The HyperText Transfer Protocol, or HTTP, is the backbone of the World Wide Web. HTTP is the language that each web browser (or other web client) uses to communicate with servers around the world. All web programmers, administrators, and application developers need to be familiar with HTTP in order to work effectively. The HTTP Pocket Reference not only provides a solid conceptual foundation of HTTP, it also serves as a quick reference to each of the headers and status codes that comprise an HTTP transaction. The book starts with a tutorial of HTTP, but then explains the client request and server responses in more detail, and gives a thorough technical explanation of more advanced features of HTTP (such as persistent connections and caching). Most people use the Web every day without knowing anything about HTTP, but for those who need to get "beyond the browser," this book is the place to start.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 9 Ratings

Very good book - 2001-11-28
Reviewer Rating:
The praise of other reviewers is well met. Overall, this is a very good book and every CGI programmer and anyone else doing Internet programming should buy it.

My only complaint is that it doesn't group information based on servers and is missing some server-specific items that are important, although they are not part of the Spec.

Invaluable vade mecum - 2003-03-11
Reviewer Rating:
This is a nearly perfect book both for learning HTTP and for an HTTP reference. HTTP is a small, simple protocol, and this is reflected in this book's small size. Great sequence diagrams illustrate the basic HTTP transaction which is detailed in less than ten small pages. And you will probably soon find yourself with several post-it bookmarks or dog-eared pages.

The book could use an explanation of HTTP proxies and gateways and a list of common user-agents. But any more and it would be too long.

Incredibly short, but packed with info - 2001-11-14
Reviewer Rating:
This is the smallest and shortest book I have probably read since first grade. I did not realize it, at the time of ordering, that this is actually a miniature book. It actually does fit in your pocket.

The HTTP specification is relatively small and simple. This book covers it all. I was able to complete it in two hours. It was refreshing to have such a brief and concise reference available. This book certainly did not fall into the trap of elaborating to the point of irrelevance. I fully recommend this book.

I didn't realise I needed it! - 2003-02-16
Reviewer Rating:
If you develop your own web applications then this book is invaluable! You don't realise that you need it until you know what's in it. An overview of HTTP headers, client methods and server response codes along with URL character and media type tables makes for a great pocket reference!

The O'Reilly pocket references are so concise that they are not really meant for someone who is totally new to the subject. They can however be the ideal way to provide an overview to anyone who wants to know the basics of the topic.

make your own Web server - 2007-06-08
Reviewer Rating:
Based on this book I wrote my own version of web server in C.

The book gives great insight into the mechanisms on which the Web works and is a valuable tool for anyone trying to do web traffic management or a small embedded web server. Plus nothing is more 1337 than to telnet into a port 80 and surf with self written HTTP headers

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