HTTP 303

The HTTP response status code 303 See Other is the correct way to redirect web applications to a new URI, particularly after an HTTP POST has been performed.

This response indicates that the correct response can be found under a different URI and should be retrieved using a GET method. The specified URI is not a substitute reference for the original resource.

This status code should be used with the location header, as described below.

303 See Other has been proposed as one way of responding to a request for a URI that identifies a real-world object according to Semantic Web theory (the other being the use of hash URIs). For example, if http://www.example.com/id/alice identifies a person, Alice, then it would be inappropriate for a server to respond to a GET request with 200 OK, as the server could not deliver Alice herself. Instead the server would issue a 303 See Other response which redirected to a separate URI providing a description of the person Alice.

303 See Other can be used for other purposes. For example, when building a RESTful web service that needs to return to the caller immediately but continue executing asynchronously (such as a long-lived image conversion), the web service can provide a status check URI that allows the original client who requested the conversion to check on the conversion's status. This status check web service should return 303 See Other to the caller when the task is complete, along with a URI from which to retrieve the result in the Location HTTP header field.

Example

Client request:

GET / HTTP/1.1
Host: www.example.com

Server response:

HTTP/1.1 303 See Other
Location: http://example.org/other

See also

• RFC 2616 (HTTP 1.1)
• RFC 1945 (HTTP 1.0)
• Hypertext Transfer Protocol
• List of HTTP status codes
• Post/Redirect/Get