Problems With the GET Method
- Though the GET method was very useful, a couple of serious problem remained.
- First, the GET method only allowed a limited amount of data (1024 characters) to be sent as URL encoded data. 1
- If there were too many name/value pairs, some of them would be clipped and data would get lost.
- Further, since the information was sent as part of the URL, the user could see all of that data. On the one hand, that made URL's look really ugly and scary. On the other hand, it meant that the user got to see all of the inner workings of your CGI input.
- This all changed with the development of HTTP/1.0.
Notes:
- This wasn't implicit in the specs but in the limitations of OS restrictions, e.g. limited length of environment vars. Depending on the OS you might be able to send more or less than 1K.
The
GET Method
Table of Contents
HTTP/1.0
