HTTP for HTML Authors, Part I
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Conclusion
This concludes our introduction to HTTP, and should be enough for those of you that want to build Web sites that consist only of a small number of static (unchanging) pages.
In this tutorial, you learned how a basic HTTP transaction works, and how you can use a simple server to make sure users can use HTTP to access your documents. You learned some basic guidelines about how most server software understands URLs and how it looks for documents in files on your hard disk.
In the following few tutorials, you'll learn why you might want more control over this process; you'll learn how to control the sending of some useful HTTP headers that allow you to specify how often a document should be updated, or which character encoding it uses. You'll also learn how to set things up so your users can interact with your Web server by using HTML forms, and retrieve documents that are not static, but change according to the information supplied in these forms. You'll also learn how to keep track of your users and how to redirect them from one page to another.
And finally, for you technical types that still feel the need to be immersed in jargon and detail, the complete HTTP 1.1 specification is available online. More information on HTTP can also be found on the W3C's HTTP page.
