GET vs. POST Best Practices

Question

For my web application (PHP/MYSQL), I show a list of items and a link on each row to delete the item. Right now, the link is

<a href='item.php?id=3&action=delete'>Delete Item</a>

If I wanted to use POST instead... how would I do it (this is a dynamically generated list)? Can I send POST data without the use of a form?

Or, for every item, would I have to do:

<form action='item.php?id={$item_id}' method='POST'>
    <input type='hidden' name='action' value='delete'>
    <input type='submit' value='delete item'>
</form>

and style the submit button to look like the original link?

I am not familiar with php CURL or REST, would they help address this issue?

Answer 1

Please use POST for anything that modifies persistent state in the database. You don't want crawlers visiting your delete links!
Have a read at Architecture of the World Wide Web, Volume One and URIs, Addressability, and the use of HTTP GET and POST by W3C.

Edit: Sometimes though you need to use GET. For example membership activation URLs which are sent in emails are GET and need to somehow modify the database.

Answer 2

In general it's not a good idea to have a GET request that modifies the system state somehow, like deleting an item.

You could have your form look like this:

<form action='item.php' method='POST' id='form'>
    <input type='hidden' name='action' value='delete' />
    <input type='hidden' name='id' value='{item_id}' />
    <a href="" onclick="document.getElementById('form').submit(); return false;">Delete item</a>
</form>