HTTP Messages

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:

1. 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.
 2. An optional set of HTTP headers specifying the request, or describing the body included in the
message.
3. A blank line indicating all meta-information for the request has been sent.
4. 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:

1. An HTTP method, a verb (like GET, PUT or POST) or a noun (like HEAD or OPTIONS),
that describes the action to be performed. For example, GET indicates that a resource
should be fetched or POST means that data is pushed to the server (creating or modifying a
resource, or generating a temporary document to send back).
2. The request target, usually a 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 with GET, POST, HEAD,
and OPTIONS methods.
o POST / HTTP/1.1
o GET /background.png HTTP/1.0
o HEAD /test.html?query=alibaba HTTP/1.1
 o OPTIONS /anypage.html HTTP/1.0
 A complete URL, known as the absolute form, is mostly used with GET when
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
with CONNECT when setting up an HTTP tunnel. CONNECT
developer.mozilla.org:80 HTTP/1.1
 The asterisk form, a simple asterisk ('*') is used with OPTIONS, representing the
server as a whole. OPTIONS * HTTP/1.1

3. 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, consists of one single line,
which can be quite long.

Many different headers can appear in requests. They can be divided in several groups:

 General headers, like Via, apply to the message as a whole.

 Request headers, like User-Agent or Accept, modify the request by specifying it further
(like Accept-Language), by giving context (like Referer), or by conditionally restricting it
(like If-None).
 Representation headers like Content-Type that describe the original format of the
message data and any encoding applied (only present if the message has a body).

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: Content-
Type and 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:

1. The protocol version, usually HTTP/1.1.

2. A status code, indicating success or failure of the request. Common status codes
are 200, 404, or 302
3. A status text. A brief, purely informational, textual description of the status code to help a
human understand the HTTP message.

A typical status line looks like: HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found.

Headers

HTTP headers for responses follow the same structure as any other 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 its value, presents as a single line.

Many different headers can appear in responses. These can be divided into several
groups:

 General headers, like Via, apply to the whole message.

 Response headers, like Vary and Accept-Ranges, give additional information about the
server which doesn't fit in the status line.
 Representation headers like Content-Type that describe the original format of the
message data and any encoding applied (only present if the message has a body).
Body

The last part of a response is the body. Not all responses have one: responses with a
status code that sufficiently answers the request without the need for corresponding
payload (like 201 Created or 204 No Content) usually don't.

Bodies can be broadly divided into three categories:

 Single-resource bodies, consisting of a single file of known length, defined by the two
headers: Content-Type and Content-Length.
 Single-resource bodies, consisting of a single file of unknown length, encoded by chunks
with Transfer-Encoding set to chunked.
 Multiple-resource bodies, consisting of a multipart body, each containing a different section
of information. These are relatively 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, yet still repeated across
connections.
 No multiplexing can be done. Several connections need opening on the same server: and
warm TCP connections are more efficient than cold ones.

HTTP/2 introduces an extra step: it divides HTTP/1.x messages into frames which are
embedded in a stream. Data and header frames are separated, which allows header
compression. Several streams can be combined together, a process
called multiplexing, allowing more efficient use of underlying TCP connections.
HTTP frames are now transparent to Web developers. This is an additional step in
HTTP/2, between HTTP/1.1 messages and the underlying transport protocol. No
changes are needed in the APIs used by Web developers to utilize HTTP frames;
when available in both the browser and the server, HTTP/2 is switched on and used.

Conclusion
HTTP messages are the key in using HTTP; their structure is simple, and they are
highly extensible. The HTTP/2 framing mechanism adds a new intermediate layer
between the HTTP/1.x syntax and the underlying transport protocol, without
fundamentally modifying it: building upon proven mechanisms.