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What's IDEMPOTENT

 
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Started reading HF JSP & Serlets. Stumpled over the word - IDEMPOTENT. I'm not sure I know the exact definition of this could someone help ?

Regards, Henrik (DK)
 
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An "idempotent" operation is one that can be repeated without side-effects. For example, an HTTP GET is supposed to be idempotent. You can fetch a web page as many times as you like without anything bad happening. HTTP POST, though, is not idempotent. POST is often used to submit forms. POSTing a form may, for example, place an order at Amazon.com. Repeating the POST may cause duplicate orders, so that is not an idempotent operation.

Make sense?
 
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Yeah, what Ernest said

Just don't forget that while a developer *can* make a non-idempotent GET, by creating code in the doGet() that, say, uses request parameters to update the server, the HTTP spec considers the HTTP GET method to be idempotent, no matter what. So as far as the exam is concerned, GET is idempotent (and POST is not), regardless of how you actually write your server-side code. So the spec is based on what you *should* do with these HTTP methods, not what you *actually* do.

cheers,
Kathy
 
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