Difference between GET and POST form, and a URL

[d-net]

Hi, I have a page that contains a GET and a POST form. What are the differences between these two.

<FORM ACTION="index.php3" TYPE=POST>
<FORM ACTION="index.php3" TYPE=GET>

Also, I have noticed there's a hidden variable, called SUBMIT, when a POST form gets submitted. Am I right?

What will be the results when no 'TYPE' is defined? Like this one, <FORM ACTION="index.php3">

Thanks for answering my questions...

[BC]

A couple of things. Technically speaking it should be method not type when differentiating between GET and POST (just so your form actually works when submitting information! )

You are correct with regards to the hidden variable SUBMIT.

It is highly recommended that you put the 'METHOD="post/get' in. Otherwise the form won't know what to do with it and the form gets 'reset' (and all information is lost!)

The difference between POST and GET :

POST : sends the inputted information to the web server as a 'transaction message body'.

GET : sends the inputted information to the web server appended to the URL (like sitepoint.com/cgi-bin/formmail?name=bc&stuff=iloveyoursite&time=1230GMT etc.)

The GET method is deprecated in HTML 4.0, but don't worry about that

Hope that clears it up a bit.

[d-net]

So, if a form doesn't contain either POST or GET, will the server see it as a POST or GET?

Also, can I emulate a URL generated by a POST form?
If so, will this URL suffice?
http://www.domain.com/index.php3?x=1&SUBMIT

I have appended the SUBMIT to the URL above.

Thanks.

[BC]

If you don't include a POST or GET, the server will not be able to send the info and you lose all information you inputted in 5 minutes earlier. I just did a bit of reading and I can confirm you must have a POST or GET method specified in the <FORM> tag; otherwise nothing will happen at all (apart from losing the info).

With regards to appending the 'SUBMIT', you can try it but I'm rather doubtful it will work.

[diacono]

aditionally...
if you use GET then you can bookmark the page without any problems.
but with POST you woulnd be able to bookmark the rusult from a sear for example.

at least i think i'm right.

[BC]

That's correct.

[westmich]

Nowadays, it seems the GET method is used more for URL redirection. If page content is retrieved dynamically from a database, a single page can be used to display multiple records, i.e. mysite.com/index.cfm?pageID=newmembers

Whereas, the post method is used for form submission.