HTTP Requests and HTTP Response
In this lesson, we will walk you through the concepts of HTTP request and response.
We'll cover the following
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 (likeGET
,PUT
,POST
HEAD
orOPTIONS
), that describes the action to be performed. We have already discussed the variousHTTP
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
orPUT
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
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