Article:		Show Me the Code
Subject:		Why PUT vs. POST?
Date:		2005-03-04 07:30:41
From:		velebak
When updating bookmarks, you specify using PUT for a single but POST for a collection. What benefit does PUT bring, and wouldn't a POST work just as well? Thanks, Keith Veleba

Previous Message

Next Message

• Why PUT vs. POST?
  2005-03-04 22:23:28 Mike Dierken [Reply]
  
  A PUT request is idempotent - it can be repeated and the client can be sure of the results. A POST has no such guarantee - it could append some text, and doing that twice results in something different than doing it once.

  
  The benefit of repeatable requests is that if the network goes down, or a reply doesn't reach the client, your software can simply send the request again - the system as a whole becomes tolerant of failures.

  
  In the example, the collection could be replace with a PUT, but that's a design choice of the developer.