HTTP: The Definitive Guide

by David Gourley, Brian Totty, Marjorie Sayer

Behind every web transaction lies the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) --- the language of web browsers and servers, of portals and search engines, of e-commerce and web services. Understanding HTTP is essential for practically all web-based programming, design, analysis, and administration. While the basics of HTTP are elegantly simple, the protocol's advanced features are notoriously confusing, because they knit together complex technologies and terminology from many disciplines. This book clearly explains HTTP and these interrelated core technologies, in twenty-one logically organized chapters, backed up by hundreds of detailed illustrations and examples, and convenient reference appendices. The Definitive Guide explains everything people need to use HTTP efficiently -- including the "black arts" and "tricks of the trade" -- in a concise and readable manner. In addition to explaining the basic HTTP features, syntax and guidelines, this book clarifies related, but often misunderstood topics, such TCP connection management, web proxy and cache architectures, web robots and robots.txt files, Basic and Digest authentication, secure HTTP transactions, entity body processing, internationalized content, and traffic redirection. Many technical professionals will benefit from this book. Internet architects and developers who need to design and develop software, IT professionals who need to understand Internet architectural components and interactions, multimedia designers who need to publish and host multimedia, performance engineers who need to optimize web performance, technical marketing professionals who need a clear picture of core web architectures and protocols, as well as untold numbers of students and hobbyists will all benefit from the knowledge packed in this volume. There are many books that explain how to use the Web, but this is the one that explains how the Web works. Written by experts with years of design and implementation experience, this book is the definitive technical bible that describes the "why" and the "how" of HTTP and web core technologies. The Definitive Guide is an essential reference that no technically-inclined member of the Internet community should be without.

Genres: Programming, Computer Science, Technology, Web, Technical, Software, Computers

656 pages, Paperback

First published September 20, 2002

Reviews

[Saleh Darwish]

من الوهلة الاولة قد تعتقد ان كتاب
HTTP The Definitive Guide
سوف يتحدث وفقط علي
http protocol Architecture and how it's work
ولكنه سوف يذهب بك الي رحلة عميقة وجميلة وباسلوب مبسط الي جميع المكونات الخاصة ب
web-Technology
ويفتح ابواب عقلك الي اشياء تزيدك فهمنا الي جميع المكونات المختلفة التي يتكوم منها ال
web-technology
وكيف تتفاعل تلك المكونات مع بعضها البعض ومع ربطها ب
http Protocol and interaction happen between them

لذلك يعتبر هذا الكتاب مرجع جيدا للذين يحبون معرفة المكونات المختلقة ب
web-Technologies
فهو يعتبر مرجعا مناسب جدا لهذا الامر
#This is a copied review to an overview of the book to those who wanted to read the book
credit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/khaled-ab...

[Stephanie Sun]

When I bought this, even though it had been published in 2002 I thought that it had been updated regularly. It hasn't, and although useful there is no reason why the ebook should be so expensive. I will have to do a lot more reading on the internet to get up to date.

[Adrian]

A solid choice for getting into HTTP and how the internet works under the hood.For experienced developers the early sections can be skipped.

I enjoyed how the book treated subjects such as : caching, security , consistent connections and proxies.

A good read but not spectacular.

[Hussein Elsayed]

Second book this year 🙁 Thanks COVID-19 for slowing me down :@
The book is so good and its content and the way information flows through its parts makes it a great choice for whoever wanna know the internals of the protocol and the history of its evolution over the past decade..

I would have loved if the author dived deep into connection management more than he'd done but overall the reading experience was so good and I totally recommend it 😉

(For experts it can act as a very good refresher and also it might give you some ideas of the learnings from limitations of the first versions of HTTP lacking some features (Design with change in mind) and how this was overcome in newer versions/extensions of the protocol)

[Вадим Чечеринда]

Good book, if you don't understand how exactly http works it's the best choice. But some time I think it's too much info. Some of it you could not remember ) But every unanswered question about http and with what it conected, this book could give a answer to you.

[Trekka12]

This is a Must-read for any self-respecting Web Developer. HTTP is the basis of Internet. To understand it helps when working as a web developer. How communication and information is communicated on the World Wide Web. To master the art of creating such communication at it's very root, as well as to modify/alter it and analyze it. As a web developer with insight into- and knowledge of HTTP you can optimize your websites beyond if you didn't have this knowledge and be able to understand the inner workings of your website on a much deeper level. A definite Must-Read, but just a heads-up, this is a Tome, a Bible but it works perfect as reference litterature after having read it as well. It covers Everything you need to know. I doubt you will be disappointed.

[dantelk]

A great read. The text is easy to understand. The context is quite deep and varied, but almost nothing felt verbose.
- Network protocols and TCP clearly explained.
- Caching and proxies explained clearly, and a lot of practical stuff
- Great insight on different authentication mechanisms
- A bit more content on cloud would be appreciated in newer editions of the book.

[Petru Cervac]

This was a great overview of the HTTP protocol and adjacent technologies. Although the book is more than 20 years old, it is still relevant, as the basics of web and HTTP didn't change much.
Some chapters didn't stand the test of time, such as chapters 10, 13. I've skipped the part V

[An Nguyen]

An awesome book for every web developer, it introduces an overview as well as deep enough knowledge about HTTP protocol and related topics.
This is should be a must-read for web developer.

[Jason Kim]

There are considerable sections of the book that is outdated now, but there are some other section that discuss core knowledge engineers who work with web should have.

[lE0P9n]

还差那么几章

[Hai Sam]

The best book I have ever read about HTTP.
This is a valuable book for any serious software engineer who want to enhance their knowledge in Web technology.

[bruno]

i've learned a lot reading this thick ass book. some parts are incredibly boring as hell, but overall a fundamental book for every web developer for sure.

[Mykyta Shepel]

I got lost in this book. Full of info. It's like a wiki to refer, not like studying guide

[Dariush Eslami]

A comprehensive tutorial for acquiring sufficient knowledge on HTTP.

[Igor]

A great general overview of HTTP and web concepts; easy to follow.

[Allam Abdelrhman]

Right now, HTTP must die (kudos to James Kettle).

[BabyLunLun]

Outdated book published in 2002.

But I think its a very well structured book that brings you through all the components of HTTP. Its fun and easy to understand. There will parts where its too tedious and technical ( chapters about character set ) . Its a good introduction though if you want to get started with HTTP.

Hope they release a new edition because this author is great

[Premkumar Bhaskal]

Really good explanation and very good for reference too.
The book is engaging, never felt bored reading the book.

[Miko]

https://viewpre.com/review/1000008

[Bjoern Rochel]

Probably contains all you need to know about HTTP in an easier to understand form than the RFCs. Sometimes a bit overwhelming in detail, but it is a great resource if you want to look something up.

[Sarah]

The book is from the early 2000's, but many of these concepts have remained the same. It was good to finally dig down deep in how HTTP works. Def not a light read, but a fun read if you are an internet nerd like me.

[Hcakes]

I learned that chipmunks truly have extraordinary markings. Also? Though dense, this book is very informative about...HTTP.

[Alex]

Straight up tells you everything about HTTP.

[Libin]

this is the book I should have read 10 years ago.

[Eric Brooke]

Helpful reference

[Diego Gonzalez de a bustani]

Good!

[Mikhail GEYER]

My first book on HTTP. Not easy for me.

[Asa Myth]

A bit out of date, still informative. You can get a overview of the HTTP and internet from the first four chapters.

[Vadym Checherinda]

Good book, if you don't understand how exactly http works it's the best choice. But some time I think it's too much info. Some of it you could not remember ) But every unanswered question about http and with what it conected, this book could give a answer to you.