Scribd
Upload
10 views3 pages

HTTP Methods by MAKERDEMY

The document explains various HTTP methods used in APIs, including GET, POST, PUT, HEAD, DELETE, PATCH, and OPTIONS. It highlights the purpose of each method, such as retrieving data (GET), sending data to create or update resources (POST, PUT), and modifying resources (PATCH). Additionally, it describes the functionality of HEAD and OPTIONS methods for checking responses and available operations on the server, respectively.

Uploaded by

Truong Pham
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
10 views3 pages

HTTP Methods by MAKERDEMY

The document explains various HTTP methods used in APIs, including GET, POST, PUT, HEAD, DELETE, PATCH, and OPTIONS. It highlights the purpose of each method, such as retrieving data (GET), sending data to create or update resources (POST, PUT), and modifying resources (PATCH). Additionally, it describes the functionality of HEAD and OPTIONS methods for checking responses and available operations on the server, respectively.

Uploaded by

Truong Pham
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

0|P ag e

HTTP Methods
Ever wondered what the difference is between GET and POST requests, or when
to use PUT? You're not alone. Having a basic understanding of the different HTTP
methods, or verbs, an API supports is a helpful knowledge when exploring and
testing APIs.
HTTP Methods
1. GET
2. POST
3. PUT
4. HEAD
5. DELETE
6. PATCH
7. OPTIONS

GET requests are the most common and widely used methods in APIs and
websites. Simply put, the GET method is used to retrieve data from a server at
the specified resource. For example, say you have an API with user’s endpoint.
Making a GET request to that endpoint should return a list of all available users.
In web services, POST requests are used to send data to the API server to create
or update a resource. The data sent to the server is stored in the request body
of the HTTP request. The simplest example is a contact form on a website. When
you fill out the inputs in a form and hit Send, that data is put in the response
body of the request and sent to the server. This may be JSON, XML, or query
parameters.
Similar to POST, PUT requests are used to send data to the API to update or
create a resource. The difference is that PUT requests are idempotent. That is,
calling the same PUT request multiple times will always produce the same result.
In contrast, calling a POST request repeatedly make have side effects of creating
the same resource multiple times.
A PATCH request is one of the lesser-known HTTP methods, but I'm including it
this high in the list since it is similar to POST and PUT. The difference with PATCH
is that you only apply partial modifications to the resource.

1|P ag e
The DELETE method is exactly as it sounds: delete the resource at the specified
URL. This method is one of the more common in RESTful APIs so it's good to
know how it works.
The HEAD method is almost identical to GET, except without the response body.
In other words, if GET /users returns a list of users, then HEAD /users will make
the same request but won't get back the list of users. HEAD requests are useful
for checking what a GET request will return before actually making a GET request
like before downloading a large file or response body.

Last but not least we have OPTIONS requests. OPTIONS requests are one of my
favourites, though not as widely used as the other HTTP methods. In a nutshell,
an OPTIONS request should return data describing what other methods and
operations the server supports at the given URL.

THE END

2|P ag e

You might also like