Default Referencing Behavior: Rules of Thumb
Methods on Redirect References
- 302 response, Location header gives URI of target
- Client either resubmits to target or resubmits to reference with No-Passthrough
Methods on Direct References
- Automatically passed through to target
Notes:
Generally, we’d like the default behavior to be what makes most sense for a down-level client, because a down-level client can’t get any other behavior than this. (Sometimes other considerations forced us to compromise this aim.)
There is always a way for a reference-aware client to get the non-default behavior. (In most cases, by using the No-Passthrough header, which causes the method to be applied to the reference.)