67 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
67 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
|
---
|
||
|
|
title: Why do I have to click again to confirm I want to subscribe after I already clicked the confirmation link you sent me?
|
||
|
|
---
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
There are two aspects that cause signing up for our newsletter to require multiple clicks:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
- [People should only be able to sign up themselves](#people-should-only-be-able-to-sign-up-themselves)
|
||
|
|
- [GET requests should not make changes](#get-requests-should-not-make-changes)
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
## People should only be able to sign up themselves
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
This one is pretty easy to understand. One should not be able
|
||
|
|
to subscribe somebody else's email address to the FreeSewing newsletter.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
This is why, after indicating you want to sign up, we sent you a confirmation
|
||
|
|
email to the email address you provided.
|
||
|
|
If you receive this email, it confirms not only that the email address
|
||
|
|
is working, but also that you have access to it.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
In other words, only after you click the link in the confirmation email can we know for
|
||
|
|
cerntain that:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
- The email address is valid
|
||
|
|
- The owner of the email address wants to subscribe
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
That's where it would be over. Except for one technical detail that's also important:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
## GET requests should not make changes
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<Warning compact>This is more technical and harder to understand</Warning>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Another reason is that while we could make it so that clicking the link in your
|
||
|
|
email would immeadiatly subcribe you, it would be in violation of internet standards.
|
||
|
|
Specifically, the __HTTP__ protocol's __GET method__ definition which states that:
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<Note>
|
||
|
|
<h5>GET requests should only retrieve data and should have no other effect.</h5>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
[wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP#HTTP/1.1_request_messages](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP#HTTP/1.1_request_messages)
|
||
|
|
</Note>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
A _GET request_ is what happens when you follow a link. Merely following a link
|
||
|
|
should not make any changes (like subscribing you to a newsletter).
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
For example, when you receive an email, your email client
|
||
|
|
may _preload_ the links in it in the background. So that they are quicker to
|
||
|
|
load should you click on them.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Obviously, this preloading should not confirm your subscription. Which is why
|
||
|
|
you need to click a button to confirm. Because that will trigger a __POST request__
|
||
|
|
and those can make changes.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<Tip>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
##### This does not apply to users subscribing through their account
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
None of this applies to users who subscribe to our newsletter by enabling the
|
||
|
|
option in our account. In this case, we do not need to go through the email
|
||
|
|
validation process, since we already did that when you signed up.
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
For users, subscribing (and unsubscribing) is instant (If you are curious,
|
||
|
|
we use an idempotent __PUT request__ under the hood).
|
||
|
|
</Tip>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|