title: ReST: http 204 status code for polling for a resource after a 201 Created
body: <p>I have a request (POST) which creates a resource.  This resource takes a long time to create (up to hours), but its id is created immediately.</p>
  
  <p>It seems to me the most appropriate flow is:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p>POST /thing - response is 201 Created with "URI for the resource given by a Location header field" (as per <a href="http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html</a>)</p></li>
  <li><p>Start polling GET /thing/id to which the response should be:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p>As long as resource has not been prepared - 204 No Content </p></li>
  <li><p>Once the resource is ready - 200 OK with the resource returned in the response body</p></li>
  </ul></li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>I am seeking opinions/ advice because I am basing my opinion on (a lot) of reading and less so on experience and this seems different from most recommendations to initially return a 202 Accepted and to use 204 only in response to http DELETE</p>