CODEWITHSUNDEEP
restget
shrawan_lakhe
shrawan_lakhe

Reputation: 356

Is it good idea to send request.body json values with GET HTTP request?

I am working with this third party service provider where i have to fetch / filter some data from them. The search filter parameters are complex in nature and contains too many filter params. I have tried to use querystring values and with querystring, i find it more difficult to send data since the data i have to send may contain an array of objects.

With JSON request body even with HTTP GET request, I find it extremely easy to process the request and did the testing using Insomnia REST client with ease. However POSTman REST client doesn't allow to send body parameters with GET request.

I have seen others using POST request to fetch / filter data from the api for the same purpose. POST HTTP request can be used to fetch data, but is it good from the technical standpoint? Is it recommended practice to send JSON request body values with GET request?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 2393

Answers (1)

Simon Berthiaume
Simon Berthiaume

Reputation: 643

Not sure how much control you might have on the protocol or you have any middleware, but an HTTP GET usually doesn't have a body, I've even seen smart firewalls and hosting services strip any body by default. If you want to stay "close" to clean REST, you might consider adding a "/query" to your resource path and do a POST to that endpoint; it's a bit "RPC-ish" but not too bad. Another option would be to have a completely independent query service that could be using another protocol such as JSON-RPC.

Upvotes: 2

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