Sun Java System Web Server 6.1 SP7 NSAPI Programmer's Guide

Requests

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

Request Method, URI, and Protocol Version

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

Request Headers

The browser can send headers to the server. Most are optional.

The following table lists some of the commonly used request headers.

Table 12–1 Common Request Headers

Request Header  

Description  

Accept

File types the browser can accept. 

Authorization

Used if the browser wants to authenticate itself with a server. Information such as the user name and password are included. 

User-Agent

Name and version of the browser software. 

Referer

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

Host

Internet host and port number of the resource being requested. 

Request Data

If the browser has made a POST or PUT request, it sends data after the blank line following the request headers. If the browser sends a GET or HEAD request, there is no data to send.