Restful Rails DELETE Javascript Question...

rubyonrails-talk
1

Hi,

Reading over the Restful Rails Development PDF and I had a couple of questions.

On pg 13 it says that because DELETE isn't supported by browsers, the DELETE is faked using client-side Javascript. This implies to me that resource deletion on clients not using Javascript is unsupported. Is this correct?

If so, is the expectation that the rise of REST will spur browsers to support the other methods?

Thanks,   Brad

2

It can be faked using a POST (Because DELETE should be protected from bots & co). You can do that with a button_to helper, which generates an all-inclusive POST form including the DELETE method. No JavaScript here.

3

Be aware that using a button_to [which creates a form] within another form could lead to unexpected results.

RSL

4

take a look on restolog: Google Code Archive - Long-term storage for Google Code Project Hosting. i have delete with or without JS enabled

5

take a look on restolog:Google Code Archive - Long-term storage for Google Code Project Hosting. i have delete with or without JS enabled

Excellent. Thanks stoyan and Russell....

Brad

6

I've had a look and either I don't understand what I see or I don't like it. The point of using DELETE or some HTTP method other than GET at any rate for deleting things is that it keeps search engines from following -- "clicking" them. The effect would be, and your routes.rb suggests this, too, that if you let a search engine loose on your app it will gnaw your database clean in no time.

Michael

7

I think that is the hope, that browsers will support the spec. It surprises me that they don’t since the http 1.1 spec is from June 1999 (hasn’t that been enough time to implement it?) and it would seem that is a simple verb (string) change to support it.

8

There was pretty good discussion on the problem: http://www.thelucid.com/articles/2006/07/26/simply-restful-the-missing-action

"...The delete action is a confirmation of deletion. I don't think anyone here is advocating deleting records via GET..."

9

Yes, I see, for /somethings/1;delete requests you're sending the user on a detour over a confirmation view. I didn't notice that before.

Michael