HTTP Course And Certification

What Is HTTP?

HTTP which stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol is the set of rules that governs the internet for transferring digital files, such as text, images, graphics, video, sounds, and other multimedia files, on the World Wide Web. As soon as an internet user opens up their Web Browser, they are indirectly making use of the HTTP protocol. HTTP is an application software protocol that runs on top of the TCP/IP suite of protocols which is the fundamental protocols for the Internet.

As the Hypertext part in HTTP suggests, HTTP concepts include the idea that digital files can contain references and links to other files whose selection will bring about additional transfer requests. In addition to the Web page files, HTTP can serve, any Web server machine contains an HTTP daemon which is a program that is developed to wait for HTTP requests and handle them when they arrive.

A Web browser is simply an HTTP client that sends requests for files to server machines. When a user opens a browser window and enters a request for a file by either "opening" a Web file (entering in a URL) or by clicking on a hypertext link, the browser then generates an HTTP request and sends it to the Internet Protocol address (IP address) that is indicated by the URL. The HTTP daemon in the receiving server machine accepts the request and sends back the appropriate requested file or files that are associated with the request. As a note, a Web page is often made up of more than one file.

HTTP is called a stateless protocol simply because every individual command is carried out independently, without any knowledge of the previous commands that came before it. This is the main reason that it is difficult to build Web sites that react very intelligently to user input. This limitation of HTTP is being solved in a number of new technologies, including Java,  ActiveX, JavaScript, and cookies.

Features Of HTTP

There are three primary  features that make HTTP a simple yet very powerful protocol:

1. HTTP is connectionless: An HTTP client, for example, a web browser, starts an HTTP request and after the request is sent, the browser which is the client waits for the response. The web server processes the request and sends back a response after which the client disconnects the connection. So the client and the server knows about each other during the present request and response only. Additional requests are made on a new connection as if the clients and the server are new to each other.

2. HTTP is media independent: This simply means that any kind of data can be transferred through HTTP as long as the client and the server knows how to handle the content of the data. It is required for the client as well as the server to define the data content type using the appropriate MIME-type.

3. HTTP is stateless: As stated above, HTTP is void of connections and it is a straight result of HTTP being a stateless protocol. The server and client only know of each other during an ongoing request. after then, both of them would forget about each other. Due to this nature of the web protocol, neither the client nor the browser can preserve information between different requests across the different web pages.

How HTTP Works

HTTP means HyperText Transfer Protocol. HTTP is the underlying protocol used by the World Wide Web and this protocol defines how messages are formatted and transmitted. It is the foundation of any data exchange on the Web and it is a client-server protocol, which means requests are initiated by the recipient, usually the Web browser.

HTTP clients generally use Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connections to communicate with servers.

HTTP utilizes specific request methods in order to perform various tasks such as:

GET requests a specific resource in its entirety,

HEAD requests a specific resource without the body content,

POST adds content, messages, or data to a new page under an existing web resource,

PUT directly modifies an existing web resource or creates a new URI if need be.

DELETE gets rid of a specified resource.

TRACE shows users any changes or additions made to a web resource.

OPTIONS shows users that HTTP methods are available for a specific URL.

CONNECT converts the request connection to a transparent TCP/IP tunnel.

PATCH partially modifies a web resource.

All HTTP servers use the GET and HEAD methods, but not all support the rest of these request methods. A correctly composed HTTP request comprises HTTP headers, a message body, and a request line. The request line is the first line in the request message, and it comprises of a method(GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE), the path of the resource and the HTTP version number, showing the HTTP specification to which the client has tried to make the message comply.

Benefits Of HTTP

2. Caching infrastructure: HTTP heavily depends on and takes advantage of a caching infrastructure that is used worldwide, local browser cache, org caches found in HTTP proxies, reverse proxies,  ISP caches, etc. If you use HTTP(S) you can instantly take advantage of this infrastructure.

3. Compression: HTTP supports data compression by making use of different algorithms if you use HTTP(S) you don’t need to implement your own compression algorithm.

4. Added Security: If you make use of HTTPS you can leverage the advantage of all the security features that are provided by HTTPS.

5. Tools: There is a large number of tools that are built around HTTP(S) that are at your disposal if you use HTTP protocols.

Why Study HTTP?

1. Understand how the web works including how cookies, sessions, csrf all combine to make the web secure.

2. Career Opportunity And Advancement

3. Increase Your Earning Potential

4. Build Secure and Trusted Websites

HTTP Course Outline

HTTP - Introduction

HTTP - Overview

HTTP - Parameters

HTTP - Messages

HTTP - Requests

HTTP - Responses

HTTP - Methods

HTTP - Status Codes

HTTP - Header Fields

HTTP - Caching

HTTP - URL Encoding

HTTP - Course And Certification

HTTP - Security

HTTP - Message Examples

HTTP - Video Lectures  

HTTP - Exams and Certifications