HTTP status code for a partial successful request

Question

I have an application that sends messages to users. In a post request a XML string is transferred that consists of all the users that should receive that particular message.

Answer 1

I've had the same problem, and I've ended up using two different solutions:

• HTTP return code 202: Accepted, indicating that the request was ok, but there's no guarantee everything actually went as it should.
• Return a normal 200 in the response, but include a list of what didn't pan out in the response body.

The second one usually works best, but the first one is great if you're lazy or use a queue for processing.