This is a generic question about GET method.
Imagine I need to store the last pagination size selected by the user:
+-------------+ +-------------+ +--------------------+ +----------+
| Size change |-> | GET request | -> | Server store pref. | -> | Response |
+-------------+ +-------------+ +--------------------+ +----------+
Browsing a list of products is of course a GET request and changing the paging size is a GET request too (we change only the size parameter):
<ul>
<li><a href="/catalog/browse/size=10&page=1">size 10</a></li>
<li><a href="/catalog/browse/size=25&page=1">size 25</a></li>
<li><a href="/catalog/browse/size=50&page=1">size 50</a></li>
</ul>
Every time the user changes the size I need to store the new size in my backend.
How to deal the the fact the GET should not change the state? Issuing a query (thus changing the state of the application) fees so wrong to me. Is there any alternative?
GET Requests a representation of the specified resource. Requests using GET should only retrieve data and should have no other effect.