Once the web server has received a request, it can process the request using the method, resource, headers, and optional body.

Some methods (e.g., POST) require entity body data in the request message. Other methods (e.g., OPTIONS) allow a request body but don't require one. A few methods (e.g., GET) forbid entity body data in request messages.

We won't talk about request processing here, because it's the subject of most of the chapters in the rest of this book!

 


Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)