HTTP Requests and HTTP Response

What is an HTTP request?

HTTP requests are the messages sent by the client to initiate an action on a resource identified by a given URL over the network. There are various HTTP request methods for specific purposes.

The components of an HTTP request are as below:

• The method to be applied to the resource – an HTTP method (like GET, PUT, POST HEAD or OPTIONS), that describes the action to be performed. We have already discussed the various HTTP methods in the previous lesson.

• The resource identifier – resource identified by a given request URL.

• Headers (optional) – headers are the information sent to the server in the form of key/value pairs, which contains the details of what the browser wants and will accept from the server.

• Params (optional) – used for sending additional data to the server. For example, a query parameter.

• Message body (optional) – These are additional information required by the server to process current requests properly. For example, a file type of JSON or XML sent in the case of a POST or PUT method request.

What is an HTTP response?

After receiving and processing an HTTP request message, a server responds with an HTTP response message.

HTTP request and response example

The example below will help you to understand more about HTTP request and response.

Request – The request below contains the HTTP Method, the target URL, and the query Param in the URL (post id = 1).

curl -iX GET  https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1