> "There are two noncontroversial uses for overloaded POST. The first is to *simulate* HTTP's uniform interface for clients like web browsers that don't support PUT or DELETE"
>
> — [RESTful Web Services](1), Leonard Richardson & Sam Ruby.
> — [RESTful Web Services][cite], Leonard Richardson & Sam Ruby.
## Browser based PUT, DELETE, etc...
**TODO: Preamble.** Note that this is the same strategy as is used in [Ruby on Rails](2).
REST framework supports browser-based `PUT`, `DELETE` and other methods, by
overloading `POST` requests using a hidden form field.
Note that this is the same strategy as is used in [Ruby on Rails][rails].
`request.content_type` would return `"application/json"`, and `request.stream` would return `"{'count': 1}"`
`request.content_type` would return `"application/json"`, and
`request.stream` would return `"{'count': 1}"`
## URL based accept headers
REST framework can take `?accept=application/json` style URL parameters,
which allow the `Accept` header to be overridden.
This can be useful for testing the API from a web browser, where you don't
have any control over what is sent in the `Accept` header.
## URL based format suffixes
REST framework can take `?format=json` style URL parameters, which can be a
useful shortcut for determing which content type should be returned from
the view.
This is a more concise than using the `accept` override, but it also gives
you less control. (For example you can't specify any media type parameters)
## Doesn't HTML5 support PUT and DELETE forms?
Nope. It was at one point intended to support `PUT` and `DELETE` forms, but was later [dropped from the spec](3). There remains [ongoing discussion](4) about adding support for `PUT` and `DELETE`, as well as how to support content types other than form-encoded data.
Nope. It was at one point intended to support `PUT` and `DELETE` forms, but
was later [dropped from the spec][html5]. There remains
[ongoing discussion][put_delete] about adding support for `PUT` and `DELETE`,
as well as how to support content types other than form-encoded data.