Dynamically create <input>
s in a form and submit it
/**
* sends a request to the specified url from a form. this will change the window location.
* @param {string} path the path to send the post request to
* @param {object} params the parameters to add to the url
* @param {string} [method=post] the method to use on the form
*/
function post(path, params, method='post') {
// The rest of this code assumes you are not using a library.
// It can be made less verbose if you use one.
const form = document.createElement('form');
form.method = method;
form.action = path;
for (const key in params) {
if (params.hasOwnProperty(key)) {
const hiddenField = document.createElement('input');
hiddenField.type = 'hidden';
hiddenField.name = key;
hiddenField.value = params[key];
form.appendChild(hiddenField);
}
}
document.body.appendChild(form);
form.submit();
}
Example:
post('/contact/', {name: 'Johnny Bravo'});
EDIT: Since this has gotten upvoted so much, I'm guessing people will be copy-pasting this a lot. So I added the hasOwnProperty
check to fix any inadvertent bugs.
URIs identify and URLs locate; however, locators are also identifiers, so every URL is also a URI, but there are URIs which are not URLs.
Examples
This is my name, which is an identifier.
It is like a URI, but cannot be a URL, as it tells you nothing about my location or how to contact me.
In this case it also happens to identify at least 5 other people in the USA alone.
- 4914 West Bay Street, Nassau, Bahamas
This is a locator, which is an identifier for that physical location.
It is like both a URL and URI (since all URLs are URIs), and also identifies me indirectly as "resident of..".
In this case it uniquely identifies me, but that would change if I get a roommate.
I say "like" because these examples do not follow the required syntax.
Popular confusion
From Wikipedia:
In computing, a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is a subset of the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) that specifies where an identified resource is available and the mechanism for retrieving it. In popular usage and in many technical documents and verbal discussions it is often incorrectly used as a synonym for URI, ... [emphasis mine]
Because of this common confusion, many products and documentation incorrectly use one term instead of the other, assign their own distinction, or use them synonymously.
URNs
My name, Roger Pate, could be like a URN (Uniform Resource Name), except those are much more regulated and intended to be unique across both space and time.
Because I currently share this name with other people, it's not globally unique and would not be appropriate as a URN. However, even if no other family used this name, I'm named after my paternal grandfather, so it still wouldn't be unique across time. And even if that wasn't the case, the possibility of naming my descendants after me make this unsuitable as a URN.
URNs are different from URLs in this rigid uniqueness constraint, even though they both share the syntax of URIs.
Best Answer
HTTP PUT:
PUT puts a file or resource at a specific URI, and exactly at that URI. If there's already a file or resource at that URI, PUT replaces that file or resource. If there is no file or resource there, PUT creates one. PUT is idempotent, but paradoxically PUT responses are not cacheable.
HTTP 1.1 RFC location for PUT
HTTP POST:
POST sends data to a specific URI and expects the resource at that URI to handle the request. The web server at this point can determine what to do with the data in the context of the specified resource. The POST method is not idempotent, however POST responses are cacheable so long as the server sets the appropriate Cache-Control and Expires headers.
The official HTTP RFC specifies POST to be:
HTTP 1.1 RFC location for POST
Difference between POST and PUT:
The RFC itself explains the core difference:
Additionally, and a bit more concisely, RFC 7231 Section 4.3.4 PUT states (emphasis added),
Using the right method, unrelated aside:
One benefit of REST ROA vs SOAP is that when using HTTP REST ROA, it encourages the proper usage of the HTTP verbs/methods. So for example you would only use PUT when you want to create a resource at that exact location. And you would never use GET to create or modify a resource.