POST and GET

rubyonrails-talk
1

HEY Guys,

Im new to rails. Can someone help explain POST and GET inrails, and maybe give an example? When is it used? Im learning rails via Agile web Development with Rails, and soon to download peepcode video's, are these good resources to learn from?

Regards

2

C=create=post=insert

R=read=get=select

U=update=put=update

D=delete=delete=delete

POST & GET are part of the http standard. Check out the fielding dissertation they’re two of I think 9 methods

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol

http://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/top.htm

When you submit a form without an opaque query string you are POSTing. When you grab the variables from a query string you are getting your GET on.

I just got the Agile WDwR beta copy. Interesting stuff. I would check out different API’s like Twitter, Gowalla, etc and see how they expose their data/we seb service.

RESTful in peace,

angel

3

GET - typically used when you access a page via a link (ie you cut and paste into the web browser) - all the values (ie form arguments) get passed in the url itself ( delimited by the ampersand character) - example: when the following link is copied and pasted to the web browser, a GET request is generated and the values for distance,N,Make , state and so forth are passed in the url itself. http://www.carsales.com.au/used-cars/MITSUBISHI/LANCER/private-results.aspx?distance=25&N=4294964597+0+4294966896+4294803479&Make=MITSUBISHI&state_id=0&Model=LANCER&State=All%20States

POST - can only be generated by a form's submit action/button - all the values (ie form arguments) get passed in the "params" hence in rails, you access the values via "params" - example: in search forms or registration forms, clicking the submit button generates a POST request to the web server

Gordon Yeong

4

To add, in relation to a GET request, there is a limit of number of characters that a url can be made of.

Cheers

Gordon Yeong :slight_smile:

5

Also, a GET is just a read, while a POST is used to create. Like the Wikipedia article linked before says:

6

Adam Stegman wrote:

Also, a GET is just a read, while a POST is used to create. Like the Wikipedia article linked before says:

Note that GET should not be used for operations that cause side-effects, such as using it for taking actions in web applications.

Thanks guys this really helped out alot, Thank You :slight_smile: