Chapter 3. HTTP Messages

Chapter 3. HTTP Messages

If HTTP is the Internet's courier, HTTP messages are the packages it uses to move things around. In Chapter 1, we showed how HTTP programs send each other messages to get work done. This chapter tells you all about HTTP messageshow to create them and how to understand them. After reading this chapter, you'll know most of what you need to know to write your own HTTP applications. In particular, you'll understand:

                How messages flow

                The three parts of HTTP messages (start line, headers, and entity body)

                The differences between request and response messages

                The various functions (methods) that request messages support

                The various status codes that are returned with response messages

                What the various HTTP headers do