Simple post examples

[Devin Asay]

On Feb 1, 2010, at 7:23 PM, Jim Ault wrote:

> On Feb 1, 2010, at 5:47 PM, Devin Asay wrote:
>
>> Hello all,
>>
>> I'm planning to teach my students how to post data to web servers
>> and get back results in their stacks. I've got a couple of examples,
>> but I wonder if anyone could point me to some examples that would be
>> simple enough for beginners. I'm thinking of things like doing a
>> Google search from a stack, looking up a weather report, getting
>> local movie information, etc.
>
> I don't have any examples handy since I post to my own data processing
> servers from Rev, but here is an idea.
>
> Most web forms use the POST method and you can find out by looking at
> the source where it will specify either GET or POST.
>
> The GET method, of course means the name=value pairs are added to the
> url.
>        "http://www.google.com?q=desert+oasis&language=EN"
>
> The POST method sends the name=value pairs in a data packet that is
> invisible.
> The form uses the names of the input fields/buttons/ckboxes and their
> values to prepare the data packet.
>
> So, find forms that use 'POST', note the field names, and make your
> own Rev post (name=value&name=value)
> If a web page form is programmed for GET, then it likely will ignore
> incoming POST commands.



Thanks, Jim. Great advice, and perhaps a logical instructional  
progression starting with showing how GET urls work then moving to  
POSTing to a URL.

Devin

Devin Asay
Humanities Technology and Research Support Center
Brigham Young University