I am using (AWS) Amazon Web Services (XML interface).   Up until
recently querying Amazon was easy this way, by composing a "GET"
message with a specific format, and data, all in the https line, for
instance

http://xml.amazon.com/onca/xml3?locale=us&t=myname&dev-t=1287942983791274&%xmlsearchtype%Search=isbn&mode=books`&sort=`+pricrerank&offer=All`&type=heavy&offerpage=`&f=xml

And this told AWS to return an XML formatted response with the product
I was looking for, with pricing etc.

OK ... 
Now, as I get a bit more advanced, the next level of commands requires
me to use the "post" method.   EVERYwhere I look on the web, there is
some assumption that either I am using some web form to be submitted
via POST, or that I know Perl, C++ or something.  (amazon's
documentation is unusually poor here, even by Amazon's standards)

My question how do I format in a text file, a POST request ...
(generally).   Amazon gives me the base URL I am supposed to make this
request to, along with a set of data fields I need to send.  But other
than that - not much direction.

Any help here?

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Request for Question Clarification by efn-ga on 25 Apr 2005 22:05 PDT

Hi vodguy,

Here's a page with an example:

http://www.jmarshall.com/easy/http/#postmethod

The specification for HTTP has all the gritty details.  Section 17.13
specifies "how user agents submit form data to form processing
agents."

http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/interact/forms.html#h-17.13

Specifically, you need to build a form data set.

http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/interact/forms.html#form-data-set

The form data set is encoded according to the content type.  The
default content type, and the one Amazon probably expects, is
application/x-www-form-urlencoded,
where "the name is separated from the value by `=' and name/value
pairs are separated from each other by `&'."

http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/interact/forms.html#form-content-type

Is this an adequate answer, or were you looking for more detail?

Regards,

--efn

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Clarification of Question by vodguy-ga on 26 Apr 2005 09:46 PDT

Allow me to clarify the question, since apparently my original was not that clear:

I want to send data using POST **without** using a form  (and without
writing a program, for now)  I understand how to create a rudimentary
form and submit Via POST, generally.

In other words ... for the sake of an example...  I have 5 pieces of
text data  (name, age, phonenum, city, zipcode), and I want to send
them to a server via POST, how would I do that?  I just want an
example, not the entire W3C spec.  So for instance, if I wanted to do
this via the GET command, the example might be

https://www.amazon.com/moreurl/somethingelse?&name=MyNameHere&age=36&phonenum=4083239053&city=Alameda&zip=96002

And I would simply send that URL/string via my browser (or other
method I have to send a string to the server).

So now, I have the same data.  How do I do this via POST?   I find all
the info on the web assumes either that this info comes from a form
(that has been filled out via a set of html <form input ..  
commands), or list the same abstract info that you have posted,
leaving me without a real practical example or set of guidelines.

So, I have string of text (representing the name, age, phonenum etc). 
 How do I send that text data to a server via the POST command?

OK, it looks like I don't have time to produce the kind of answer you
seek.  I hope someone else will be able to help you.