In the previous session, we discussed about the HTTP GET request method for retrieving a page from the server. More request methods similar to GET are available with HTTP, each performing specific actions on the target resource. Let's learn about these methods and their role in client-server communication over HTTP.
The set of common methods for HTTP/1.1 is listed in the following table:
|
Method |
Description |
|
GET |
This method is used for retrieving resources from the server by using the given URI. |
|
HEAD |
This method is the same as the GET request, but it only transfers the status line and the header section without the response body. |
|
POST |
This method is used for posting data to the server. The server stores the data (entity) as a new subordinate of the resource identified by the URI. If you execute POST multiple times on a resource, it may yield different results. |
|
PUT |
This method is used for updating the resource pointed by the URI. If the URI does not point to an existing resource, the server can create the resource with that URI. |
|
DELETE |
This method deletes the resource pointed by the URI. |
|
TRACE |
This method is used for echoing the contents of the received request. This is useful for the debugging purpose with which the client can see what changes (if any) have been made by the intermediate servers. |
|
OPTIONS |
This method returns the HTTP methods that the server supports for the specified URI. |
|
CONNECT |
This method is used for establishing a connection to the target server over HTTP. |
|
PATCH |
This method is used for applying partial modifications to a resource identified by the URI. |
We may use some of these HTTP methods, such as GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE, while building RESTful web services in the later chapters.
Continuing our discussion on HTTP, the next section discusses the HTTP header parameter, which identifies the content type for the message body.