HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is the foundation of data communication on the World Wide Web. It is an application layer protocol that facilitates the transfer of information between a client (such as a web browser) and a server.
An HTTP request is a message sent by a client to request a specific action from a server.
It is composed of 4 main components:
- HTTP Method (or Verb): It defines the type of operation the client is requesting. Common methods include:
- GET: Retrieve data from the server.
- POST: Submit data to be processed to a specified resource.
- PUT: Update a resource or create a new resource if it does not exist.
- DELETE: Request the removal of a resource.
- OPTIONS: Describes the communication options for the target resource.
- PATCH: Similar to the PUT and POST requests, PATCH will update the information of the server, but unlike the two, PATCH will apply a partial modification
- TRACE: The TRACE request calls a loop-back test along the path of a target resource. Usually, it’s used to run debugging and diagnostic tests on APIs.
- URI (Uniform Resource Identifier): It specifies the resource (such as a web page or a data service) that the client is requesting.
- HTTP Version: It indicates the version of the HTTP protocol being used (e.g., HTTP/1.1).
- Headers: Let the client and the server pass additional information with an HTTP request or response.
- Body: In some types of requests (like POST and PUT), data can be included in the body of the request. For example, when submitting a form on a website, the form data is often sent in the request body.
Here is an example of what an HTTP Request action card that serves to create a SharePoint Group look like:
