Sun Java System Web Server 6.1 SP11 Administrator's Guide

Requests

A request from a client to a server includes the following information:

Request Method

A client can request information using a number of methods. The commonly used methods include the following:

Request Header

The client can send header fields to the server. Most are optional. Some commonly used request headers are shown in Request Header.

Table B–1 Common request headers

Request header  

Description  

Accept

The file types the client can accept. 

Authorization

Used if the client wants to authenticate itself with a server; information such as the username and password are included. 

User-agent

The name and version of the client software. 

Referer

The URL of the document where the user clicked on the link. 

Host

The Internet host and port number of the resource being requested. 

Request Data

If the client has made a POST or PUT request, it can send data after the request header and a blank line. If the client sends a GET or HEAD request, there is no data to send; the client waits for the server’s response.