Parameters of HTTPIn this section, we will discuss various HTTP parameters and their syntax. For example, date and time format, character set, etc. These parameters are used in the construction of our request and response message while writing the HTTP program of the client or server. The various parameters of HTTP are as follows: HTTP VersionTo indicate the version of the protocol, HTTP uses a <major>.<minor> numbering scheme. The protocol versioning policy allows the sender to indicate the format of a message and its capacity for understanding further HTTP communication. The first line in the HTTP-Version field indicates the version of the HTTP message. Syntax Example Entity TagsEntity tags are used to compare two or more entities from the same requested resource. Syntax An Entity tag must be unique across all the entity versions associated with a particular resource. Date/Time FormatsDate/Time format can be defined in two ways: 1) Full Date: All the date/time stamps of HTTP MUST be represented in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). HTTP application has three different formats for the representation of date/time stamps: In HTTP, GMT is exactly equal to UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), which was indicated in the first two formats by the inclusion of "GMT". 2) Delta Second Some fields of HTTP header allow a time value, which is specified as an integer number of seconds, which will be in decimal after the time that the message was received. Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI)URI is simply formatted case insensitive string, which contains the name, location, etc. to identify the website or web server. Syntax: Here,
Example: Character SetThe Character set is used to specify the character set that the user prefers. Using comma, multiple character sets can be separated. HTTP character sets are identified using the case ?insensitive tokens. Example Content CodingsContent coding values are used to show an encoding transformation that has been applied to an entity. Primarily, content-codings are used to allow a document to e compressed or transformed without losing the information. In content-coding, an entity is stored in coded form, transmitted directly, and only the recipient it encoded. All the values of content-coding are case-insensitive. In the Accept-Encoding and Content-Encoding header fields, HTTP/1.1 uses content-coding value. Example Transfer CodingsThe values of transfer coding are used to indicate an encoding transformation that has been applied to an entity to ensure "safe transport" through the network. Transfer coding is different from content coding. Transfer coding is the property of the message, and it is not the original entity. Syntax: In Transfer coding, parameters are in the form of attribute/value pairs. Example: All the values of Transfer coding are case-insensitive. Product TokensProduct Tokens allow communication applications to identify themselves by the version and name of the software. Product token should be to the point and short. Syntax Example Next TopicWorking of Web |