RESTful Java Web Services - Third Edition

Understating the HTTP request methods

In the previous session, we discussed about the HTTP GET request method for retrieving a page from the server. More request methods similar to GET are available with HTTP, each performing specific actions on the target resource. Let's learn about these methods and their role in client-server communication over HTTP.

The set of common methods for HTTP/1.1 is listed in the following table:

Method	Description
GET	This method is used for retrieving resources from the server by using the given URI.
HEAD	This method is the same as the GET request, but it only transfers the status line and the header section without the response body.
POST	This method is used for posting data to the server. ...