WEBVTT 0 00:00.580 --> 00:07.060 I want to drive this point home 🏠 because it really, really is important, and that is we need to understand 1 00:07.060 --> 00:10.920 the difference between a GET request and a POST request. 2 00:11.170 --> 00:12.590 So let's take a step back. 3 00:12.610 --> 00:15.790 We've seen it when a user submits a form with a GET request, 4 00:16.860 --> 00:20.130 the data is appended to the URL, like this. 5 00:23.180 --> 00:28.220 Pretty straightforward. I mean, this example could happen, for example, when we send our username 6 00:28.220 --> 00:35.330 and password to a server for authentication. And oftentimes you may see developers use a GET request 7 00:35.330 --> 00:36.650 in order to do this. 8 00:37.250 --> 00:40.400 The problem and flaw with this is pretty obvious, though. 9 00:40.730 --> 00:49.190 Our credentials become exposed instantly in the URL itself, including your password, which here is "secret1" 10 00:49.190 --> 00:50.030 by the way. 11 00:50.690 --> 00:54.710 And one way around this flaw is to use the POST request. 12 00:55.050 --> 01:02.210 But there's also one other very, very big limitation on a GET request, and that is, that query string 13 01:02.210 --> 01:02.990 in the URL... 14 01:03.170 --> 01:04.850 that size is limited. 15 01:05.660 --> 01:12.080 I can't exactly remember what the size is now on the top of my head, but just realize it's limited and... 16 01:12.080 --> 01:16.350 this means we can only send a certain amount of information with a GET request. 17 01:16.880 --> 01:19.730 Why limit ourselves when we don't have to? 18 01:21.260 --> 01:27.690 So that's another reason why we use a POST request, because with POST, you can send significantly 19 01:27.690 --> 01:31.820 larger chunks of data to the server compared to the traditional GET request. 20 01:32.230 --> 01:34.630 But these benefits are only the tip of the iceberg 🏔️. 21 01:34.650 --> 01:40.150 In fact, why don't I just on the next slide, discuss the main benefits of a POST request. 22 01:40.920 --> 01:41.950 Yeah, I like that idea 😊. 23 01:41.970 --> 01:45.410 So let's do that now. With a POST request... 24 01:45.420 --> 01:50.340 I like to think of 5 major advantages versus a GET. 25 01:50.580 --> 01:51.240 What are they? 26 01:51.780 --> 01:52.920 Pretty, pretty straightforward. 27 01:52.920 --> 01:59.490 Firstly, parameters are not saved in browser history, which is very useful, especially for sensitive 28 01:59.490 --> 01:59.940 data. 29 02:00.550 --> 02:01.320 Secondly, 30 02:02.430 --> 02:10.470 you can't bookmark a POST request. Thirdly, and we already discussed this one, there is no restriction on the form data length... 31 02:10.470 --> 02:12.010 that can be submitted to a server. 32 02:12.720 --> 02:19.560 Remember, with a GET request you're limited in size that can be inserted in the URL. And you can probably 33 02:19.560 --> 02:21.530 already guess what the fourth one is going to be. 34 02:21.550 --> 02:26.390 It's similar to one and two, but users can't cache the POST data. 35 02:26.850 --> 02:32.420 And the other major benefit is that the data is in the body of the request, not in the URL. 36 02:32.430 --> 02:37.950 And this just makes a lot of sense, even for nothing else than just semantically. It makes sense that it 37 02:37.950 --> 02:39.780 should be in the body of an HTTP request. 38 02:39.960 --> 02:42.000 These are pretty awesome advantages, 39 02:42.000 --> 02:42.260 right? 40 02:42.870 --> 02:45.300 But on the other hand, we have a GET request. 41 02:46.050 --> 02:49.140 Those parameters can be archived in browser history. 42 02:49.140 --> 02:50.120 They can be bookmarked. 43 02:50.130 --> 02:51.150 It's easier to hack. 44 02:51.480 --> 02:56.290 It has restrictions on the form data length, and it can be cached by a user. 45 02:56.790 --> 03:04.080 I bet you can already start to feel intuitively that a POST request is much better in most, if not 46 03:04.080 --> 03:04.950 all instances. 47 03:05.220 --> 03:13.650 But we did discuss something very briefly in the previous lecture, and that is what about other method... 48 03:13.650 --> 03:17.160 types, like PUT, DELETE, UPDATE etc etc. 49 03:17.580 --> 03:19.770 We've already seen that in a form element, 50 03:20.280 --> 03:24.810 we are restricted on only using a GET or POST method. 51 03:24.960 --> 03:30.150 Well, truthfully, we can also use that dialog, which we briefly mentioned, but GET and POST are the most... 52 03:30.150 --> 03:34.560 common. So we can get around this by using an AJAX call. 53 03:34.710 --> 03:36.620 We can use whatever methods we want. 54 03:36.930 --> 03:37.650 So there we go. 55 03:37.650 --> 03:43.800 That's just a very brief summary on some of the differences between GET and POST. Throughout this course... 56 03:43.800 --> 03:48.090 we're going to be discussing these things in more detail as we go on and in different examples. 57 03:48.550 --> 03:52.110 So don't worry if you're not fully understanding it yet, by the end of this course, you're going to 58 03:52.110 --> 03:54.800 be a true, true expert in this. 59 03:54.990 --> 03:56.430 I'm so excited to continue. 60 03:56.430 --> 03:57.780 I'll see you in the next lecture.