# Making a server ignore post data the second time?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-server-ignore-post-data-the-second-time/428788>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 4, 2007, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-server-ignore-post-data-the-second-time/428788 "2007-12-04T16:49:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-server-ignore-post-data-the-second-time/428788/1 "2007-12-04T16:49:29Z")

</div>

I’m using IIS/PHP to build a website, and I’m trying to figure out a way that it won’t ask people to resubmit post data if they press the back button (or refresh) on their browser. I’m relatively sure (and will be checking as I submit this post) that the SDMB doesn’t pop up the one message box, so it does seem to be possible.

Anyone know what it is?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![arseNal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@arseNal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/arseNal)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2007, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-server-ignore-post-data-the-second-time/428788/2 "2007-12-04T19:00:56Z")

</div>

It has to do with the way the app is written – typically what you can do is after your server processes the POST, immediately do a redirect (e.g., in the case of vBulletin, it can “redirect” you to the post you just made). This will result in the user’s browser performing a GET, which you can click back onto without any popup.