[rest] Passing array in GET for a REST call

Instead of using http GET, use http POST. And JSON. Or XML

This is how your request stream to the server would look like.

POST /appointments HTTP/1.0
Content-Type: application/json
Content-Length: (calculated by your utility)

{users: [user:{id:id1}, user:{id:id2}]}

Or in XML,

POST /appointments HTTP/1.0
Content-Type: application/json
Content-Length: (calculated by your utility)

<users><user id='id1'/><user id='id2'/></users>

You could certainly continue using GET as you have proposed, as it is certainly simpler.

/appointments?users=1d1,1d2

Which means you would have to keep your data structures very simple.

However, if/when your data structure gets more complex, http GET and without JSON, your programming and ability to recognise the data gets very difficult.

Therefore,unless you could keep your data structure simple, I urge you adopt a data transfer framework. If your requests are browser based, the industry usual practice is JSON. If your requests are server-server, than XML is the most convenient framework.

JQuery

If your client is a browser and you are not using GWT, you should consider using jquery REST. Google on RESTful services with jQuery.