Post 30: HTTP Request Methods

HTTP requests is done by a client in order to retrieve a resource from a server. Every HTTP request must contain one HTTP method (sometimes also called “verbs”). In a previous post you got to know one HTTP Request Method already: The GET method. Get, fetch, and retrieve a resource that the server has stored.

If you want to retrieve an image you could type in
GET /image.png

If you want to retrieve a PDF file you type in

GET /documents/report.pdf

and so on. Of course there are more than just the GET method. But the vast majority of HTTP requests use the GET method. Other HTTP request methods are shown below:

Method	Description
GET	Retrieve a resource (and should have no other effect).
HEAD	Retrieve the headers for a resource. It basically does exactly what the GET method does but only wthout retrieving the whole body content. You'd use the HEAD request if only want to retrieve meta data of a resource.
POST	Update a resource on the server, e. g. an item added to a database, a new message to a bulletin board, an annotation to an existing resource.
PUT	Store a resource on the server in the supplied URI. If the URI already identifies an exisiting resource, then that resource is modified. If the URI doesn't point to an existing resource, then the server creates a new resource associated with that URI.
DELETE	Remove a resource
TRACE	The server returns the HTTP request message text back to the client, so the client can see what changes have been made to the HTTP request by intermediate servers.
OPTIONS	Returns HTTP methods that the server supports for the specified URL. This can be used to check the web server's function.

Source(s): 

HTTP Succinctly by Scott Allen Syncfusion
Wikipedia