On Fri, Feb 11, 2000 at 04:34:25PM -0800, Michelle Dick wrote:
> Ronald wrote:
> > Any six-year old kid of average intelligence can figure out (or be taught)
> > how to relay to an e-mail message.
>
> Whether or not it is "easy" enough to reply by email to a confirmation
> request is now a moot question.
>
> This is because the same folks who have trouble composing and sending
> a proper email confirmation reply generally now have html-enabled
> mail readers. All that need to be done to request a confirm is to include
> something like:
>
> <a href="put confirm cgi-url here">Click here to activiate subscription</a>
>
> in the list's email response to the subscription request. The confirm
> cgi url should contain all the info needed to process the confirmation
> (cookies, etc) so the prospective list member need make one click to
> confirm, no filling out forms, no nothing other than one click.
Yup, definitely a good idea.
If you do this, please make sure the final step is done with an
HTTP POST, not a GET as I've seen various sites do lately.
GETting a URL shouldn't have side effects, so if you implement it
as described above, the page returned by the first URL should
display a form with a button that can be POSTed to perform the
actual act of joining or leaving the list.
An alternative is to include a small form in the email message so
the user can POST it directly with a single click.
For more info on this distinction between GET vs POST, see:
Forms: GET and POST
http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/Input
or the even geekier
Axioms of Web architecture: Identity, State and GET
http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Axioms#state
--
Gerald Oskoboiny <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
http://impressive.net/people/gerald/
