我应该为 HTTP PUT 使用什么编码？

Question

I am writing a webserver. I implemented GET and POST (application/x-www-form-urlencoded, multipart/form-data) and that works fine.

I am thinking of adding a RESTful module to the server. So had a look at some stuff that's out there and got opinions about when to PUT, POST, and GET.

My question is: what encoding (application/x-www-form-urlencoded, multipart/form-data) does PUT support (per the HTTP specifications), or can it handle both?

I am trying to make the webserver as standard specific as I can without shooting myself in the foot.

Answer 1

HTTP PUT can have whatever content-type the user wishes (the same as for all other HTTP methods).

Answer 2

The limitation to application/x-www-form-urlencoded and multipart/form-data is not in the HTTP standard but in HTML. It's the only formats that can be created by an HTML form. From HTTP point of view, you can use any format, as long as you specify it to the server ( Content-Type header) and obviously that the server can understand it. If not, it reply with a 415 Unsupported Media Type status code. See:

• http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-html401-19991224/interact/forms.html#h-17.13.4
• http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html#sec10.4.16
• http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec7.html#sec7