HTTP

What is HTTP?

The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is a fundamental application protocol that enables distributed, collaborative, and hypermedia information systems. It serves as the foundation for data communication across the World Wide Web. HTTP facilitates the exchange and transfer of hypertext, which is structured text that utilizes logical links, known as hyperlinks, between nodes containing textual content. The development of HTTP was initiated by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in 1989, and its standards were subsequently coordinated by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), culminating in the publication of a series of Requests for Comments (RFCs). The first formal definition of HTTP/1.1, the version commonly used today, was documented in RFC 2068 in 1997, which was later made obsolete by RFC 2616 in 1999 and then again by the RFC 7230 family of RFCs in 2014. Additionally, a newer version, HTTP/2, was standardized in 2015 and is now supported by major web servers and browsers over TLS using the ALPN extension, where TLS 1.2 or newer is required

Highlights

• Distributed, collaborative, and hypermedia information system protocol
• Facilitates the exchange and transfer of hypertext, which uses logical links (hyperlinks) between nodes containing text
• Development and standardization coordinated by IETF and W3C, with multiple RFC publications defining the protocol
• HTTP/1.1 as the common version, with later HTTP/2 standardized in 2015 and now supported by major web servers and browsers
• Requires TLS 1.2 or newer when using HTTP/2 over TLS with the ALPN extension