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POShould I Use Anchor, Button Or Form Submit For "Follow" Feature In Rails
 

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    <p>I am developing an application in Rails 3 using a nosql database. I am trying to add a "Follow" feature similar to twitter or github. </p> <p>In terms of markup, I have determined that there are three ways to do this.</p> <p>1) Use a regular anchor. (Github Uses This Method)</p> <pre><code>&lt;a href="/users/follow?target=Joe"&gt;Follow&lt;/a&gt; </code></pre> <p>2) Use a button. (Twitter Uses This Method)</p> <pre><code>&lt;button href="/friendships/create/"&gt;Follow&lt;/button&gt; </code></pre> <p>3) Use a form with a submit button. (Has some advantages for me, but I haven't see anyone do it yet.)</p> <pre><code>&lt;form method="post" id="connection_new" class="connection_new" action="/users/follow"&gt; &lt;input type="hidden" value="60d7b563355243796dd8496e17d36329" name="target" id="target"&gt; &lt;input type="submit" value="Follow" name="commit" id="connection_submit"&gt; &lt;/form&gt; </code></pre> <p>Since I want to store the user_id in the database and not the username, options 1 and 2 will force me to do a database query to get the actual user_id, whereas option 3 will allow me to store the user_id in a hidden form field so that I don't have to do any database lookups. I can just get the id from the params hash on form submission. </p> <p>I have successfully got each of these methods working, but I would like to know what is the best way to do this. Which way is more semantic, secure, better for spiders, etc...? Is there a reason both twitter and github don't use forms to do this? </p> <p>Any guidance would be appreciated. I am leaning towards using the form method since then I don't have to query the db to get the id of the user, but I am worried that there must be a reason the big guys are just using anchors or buttons for this. </p> <p>I am a newb so go easy on me if I am totally missing something. Thanks!</p>
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    1. COHow is this a secuirty question? What attack are you trying to defend against?
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