HTTP headers are additional pieces of information sent along with an HTTP request or response between a client (like a web browser) and a server. T
These headers provide metadata about the request or response and can be used to modify the behavior of the server or client.
Examples of HTTP header use:
- Content-Type: Specifies the type of content being sent, such as text/html for HTML pages or application/json for JSON data.
- User-Agent: Identifies the client application making the request, like the web browser or a search engine crawler.
- Cache-Control: Instructs the browser or intermediate caches on how to handle caching of the response, such as max-age=3600 to cache the response for one hour.
- Authorization: Contains credentials for authenticating the client to the server, often in the form of a bearer token.
- Referrer: Indicates the URL of the page that linked to the currently requested page, useful for tracking traffic sources.
- Cookie: Sends cookies previously set by the server back to the server, allowing for session management and user tracking.
- Content-Encoding: Specifies any encoding applied to the response content, such as gzip for compressed data.
HTTP headers play a crucial role in controlling the behavior of web applications, enabling features like authentication, caching, content negotiation, and more. They provide a way for clients and servers to exchange additional information and instructions beyond the basic request and response content.