The Basics of HTTP Request Methods
By: Victoria Lo
Tags: Backend, Http Request, Programming, JavaScript

Hello coders! Today’s tutorial is a simple one relating to back-end programming. If you haven’t read it, please refer to my Beginner’s Intro to Back-end Programming for some essential background info.

Okay, so let’s dive into the topic~

Types of HTTP Requests

So if you recall, in my Beginner’s Intro to Back-end Programming, I wrote that a HTTP Request is when a browser makes a request to the server to ask for some information. This is known as a ‘GET’ request.

But sometimes, the request may not be about retrieving info from the server, but also updating information to the server. This is called a ‘PUT’ request. Hence, they are called HTTP Request Methods to specify what type of action the browser wants to do with the server.

A HTTP Request method specifies the desired action the browser wants to do with the server.

So, there’s a GET and PUT. What else?

Here’s a simple and concise list of the common HTTP request methods.

GET: Retrieve and read data from server. PUT: Update and replace data on the server. POST: Creating data and submitting it to the server. PATCH: Update and modify data on the server. DELETE: Remove data from server.

Of course, note that this is a brief summary so I encourage you to learn more and start reading about it here.

Now that you know the common HTTP Request methods, let’s try using them with an example.

Example: POST

As usual, let’s install axios to make HTTP requests.

Then, let’s say we want to create a new mail for an email app and POST it to our database. The code will be:

const axios = require('axios');

axios.post('/send', {

sender: 'victoria@example.com',

receiver: 'person@example.com',

subject: 'hello there',

message: 'this is an example' })

.then({

console.log(response);

})

.catch({

console.log(error);

});

And in our server.js file, we run npm install express to handle the request.

const express = require('express')

const app = express()

app.post('/send', {

let sender = req.body.sender

let receiver = req.body.receiver

let subject = req.body.subject

let message = req.body.message



//do something here

}) app.listen(3000)

And that is a simple example of a POST request. You can make the server do whatever you want it to do in the //do something here like maybe saving the posted mail to a database or sending it to the receiver. I have a mail sender tutorial about that actually ( here it is!).

The possibilities of using GET, POST, PUT, PATCH and DELETE are endless and that’s what makes back-end programming so useful in making powerful apps!

And that’s all for now!

Thanks for taking the time to read this tutorial. I hope this is a helpful yet simple illustration to show the different types of HTTP request methods and how you can use them for your projects. It takes a little bit of practice but once you are familiar with them, you can build RESTful APIs! Maybe I’ll make a tutorial on that someday~

Please ask any questions you have in the comments below. I am more than willing to help. If this is helpful in any way, please let me know with a ‘clap’. Good luck with coding and cheers!