Appendix B. The Header Codex
HTTP headers are bits of metadata that describe the protocol semantics
of an HTTP request or response. Some headers, like If-None-Match,
are used only in requests. Theyâre the clientâs way of telling the
server how to handle the request. Some, like ETag, are used only in
responses. Theyâre the serverâs way of conveying information about how
the request was processed, or information about the underlying
resource thatâs not present in the representation. Some headers can be
used either in a request or response, like the all-important
Content-Type, which contains the media type of the entity-body.
There are two excellent guides to the standard HTTP headers. Oneâs in RFC 2616, the HTTP standard itself, and the otherâs in print, in Appendix C of HTTP: The Definitive Guide by David Gourley and Brian Totty (OâReilly). In this appendix, Iâm giving a somewhat perfunctory description of the standard HTTP headers, with an eye toward their use in RESTful APIs, as opposed to other HTTP-based applications like websites and HTTP proxies.
Custom HTTP Headers
Creating a new HTTP method or status code is a very big deal. It
basically requires writing an RFC. But anyone who runs an HTTP server is
allowed to define their own HTTP headers. AtomPub defines an HTTP
header called Slug (covered in an upcoming section). Amazon defines headers like
X-amz-acl and X-amz-date for its S3 API.
In RESTful Web Services, I gave some advice for when to define a custom HTTP ...
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