# HTTP requests and RFC standard **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [January 23, 2013, 2:49pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/http-requests-and-rfc-standard/10474 "2013-01-23T14:49:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Andrej](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@Andrej](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Andrej)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 2:49pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/http-requests-and-rfc-standard/10474/1 "2013-01-23T14:49:00Z")
Hi, I was playing around with http request to elasticsearch and tried to rebuild some functionality I usually use the Java API for. One thing I noticed was that a few examples seem to be not completely conform with the RFC HTTP 1.1 standard (the way I understand it). For instance get and delete requests by definition only look at the passed url, not at a passed entity containing any data. But e.g delete by query or count use that to transport the query (search is a post request, why not count?). I know that some implementations (java.net.HttpURLConnection) dont take it too serious and you still can manage to transport data (some people on the internet consider this a bug rather than a feature ;-)), but more strict implementations like Apaches HttpComponents wont do that, so I can not rebuild these examples in the guide using Apache HttpClient. I am a bit puzzled here, I admit. Am I understanding something wrong, should I just simply use post requests instead of get (should work) and delete (will that work?). Or am I simply the only one who ever came across this problem? Thanks in advance, once again! Andrej -- ---
**Author:** ![egaumer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/egaumer/32/2365_2.png) [@egaumer](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/egaumer)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 4:29pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/http-requests-and-rfc-standard/10474/2 "2013-01-23T16:29:34Z")
The RFC does not explicitly forbid sending a body for GET/DELETE. In fact, it says the server MUST parse any content sent in the body of these methods. It does however state that it should carry no semantic meaning. With that said, any client that disallows sending a body for these methods is technically broken. To address your question however, you should be able to pass the JSON body along in the URL via the "source" parameter (e.g., source={...}). Just be sure to properly escape things. For \_search you can simply use a POST (I'm pretty sure this works). Using a POST instead of DELETE will not work. On Wednesday, January 23, 2013 9:49:00 AM UTC-5, Andrej Rosenheinrich wrote: > Hi, > > I was playing around with http request to elasticsearch and tried to > rebuild some functionality I usually use the Java API for. One thing I > noticed was that a few examples seem to be not completely conform with the > RFC HTTP 1.1 standard (the way I understand it). For instance get and > delete requests by definition only look at the passed url, not at a passed > entity containing any data. But e.g delete by query or count use that to > transport the query (search is a post request, why not count?). > I know that some implementations (java.net.HttpURLConnection) dont take it > too serious and you still can manage to transport data (some people on the > internet consider this a bug rather than a feature ;-)), but more strict > implementations like Apaches HttpComponents wont do that, so I can not > rebuild these examples in the guide using Apache HttpClient. > I am a bit puzzled here, I admit. Am I understanding something wrong, > should I just simply use post requests instead of get (should work) and > delete (will that work?). Or am I simply the only one who ever came across > this problem? > > Thanks in advance, once again! > Andrej -- ---
**Author:** ![Andrej](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@Andrej](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Andrej)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 4:40pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/http-requests-and-rfc-standard/10474/3 "2013-01-23T16:40:35Z")
Right, it does not forbid it, RFC states "The DELETE method requests that the origin server delete the resource identified by the Request-URI." So actually the passed query should not be considered. Using post instead of get saves count, but delete by query is still tricky. Am Mittwoch, 23. Januar 2013 17:29:34 UTC+1 schrieb egaumer: > The RFC does not explicitly forbid sending a body for GET/DELETE. In fact, > it says the server MUST parse any content sent in the body of these > methods. It does however state that it should carry no semantic meaning. > With that said, any client that disallows sending a body for these methods > is technically broken. > > To address your question however, you should be able to pass the JSON body > along in the URL via the "source" parameter (e.g., source={...}). Just be > sure to properly escape things. For \_search you can simply use a POST (I'm > pretty sure this works). Using a POST instead of DELETE will not work. > > On Wednesday, January 23, 2013 9:49:00 AM UTC-5, Andrej Rosenheinrich > wrote: > > > Hi, > > > > I was playing around with http request to elasticsearch and tried to > > rebuild some functionality I usually use the Java API for. One thing I > > noticed was that a few examples seem to be not completely conform with the > > RFC HTTP 1.1 standard (the way I understand it). For instance get and > > delete requests by definition only look at the passed url, not at a passed > > entity containing any data. But e.g delete by query or count use that to > > transport the query (search is a post request, why not count?). > > I know that some implementations (java.net.HttpURLConnection) dont take > > it too serious and you still can manage to transport data (some people on > > the internet consider this a bug rather than a feature ;-)), but more > > strict implementations like Apaches HttpComponents wont do that, so I can > > not rebuild these examples in the guide using Apache HttpClient. > > I am a bit puzzled here, I admit. Am I understanding something wrong, > > should I just simply use post requests instead of get (should work) and > > delete (will that work?). Or am I simply the only one who ever came across > > this problem? > > > > Thanks in advance, once again! > > Andrej -- ---
**Author:** ![egaumer](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/egaumer/32/2365_2.png) [@egaumer](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/egaumer)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 4:54pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/http-requests-and-rfc-standard/10474/4 "2013-01-23T16:54:09Z")
You could always do a query and get back all the ids for deletion. Then delete them one by one. Not a very practical approach but it conforms to the spec better. Have you tried passing the JSON payload in the URL of a DELETE request? This might be a feasible workaround especially if your client doesn't support sending payloads for this particular method. On Wednesday, January 23, 2013 11:40:35 AM UTC-5, Andrej Rosenheinrich wrote: > Right, it does not forbid it, RFC states "The DELETE method requests that > the origin server delete the resource identified by the Request-URI." So > actually the passed query should not be considered. Using post instead of > get saves count, but delete by query is still tricky. > > Am Mittwoch, 23. Januar 2013 17:29:34 UTC+1 schrieb egaumer: > > > The RFC does not explicitly forbid sending a body for GET/DELETE. In > > fact, it says the server MUST parse any content sent in the body of these > > methods. It does however state that it should carry no semantic meaning. > > With that said, any client that disallows sending a body for these methods > > is technically broken. > > > > To address your question however, you should be able to pass the JSON > > body along in the URL via the "source" parameter (e.g., source={...}). Just > > be sure to properly escape things. For \_search you can simply use a POST > > (I'm pretty sure this works). Using a POST instead of DELETE will not work. > > > > On Wednesday, January 23, 2013 9:49:00 AM UTC-5, Andrej Rosenheinrich > > wrote: > > > > > Hi, > > > > > > I was playing around with http request to elasticsearch and tried to > > > rebuild some functionality I usually use the Java API for. One thing I > > > noticed was that a few examples seem to be not completely conform with the > > > RFC HTTP 1.1 standard (the way I understand it). For instance get and > > > delete requests by definition only look at the passed url, not at a passed > > > entity containing any data. But e.g delete by query or count use that to > > > transport the query (search is a post request, why not count?). > > > I know that some implementations (java.net.HttpURLConnection) dont take > > > it too serious and you still can manage to transport data (some people on > > > the internet consider this a bug rather than a feature ;-)), but more > > > strict implementations like Apaches HttpComponents wont do that, so I can > > > not rebuild these examples in the guide using Apache HttpClient. > > > I am a bit puzzled here, I admit. Am I understanding something wrong, > > > should I just simply use post requests instead of get (should work) and > > > delete (will that work?). Or am I simply the only one who ever came across > > > this problem? > > > > > > Thanks in advance, once again! > > > Andrej -- ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 2:54am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/http-requests-and-rfc-standard/10474/5 "2017-07-06T02:54:57Z")