Location: when status = 200

Chris Adie (C.J.Adie@edinburgh.ac.uk)
Wed, 31 Aug 1994 11:37:51 +0000


What semantics, if any, are associated with the Location: header if
the status code returned by the server is 200 (OK)?

This question is prompted by the following problem I have with my
Windows NT HTTP server.

When an ISMAP image is clicked on, the server recieves a URL like
"/UK.MAP?126,43". If this maps to a remote file (ie the UK.MAP file
contains some URL starting http://...), the server issues a 302
status and a Location: header with the mapped-to URL. The client
goes off and fetches it, no problem.

If the point 126,43 maps to a local file, the server delivers the
file directly, without doing a redirect. The problem with this is
that the client records the URL as "/UK.MAP?126,43" which causes
problems if the document is not located in the same directory as
UK.MAP and contains relative URLs. It also causes problems if the
document contains an <ISINDEX>.

Clearly, the workaround is to use full URLs in the map file, but this
results in an unnecessary extra connection.

It would be good if the server could use the Location: header to
indicate the actual URL of the document being served. Do any clients
support this? If so, I'll implement it in the server.

Regards,

Chris Adie Phone: +44 31 650 3363
Edinburgh University Computing Service Fax: +44 31 650 6547
University Library, George Square Email: C.J.Adie@ed.ac.uk
Edinburgh EH8 9LJ, United Kingdom