Request Methods

Request Methods
HTTP methods that indicate an action that will be performed on a resource. There are nine main methods.

GET
Requests a representation of a specific resource. GET should only be used to retrieve data and should not be able to do anything else.

HEAD
Asks for a response identical to a GET request, however it does not have a response body. This is used to retrieve information written in response headers without transporting all the content.

POST
Requests the server accept the entity enclosed in the request as a new lower rank of the web resource identified by the URL. One of the most common uses of POST is adding items to existing databases.

PUT
Requests that the enclosed entity be stored under supplied URL. If URL has an existing resource it is modified, while if it does not exist it creates the resource with that URL.

DELETE
Deletes the specified resource.

TRACE
Echoes the received request so the client can see if any changes have been made by intermediate servers.

OPTIONS
Returns the HTTP methods that the server supports for specified URL. OPTION can be used to check the functionality of a web server.

CONNECT
Converts request to a transparent TCP/IP tunnel, usually so an encrypted communication can be sent through an unencrypted proxy.

PATCH
Applies partial modification to a resource.