Incorrect HTTP Status Codes

A third party I work with made a change to some web code today that managed to knock out a system I have that relies on the data served from it.

The server handles content from other web applications and when it becomes busy, spits out a generic warning message saying to come back later. However, this also affected the data feed I was taking from it.

I didn't realise this, as their server always returns the HTTP status code 200 meaning everything is OK. In these situations, web based applications should be returning 503, meaning the service is temporarily overloaded.

My code was checking for errors based on this code, but as a false status code was returned, it messed up. Time to add some more sanity checking to my code, and ask that others try to follow the correct HTTP status code specifications.