title: Suitable pattern and type of the object returned in Observable<T> after a post operation
body: <p>According to the <a href="https://angular.io/guide/http#making-a-post-request" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Angular guide</a>, I'm supposed to returned the posted object. It makes sense in the example because we want to work with the entity that has been saved to the DB.</p>
  
  <p>In my particular case, I'm not interested in the objected that I post. In fact, the object is a wrapper consisting of a bunch of unrelated junk. At the backend, there's a series of <em>void</em> invocations starting up by the post. At the moment, I do subscribe in the service and it's a fire-and-forget based logic.</p>
  
  <p>In an attempt to improve the quality, I'd like to tell the component that the requested operation went well by a code, like this. I control the endpoint of the API so I can produce a number or an object there.</p>
  
  <pre><code>fireAndForget(junk: Junk) : number {
    ...
    this.http.post&lt;number&gt;(url, body)
      .pipe(catchError(this.handleError))
      .subscribe(yey =&gt; return yey, neh =&gt; return -1);
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>In the component, I hope to be able to get the result and react to it accordingly like so.</p>
  
  <pre><code>const junk: Junk = { ... };
  const result = this.service.fireAndForget(junk);
  if(result &gt; 0) doStuff(); else doOtherStuff();
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>However, I can't shake the sensation that I'm breaking a pattern or tamper with best-practice here. I have a hunch that I should return an observable (still of type <em>number</em> not <em>Junk</em> corresponding to <em>Hero[]</em> in the guide). The component needs not know the stored object. Just a tiny bit of info on how it went.</p>
  
  <p>Provided the above, is there a recommended, widely applied, type for passing the outcome that I'm not familiar with?</p>