HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) is the foundation of data communication on the web. It enables clients (like browsers) to request resources from servers and receive responses. Let's explore its core concepts:

Key Concepts

  • Request Methods:

    • GET 📁 - Retrieve data
    • POST 📝 - Submit data
    • PUT 📦 - Update data
    • DELETE 🗑️ - Remove data
    • HEAD 👁️ - Get headers only
    • OPTIONS ⚙️ - Check server capabilities
    HTTP_Request_Method

  • Status Codes 📊

    • 200 OK ✅ - Successful request
    • 301 Moved Permanently ⏭️ - Permanent redirect
    • 404 Not Found ❌ - Resource not available
    • 500 Internal Server Error ⚠️ - Server malfunction
    HTTP_Status_Code

Request & Response Headers

  • Request Headers 📤:

    • User-Agent 📱 - Browser/device identifier
    • Content-Type 📄 - Data format (e.g., application/json)
    • Accept 🎯 - Preferred response format

  • Response Headers 📥:

    • Content-Length 📏 - Size of response body
    • Cache-Control 🧠 - Browser caching instructions
    • Set-Cookie 🍪 - Cookie management
    HTTP_Header_Details

Practical Example

GET /index.html HTTP/1.1
Host: example.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 1234
HTTP_Request_Response

Further Reading

For deeper insights into HTTP status codes, visit our HTTP Status Codes Tutorial. 📚