Definitions

HTTP Glossary

Quick explanations for recurring terms in protocol and API conversations.

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HTTP Cookie

Learn what HTTP cookies are and how browsers store small data pieces for websites. Understand cookie attributes, security, and session management.

HTTP Error Handling

Learn HTTP error handling best practices for detecting, managing, and responding to errors gracefully. Understand status codes, retry logic, and user feedback.

HTTP Header

Learn what HTTP headers are and how they provide metadata about requests and responses. Understand common headers like Content-Type and Authorization.

HTTP Method

Learn what HTTP methods are and how they define actions on resources. Understand GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, PATCH, and other methods with examples.

HTTP Payload

Learn what HTTP payload means and how message bodies carry data in requests and responses. Understand JSON, form data, and binary payloads.

HTTP Request

Learn what an HTTP request is and how clients send messages to servers. Understand request structure, methods, headers, and body components.

HTTP Response

Learn what an HTTP response is and how servers reply to client requests. Understand response structure, status codes, headers, and body content.

HTTP Session

Learn what HTTP sessions are and how they maintain state across stateless HTTP requests. Understand session cookies, tokens, and server-side storage.

HTTP Status Code

Learn what HTTP status codes are and how they indicate request results. Understand 1xx, 2xx, 3xx, 4xx, and 5xx code classes with common examples.

Idempotent

Learn what idempotent means in HTTP. Understand why GET, PUT, and DELETE are idempotent, why POST is not, and how idempotency affects API design.