𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗧 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀

The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) header is a component of HTTP that carries additional data in HTTP requests and responses.

The server uses the HTTP header and the browser to share metadata about the document and the data sent to the browser by the web server of the called website.

A variety of data in the 𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗧 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 can be used to trace down problems as they arise. As they show the metadata for the API request and response, HTTP Headers play a significant role. Headers contain data for:

𝟭. 𝗥𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲 𝗕𝗼𝗱𝘆

𝟮. 𝗥𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

𝟯. 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲 𝗖𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴

𝟰. 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗲𝘀

Also, the categories mentioned above include HTTP headers, which contain information about different HTTP connection types, proxies, etc. The majority of these headers are used to maintain connections between clients, servers, and proxies. Thus, testing is not necessary.

In general, we have 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀. We set a request header when sending a request to an API and receive response headers. The standard header structure is in the form 𝗡𝗮𝗺𝗲:𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲, but it can have many values separated using a comma.

Some 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗼𝗻 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 are:

🔹 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: which contains the client's authentication information for the requested resource.

🔹 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁-𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗿𝘀𝗲𝘁: This header instructs the server which character sets the client accepts and is set with the request.

🔹 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁-𝗧𝘆𝗽𝗲: Specifies the response's media type (text/html or text/JSON), which will aid the client in processing the response's body.

🔹 𝗖𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲-𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹: The client may keep and reuse a cached response for the duration specified by the Cache-Control header. This is the cache policy set by the server for this response.