HTTP STATUS CODE

HTTP HEADERS

HTTP headers are key-value pairs of metadata included in both HTTP requests and
responses. They provide additional information about the data being sent, received, or the
communication itself. HTTP headers are an essential part of the HTTP protocol, and they can
serve various purposes, including content negotiation, security, and caching. Here are some
common HTTP headers:

1. **Request Headers** (Sent by the client in an HTTP request):

- **Host**: Specifies the domain name of the server the client is attempting to connect to.
- **User-Agent**: Provides information about the client, such as the browser type and
version.
- **Accept**: Informs the server about the types of content the client can handle.
- **Accept-Language**: Indicates the preferred language(s) for the response content.
- **Authorization**: Contains authentication credentials for accessing protected
resources.
- **Cookie**: Contains previously set cookies that the server should be aware of.
- **Referer (or Referer)**: Provides the URL of the referring page that led the client to
make the current request.

2. **Response Headers** (Sent by the server in an HTTP response):

 - **Date**: Specifies the date and time when the response was generated.
- **Server**: Identifies the software and version of the server.
- **Content-Type**: Indicates the media type of the response content (e.g., text/html,
application/json).
- **Content-Length**: Specifies the length of the response body in bytes.
- **Location**: Used in redirection responses to indicate the new location of a resource.
- **Set-Cookie**: Sets a cookie in the client's browser for session management.
- **Cache-Control**: Provides directives for caching, such as no-cache, max-age, and
private.
- **Expires**: Informs the client about the date and time when the response content will
expire.
- **ETag**: Provides an identifier for the version of the resource, which can be used for
caching validation.

3. **General Headers** (Used in both requests and responses):

- **Connection**: Controls whether the connection should be kept alive (e.g., "keep-alive"
or "close").
- **Content-Encoding**: Specifies the content encoding applied to the response content
(e.g., gzip, deflate).
- **Content-Length**: The length of the response body in bytes.
- **Content-Language**: Indicates the natural language of the response content.

4. **Entity Headers** (Specific to the message body in requests and responses):

- **Content-Type**: Specifies the media type of the message body (e.g., text/html,
application/json).
- **Content-Length**: The length of the message body in bytes.
- **Content-Encoding**: Describes the encoding applied to the message body (e.g., gzip,
deflate).

These headers allow clients and servers to communicate and negotiate various aspects of
the HTTP transaction, such as the content format, language, authentication, and caching
behavior. They play a vital role in enabling the flexibility and extensibility of the HTTP
protocol for different use cases and requirements.
 Persistent and Non persistent

https://www.scaler.com/topics/persistent-connection-http/

Browsers have a built-in cachingn mechanism for a better user experience.How do websites indicate if a web resource
needs to be cached or not?show http messages in transit for both scenarios.

ChatGPT

Websites can control whether web resources should be cached or not by using HTTP headers. Two key HTTP headers
that control caching behavior are Cache-Control and Expires . These headers provide directives to the client
(typically a web browser) about how it should cache and manage the resource.

Let's explore how websites indicate caching behavior using these headers and provide examples of HTTP messages in
transit for both scenarios:

.
Caching Enabled: Using Cache-Control and Expires Headers
.

Cache-Control Header: The Cache-Control header provides various directives to control caching.
Two commonly used directives are:

 max-age: Specifies the maximum amount of time (in seconds) a resource can be cached.
 public: Indicates that the resource can be cached by both the client and intermediary caches
(like CDN servers).
  private: Specifies that the resource is specific to the client and should not be cached by
intermediary caches.

Expires Header: The Expires header specifies an absolute date and time when the resource expires and
should no longer be considered fresh. It's used in combination with the Cache-Control header.


HTTP Response with Caching Enabled:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK

Date: Wed, 02 Nov 2023 12:00:00 GMT

Server: ExampleServer

Content-Type: text/html

Cache-Control: public, max-age=3600

Expires: Wed, 02 Nov 2023 13:00:00 GMT

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<head>

<title>Cached Web Page</title>

</head>

<body>

<h1>Hello, Caching!</h1>

</body>

</html>

In this example, the server sends an HTTP response with Cache-Control and Expires headers. The Cache-
Control header specifies that the resource can be cached by both the client and intermediary caches and is valid
for one hour ( max-age=3600 ). The Expires header sets the absolute expiration time.

.
Caching Disabled: Using No-Cache and Pragma Headers
.

Cache-Control Header: The Cache-Control header can include the no-cache directive, which
indicates that the resource should not be cached. Additionally, it can include no-store , which prevents
any caching (even in memory or on disk) of the resource.


Pragma Header: The Pragma header, although considered somewhat outdated, can be set to no-
cache to specify that the resource should not be cached.

HTTP Response with Caching Disabled:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Wed, 02 Nov 2023 12:00:00 GMT
Server: ExampleServer
Content-Type: text/html
Cache-Control: no-cache, no-store
Pragma: no-cache

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>No-Cache Web Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>No Caching Allowed</h1>
</body>
</html>

In this example, the server sends an HTTP response with Cache-Control and Pragma headers that explicitly
specify that the resource should not be cached by the client or intermediary caches.

Web browsers respect these headers when receiving the HTTP response. If caching is allowed, browsers store the
resource in their cache, and for subsequent requests, they may use the cached version. If caching is disabled,
browsers bypass caching and fetch the resource directly from the server.

Please note that while these headers indicate caching preferences, the actual behavior may also depend on the
browser's implementation and configuration.