Name for HTTP Request+Response

41
votes

There's one thing I haven't found in RFC 2616 ("Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1") and that's a "canonical" name for a request/response pair. Is there such thing?

4.1 Message Types:

4.1 Message Types

   HTTP messages consist of requests from client to server and responses
   from server to client.

       HTTP-message   = Request | Response     ; HTTP/1.1 messages

Taking this as a template, which word would you put in the following sentence?

A single complete HTTP ... consists of one HTTP Request and one HTTP Response

    HTTP-... = Request Response

roundtrip? cycle?

5
httpnaminghttp-1.1

5 Answers

41
votes

The spec calls them "exchanges" (or "request/response exchanges").

Per section 1.4, "Overall Operation":

In HTTP/1.0, most implementations used a new connection for each request/response exchange. In HTTP/1.1, a connection may be used for one or more request/response exchanges […]

6
votes
  • RFC2616 calls it an Exchange.
  • Wireshark and HTTPNetworkSniffer call it a Request/Response.
  • Fiddler calls it a Session.
  • Charles calls it a Sequence.
  • HTTP Scoop calls it a Conversation.
  • Other vocabulary includes: Message, Transaction, Communication.

I would go for Exchange or RequestResponse.

I also went to name it Operation in my code as I would queue Operations, flush Operations, pause or resume Operations.

2
votes

Exchanges is nice name, also we can use Connection, Communication or session

0
votes

Payload

In my project, I needed a name so that I can differentiate between models (Database) and HTTP interaction objects, so I am using payload, like:

  • ProductPayload, ProductModel
  • CartPayload, CartModel
  • OrderPayload, OrderModel
-1
votes

Transaction, yes, or "A singe HTTP Request consists of one HTTP Request message and one HTTP Response message."