Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by rektide 1113 days ago
We'd have to change the behavior of browsers & server implementations to do this. Itvs much less risky, much more managable change, to do this with a new more deliberate difference. It'll make it clear that the new behavior is intended.
1 comments
paulddraper 1113 days ago
> We'd have to change the behavior

But you wouldn't for QUERY?

This is backwards compatible and in many cases will just work since GET with body is already syntactically valid.

link
treve 1113 days ago
> But you wouldn't for QUERY?

No, any good HTTP client or server allows unknown/new HTTP methods. If they are not recognized, they are treated as POST. This is a requirement of the HTTP spec.

I've already used QUERY in a few places, and it basically universally just works. Adding a request body to GET would practically be much harder to deploy and depend on.

A few years ago PATCH was added, and back then there was a bit more friction with some HTTP implementations only allowing a fixed set of methods, but this is mostly not true anymore.

link
chromoblob 1110 days ago
> If they are not recognized, they are treated as POST. This is a requirement of the HTTP spec.

That's not true.

"An origin server SHOULD return the status code ... 501 (Not Implemented) if the method is unrecognized or not implemented by the origin server." https://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec5.html#sec5....

link
treve 1109 days ago
When you use a framework, and add a route that uses QUERY you 'implement' it. My point is that when you do, it will all just work.
link
janderland 1113 days ago
I think they mean we’d have to modify existing features. There are probably assumptions made in code and tests around how GET will be used. Instead of breaking those assumptions and potentially implementing new bugs in an old feature, you can use a completely new HTTP method with completely new code paths. Older feature remains unchanged.
link
rektide 1113 days ago
QUERY is an explicit negotiating forwards. It would need support, but nothing with existing systems would change. No web page which accidentally tried to send a http bodied GET would start having new behavior.
link
preseinger 1113 days ago
middleboxes are free to drop the body of a GET request, and many do
link