Every time you open a website in your browser, you're using the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol, or HTTP. HTTP was created over 25 years ago as a way for web browsers to download HTML documents, but has evolved into one of the most popular client-server communication protocols for any number of purposes. Not only can we use it to move everything from plain text to streaming video across the Internet, but applications can also use it to transfer data, initiate remote procedures, or distribute computing tasks.
A basic HTTP transaction includes a client and a server, which function as follows:
- Client: The client creates a request. The request specifies an operation called a method. The most common methods are GET, for retrieving data, and POST, for submitting data. The request has a URL, which specifies the host, port, and path to which the request is being...
