What Is HTTP - Cloudflare
What Is HTTP - Cloudflare
What Is HTTP - Cloudflare
What is HTTP?
The Hypertext Transfer Protocol is used to load pages on the Internet using hyperlinks.
Glossary
What is HTTP?
The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the foundation of the World Wide Web, and is used
to load webpages using hypertext links. HTTP is an application layer protocol designed to
transfer information between networked devices and runs on top of other layers of the
network protocol stack. A typical flow over HTTP involves a client machine making a request to
a server, which then sends a response message.
Each HTTP request made across the Internet carries with it a series of encoded data that carries
different types of information. A typical HTTP request contains:
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2. a URL
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3. an HTTP method
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4. HTTP request headers
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5. Optional HTTP body.
Let’s explore in greater depth how these requests work, and how the contents of a request can
be used to share information.
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The body* of a request is the part that contains the ‘body’ of information the request is
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transferring. The body of an HTTP request contains any information being submitted to the
web server, such as a username and password, or any other data entered into a form.
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What is in an HTTP response?
An HTTP response is what web clients (often browsers) receive from an Internet server in
answer to an HTTP request. These responses communicate valuable information based on what
was asked for in the HTTP request.
1. 1xx Informational
2. 2xx Success
3. 3xx Redirection
Status codes starting with the number ‘2’ indicate a success. For example, after a client
requests a webpage, the most commonly seen responses have a status code of ‘200 OK’,
indicating that the request was properly completed.
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If the response starts with a ‘4’ or a ‘5’ that means there was an error and the webpage will not
be displayed. A status code that begins with a ‘4’ indicates a client-side error (it is very
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common to encounter a ‘404 NOT FOUND’ status code when making a typo in a URL). A status
code beginning in ‘5’ means something went wrong on the server side. Status codes can also
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begin * a ‘1’ or a ‘3’, which indicate an informational response and a redirect, respectively.
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