Response.Redirect HTTP status code

Question

Why is it that ASP/ASP.NET Response.Redirect uses a HTTP-302 status code (\"Moved Temporarily\") even though in most cases a HTTP-301 status code (\"Moved Permanently\") wou

Answer 1

One common use case of Response.Redirect is to move the user to another page in server-side code after a postback, e.g. something along the lines of

private void MyButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    if (some condition) {
         Response.Redirect("ShowProduct.aspx");
    } else {
         Response.Redirect("SorryOutOfStock.aspx");
    }
}

In those cases, 301 would be completely wrong. In fact, I think that the above case (conditionally move the user to another page after some UI interaction) is a much more common use of Response.Redirectthan a real this-page-moved-to-another-URL-forever scenario (where a return code of 301 would be appropriate).