Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Tell me something about HTTP?

The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an Internet protocol that describes a method for sending all types of files (e.g., text, graphic images, sound, video) over the Internet.
The HTTP is a generic, stateless application level protocol which has applications for many other tasks besides hypertext mode, such as name servers and distributed object management systems, through extension of its request methods, error codes and headers.
A clear and concise description of the protocol can be found at: HTTP Made Really Easy: A Practical Guide to Writing Clients and Servers. The full protocol is available in RFC2616.

Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP):
 
Web applications use the HTTP to move the data between the browser running on your computer and application running on the server.

Stateful protocols:
 
Many server applications communicate using protocols other than HTTP.
Some of these maintain an ongoing connection between the computers. The application server knows exactly who is connected at all times and can tell when a connection is dropped. Because they know the state of each connection and the identity of each person using it, these are known as stateful protocols.

Stateless protocols:
 
HTTP is known as a stateless protocol. An HTTP server will accept any request from any client and will always provide some type of response, even if the response is just to say no. Without the overhead of negotiating and retaining a connection, stateless protocols can handle a large volume of requests. This is one reason why the Internet has been able to scale to millions of computers.
Another reason HTTP has become the universal standard is its simplicity.
An HTTP request looks like an ordinary text document. This has made it easy for applications to make HTTP requests. You can even send an HTTP request by hand using a standard utility such as Telnet. When the HTTP response comes back, it is also in plain text that developers can read.

Related Reference: For a list of HTTP Error Code refer to the article published at HTTP Error Codes

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