Content-Location header

Syntax

Content-Location: <url>

Directives

<url>

A URL that can be absolute or relative to the request URL.

Examples

Requesting data from a server in different formats

Let's say a site's API can return data in JSON, XML, or CSV formats. If the URL for a particular document is at https://example.com/documents/foo, the site could return different URLs for Content-Location depending on the request's Accept header:

These URLs are examples — the site could serve the different filetypes with any URL patterns it wishes, such as a query string parameter: /documents/foo?format=json, /documents/foo?format=xml, and so on.

Then the client could remember that the JSON version is available at that particular URL, skipping content negotiation the next time it requests that document.

The server could also consider other content negotiation headers, such as Accept-Language.

Indicating the URL of a transaction's result

Say you have a <form> for sending money to another user of a site.

<form action="/send-payment" method="post">
  <p>
    <label>
      Who do you want to send the money to?
      <input type="text" name="recipient" />
    </label>
  </p>

  <p>
    <label>
      How much?
      <input type="number" name="amount" />
    </label>
  </p>

  <button type="submit">Send Money</button>
</form>

When the form is submitted, the site generates a receipt for the transaction. The server could use Content-Location to indicate that receipt's URL for future access.

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
Content-Location: /my-receipts/38

<!doctype html>
(Lots of HTML…)

<p>You sent $38.00 to ExampleUser.</p>

(Lots more HTML…)

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• Location