The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is a set of rules for the transfer of information over the web. HTTP enables communication between clients applications and servers. It indicates the action that a given resource should take upon receiving a request.

HTTP Methods

The five common HTTP methods are POST, GET, PUT, PATCH, and DELETE. These correspond to create, read, update, and delete (or CRUD) operations.

POST

A POST request sends data to a server to create a resource. A post request usually returns a 201(created) status code or a 200(ok) status code. The server returns a 201(created) status code on the creation of a resource. An example of this scenario is when a user is registering on a website. The user inputs their details on a form and clicks the submit button. The user makes a post request to the server with the click of the submit button. The server returns a 200(ok) status code when a request has succeeded. An example is when a user signs in to a website.

GET

A GET request retrieves data from a web server by specifying parameters in the URL part of the request. A GET request retrieves data only and does not change a resource. If the GET request is successful, it returns a 200(ok) status code along with the response body. If the resource is not found then it returns a 404(Not Found) status code. A user fetching all the items in their cart is an example of where we utilise this method. The endpoint would look something like this: GET/items.

PUT

A PUT request updates a resource. PUT requests are idempotent as opposed to POST requests. This means that calling the same resource many times gives the same result. A user updating several details of their profile on a website is an example of where we utilise this method. The endpoint would look like this: PUT/profile/:id. Where the id is the unique identifier of the user.

PATCH

A PATCH request makes a partial update or modification to an existing resource. A user modifying only their profile picture is an example of a PATCH request. The endpoint would look like this: PATCH/profile/:id.

DELETE

A DELETE request deletes the specified resource. A successful response of DELETE requests SHOULD be an HTTP response code of 200(ok). Calling DELETE on the same resource a second time will return a 404( Not found). Deleting an order from a user's cart is an example of a DELETE request. The endpoint would look like this: DELETE/order/:id.