How can I deal with HTTP GET query string length limitations and still want to be RESTful?

Question

As stated in http://www.boutell.com/newfaq/misc/urllength.html, HTTP query string have limited length. It can be limited by the client (Firefox, IE, ...), the server (Apache

Answer 1

Regarding your example:http://compute.com?content={base64file}, I would use POST because you are uploading "something" to be computed. For me this "something" feels more like a resource as a simple parameter.

In contrast to this in usual search I would start to stick with GET and parameters. You make it so much easier for api-clients to test and play around with your api. Make the read-only access (which in most cases is the majority of traffic) as simple as possible!

But the dilemma of large query strings is a valid limitation of GET. Here I would go pragmatic, as long as you don't hit this limit go with GET and url-params. This will work in 98% of search-cases. Only act if you hit this limit and then also introduce POST with payload (with mime-type Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded).

Have you got more real-world examples?