</FORM>

Client:
POST /hyplan/sanders.html HTTP/1.0
Content-Length: 13
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-type: www/form

name=testing

Server:
HTTP/1.0 201 URI follows
Last-modified: Sunday, 03-Oct-93 19:32:54 GMT
Date: Sunday, 03-Oct-93 19:37:52 GMT
Server: plexus/3.0i
Location: http://www.bsdi.com/forms/form000023.form
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-type: text/html

<TITLE>Posted</TITLE>
<A HREF="http://www.bsdi.com/forms/form000023.form">Retrieve
to lock and edit</A>