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HTTP Requests

An HTTP request consists of a request method, a request URL, header fields, and a body. HTTP 1.1 defines the following request methods:

• GET - retrieves the resource identified by the request URL.
• HEAD - returns the headers identified by the request URL.
• POST - sends data of unlimited length to the Web server.
• PUT - stores a resource under the request URL.
• DELETE - removes the resource identified by the request URL.
• OPTIONS - returns the HTTP methods the server supports.
• TRACE - returns the header fields sent with the TRACE request.

HTTP 1.0 includes only the GET, HEAD, and POST methods. Although J2EE servers are only required to support HTTP 1.0, in practice many servers, including the Java WSDP, support HTTP 1.1.

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