HTTP messages are how data is exchanged between a server and a client. There are two types of messages: requests sent by the client to trigger an action on the server, and responses, the answer from the server.
HTTP messages are composed of textual information encoded in ASCII, and span over multiple lines. In HTTP/1.1, and earlier versions of the protocol, these messages were openly sent across the connection. In HTTP/2, the once human-readable message is now divided up into HTTP frames, providing optimization and performance improvements.
Web developers, or webmasters, rarely craft these textual HTTP messages themselves: software, a Web browser, proxy, or Web server, perform this action. They provide HTTP messages through config files (for proxies or servers), APIs (for browsers), or other interfaces.
The HTTP/2 binary framing mechanism has been designed to not require any alteration of the APIs or config files applied: it is broadly transparent to the user.
HTTP requests, and responses, share similar structure and are composed of:
- A start-line describing the requests to be implemented, or its status of whether successful or a failure. This start-line is always a single line.
- An optional set of HTTP headers specifying the request, or describing the body included in the message.
- A blank line indicating all meta-information for the request have been sent.
- An optional body containing data associated with the request (like content of an HTML form), or the document associated with a response. The presence of the body and its size is specified by the start-line and HTTP headers.
The start-line and HTTP headers of the HTTP message are collectively known as the head of the requests, whereas its payload is known as the body.
HTTP Requests
Start line
HTTP requests are messages sent by the client to initiate an action on the server. Their start-line contain three elements:
- An HTTP method, a verb (like {{HTTPMethod("GET")}}, {{HTTPMethod("PUT")}} or {{HTTPMethod("POST")}}) or a noun (like {{HTTPMethod("HEAD")}} or {{HTTPMethod("OPTIONS")}}), that describes the action to be performed. For example,
GETindicates that a resource should be fetched orPOSTmeans that data is pushed to the server (creating or modifying a resource, or generating a temporary document to send back). - The request target, usually a {{glossary("URL")}}, or the absolute path of the protocol, port, and domain are usually characterized by the request context. The format of this request target varies between different HTTP methods. It can be
- An absolute path, ultimately followed by a
'?'and query string. This is the most common form, known as the origin form, and is used withGET,POST,HEAD, andOPTIONSmethods.
POST / HTTP 1.1
GET /background.png HTTP/1.0
HEAD /test.html?query=alibaba HTTP/1.1
OPTIONS /anypage.html HTTP/1.0 - A complete URL, known as the absolute form, is mostly used with
GETwhen connected to a proxy.
GET https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Messages HTTP/1.1 - The authority component of a URL, consisting of the domain name and optionally the port (prefixed by a
':'), is called the authority form. It is only used withCONNECTwhen setting up an HTTP tunnel.
CONNECT developer.mozilla.org:80 HTTP/1.1 - The asterisk form, a simple asterisk (
'*') is used withOPTIONS, representing the server as a whole.
OPTIONS * HTTP/1.1
- An absolute path, ultimately followed by a
- The HTTP version, which defines the structure of the remaining message, acting as an indicator of the expected version to use for the response.
Headers
HTTP headers from a request follow the same basic structure of an HTTP header: a case-insensitive string followed by a colon (':') and a value whose structure depends upon the header. The whole header, including the value, consist of one single line, which can be quite long.
There are numerous request headers available. They can be divided in several groups:
- General headers, like {{HTTPHeader("Via")}}, apply to the message as a whole.
- Request headers, like {{HTTPHeader("User-Agent")}}, {{HTTPHeader("Accept-Type")}}, modify the request by specifying it further (like {{HTTPHeader("Accept-Language")}}), by giving context (like {{HTTPHeader("Referer")}}), or by conditionally restricting it (like {{HTTPHeader("If-None")}}).
- Entity headers, like {{HTTPHeader("Content-Length")}} which apply to the body of the request. Obviously there is no such header transmitted if there is no body in the request.
Body
The final part of the request is its body. Not all requests have one: requests fetching resources, like GET, HEAD, DELETE, or OPTIONS, usually don't need one. Some requests send data to the server in order to update it: as often the case with POST requests (containing HTML form data).
Bodies can be broadly divided into two categories:
- Single-resource bodies, consisting of one single file, defined by the two headers: {{HTTPHeader("Content-Type")}} and {{HTTPHeader("Content-Length")}}.
- Multiple-resource bodies, consisting of a multipart body, each containing a different bit of information. This is typically associated with HTML Forms.
HTTP Responses
Status line
The start line of an HTTP response, called the status line, contains the following information:
- The protocol version, usually
HTTP/1.1. - A status code indicating success or failure of the request. Common status code are {{HTTPStatus("200")}}, {{HTTPStatus("404")}}, or {{HTTPStatus("302")}}
- A status text, purely informational, that is a textual short description of the status code, helping humans to understand HTTP messages.
A typical status line looks like: HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found.
Headers
HTTP headers for request follow the basic structure of any header: a case-insensitive string followed by a colon (':') and a value whose structure depends upon the type of the header. The whole header, including the value, stands in one single line.
There are numerous request headers available. They can be divided in several groups:
- General headers, like {{HTTPHeader("Via")}}, apply to the message as a whole.
- Response headers, like {{HTTPHeader("Vary")}} and {{HTTPHeader("Accept-Ranges")}}, give additional information about the server that don't fit in the status line.
- Entity headers, like {{HTTPHeader("Content-Length")}}, apply to the body of the request. Obviously there is no such headers transmitted when there is no body in the request.
Body
The last part of a response is the body. Not all responses have one: responses with status code like {{HTTPStatus("201")}} or {{HTTPStatus("204")}} usually don't have any.
Bodies can be broadly divided into three categories:
- Single-resource bodies consisting of a single file of known length, defined by the two headers: {{HTTPHeader("Content-Type")}} and {{HTTPHeader("Content-Length")}}.
- Single-resource bodies consisting of a single file of unknown length, encoded by chunks with {{HTTPHeader("Transfer-Encoding")}} set to
chunked. - Multiple-resource bodies consisting of a multipart body, each containing a different bit of information. These are pretty rare.
HTTP/2 Frames
HTTP/1.x messages have a few drawbacks for performance:
- Headers, unlike bodies, are uncompressed.
- Headers are often very similar from one message to the next one, but they are still repeated on the wire.
- No multiplexing can be done. Several connections are opened to the same server: warm TCP connections are more performant than cold ones.
HTTP/2 introduces an extra step: it divides HTTP/1.x messages in frames that are embedded in a stream. Data and header frames are separated, allowing for header compression. Several streams can be combined together, a process called multiplexing, allowing the underlying TCP connection to be more efficient.
HTTP frames are transparent for Web developers. It is an extra step between HTTP/1.1 messages and the underlying transport protocol. No change is needed in the APIs used by Web developers; as soon as they are available both in the browser and in the server, HTTP/2 is switched on and used.
Conclusion
HTTP messages are the key in controlling HTTP; their structure is simple and they are very extensible. The HTTP/2 framing mechanism adds a new intermediate layer between the HTTP/1.x syntax and the underlying transport protocol but doesn't fundamentally modify it: it builds on the existing proven mechanisms.