A POST request is more complex than GET: it has a header and a body. You cannot send a POST request through the URL bar of your browser, you need a specific tool for that.
A POST request is preferable if you need to send many parameters to a business process. POST request method allows you to send an unlimited number of such parameters, while the GET request method is limited by the length of the URL. The maximum URL length is about two thousand symbols (depending on the web server and web client used). Usually, it is sufficient, but if you need to send a text to a variable, it won't be enough.
Also, HTTP POST requests are not limited by the type of the parameters that they send. When ELMA is integrated with simple web applications, POST requests are useful for sending large volumes of data or files.
The simplest way to send a POST request is to use an HTML form with a preset POST request method.
The form above will start a business process with the 995ea844-74a8-413b-96be-bc92462eff85 token, on the ELMA server located at http://elma.someorg.com. The business process will have several specific initial parameters. Before execution, the following four variables will be added to its context: Name, Surname, Age, Partner.
Only a process with a correct token and the From external and Web Request (POST) options enabled in the Process Start Versions section can be started with a POST request (Fig. 2).
Fig. 1. Publication settings that enable POST requests.
