The
HTTP
The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application layer protocol in the Internet protocol suite model for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide We ...
response
status code 302 Found is a common way of performing
URL redirection
URL redirection, also called URL forwarding, is a World Wide Web technique for making a web page available under more than one URL address. When a web browser attempts to open a URL that has been redirected, a page with a different URL is opened ...
. The HTTP/1.0 specification (RFC 1945) initially defined this code, and gave it the description phrase "Moved Temporarily" rather than "Found".
An HTTP response with this status code will additionally provide a
URL in the header field
Location
In geography, location or place are used to denote a region (point, line, or area) on Earth's surface or elsewhere. The term ''location'' generally implies a higher degree of certainty than ''place'', the latter often indicating an entity with an ...
. This is an invitation to the
user agent
In computing, a user agent is any software, acting on behalf of a user, which "retrieves, renders and facilitates end-user interaction with Web content". A user agent is therefore a special kind of software agent.
Some prominent examples of us ...
(e.g. a web browser) to make a second, otherwise identical, request to the new URL specified in the location field. The end result is a redirection to the new URL.
Many web browsers implemented this code in a manner that violated this standard, changing the request type of the new request to
GET
Get or GET may refer to:
* Get (animal), the offspring of an animal
* Get (divorce document), in Jewish religious law
* GET (HTTP), a type of HTTP request
* "Get" (song), by the Groggers
* Georgia Time, used in the Republic of Georgia
* Get AS, a ...
, regardless of the type employed in the original request (e.g.
POST). For this reason, HTTP/1.1 (RFC 2616) added the new status codes
303
__NOTOC__
Year 303 ( CCCIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. It was known in the Roman Empire as the Year of the Consulship of Diocletian and Maximian (or, less frequently, ye ...
and
307
__NOTOC__
Year 307 ( CCCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Severus and Maximinus (or, less frequently, year 1060 ...
to disambiguate between the two behaviours, with 303 mandating the change of request type to GET, and 307 preserving the request type as originally sent. Despite the greater clarity provided by this disambiguation, the 302 code is still employed in web frameworks to preserve compatibility with browsers that do not implement the HTTP/1.1 specification.
As a consequence, RFC 7231 (the update of RFC 2616) changes the definition to allow user agents to rewrite POST to GET.
Example
Client request:
GET /index.html HTTP/1.1
Host: www.example.com
Server response:
HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Location: http://www.iana.org/domains/example/
See also
*
List of HTTP status codes
*
HTTP 301
The HTTP response status code 301 Moved Permanently is used for permanent redirecting, meaning that links or records returning this response should be updated. The new URL should be provided in the Location field, included with the response. The 3 ...
References
{{Reflist
External links
* RFC 7230, RFC 7231, RFC 7232, RFC 7233, RFC 7234, RFC 7235 (HTTP 1.1)
* RFC 2616 (HTTP 1.1) (obsolete)
* RFC 1945 (HTTP 1.0)
Hypertext Transfer Protocol status codes