HTTP Methods and Their Meanings

In the context of HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), which is the protocol used for communication between a client (typically a web browser or application) and a server, the terms “GET,” “POST,” “PUT,” “PATCH,” and “DELETE” are HTTP methods or verbs. These methods define the type of action that should be performed on a resource identified by a URL (Uniform Resource Locator). Here’s what each of these HTTP methods means:

GET:

• Meaning: The GET method is used to request data from a specified resource.
• Purpose: It is used to retrieve information from the server without making any changes to the server’s data. GET requests should be idempotent, meaning multiple identical GET requests should have the same effect as a single request.
• Example: When you enter a URL in your web browser’s address bar and press Enter, a GET request is sent to the server to retrieve the web page’s content.

POST:

• Meaning: The POST method is used to submit data to be processed to a specified resource.
• Purpose: It is typically used for creating new resources on the server or updating existing resources. POST requests may result in changes to the server’s data.
• Example: When you submit a form on a web page, the data entered in the form fields is sent to the server using a POST request.

PUT:

• Meaning: The PUT method is used to update a resource or create a new resource if it does not exist at a specified URL.
• Purpose: It is used for updating or replacing the entire resource at the given URL with the new data provided in the request. PUT requests are idempotent.
• Example: An application might use a PUT request to update a user’s profile information.

PATCH:

• Meaning: The PATCH method is used to apply partial modifications to a resource.
• Purpose: It is used when you want to update specific fields or properties of a resource without affecting the entire resource. It is often used for making partial updates to existing data.
• Example: You might use a PATCH request to change the description of a product in an e-commerce system without altering other product details.

DELETE:

• Meaning: The DELETE method is used to request the removal of a resource at a specified URL.
• Purpose: It is used to delete or remove a resource from the server. After a successful DELETE request, the resource should no longer exist.
• Example: When you click a “Delete” button in a web application to remove a post or a file, a DELETE request is sent to the server.

These HTTP methods provide a standardized way for clients to interact with web servers and perform various operations on resources. They are an essential part of the RESTful architecture, which is commonly used for designing web APIs and web services.

In this article, we are going to learn how can we build an API and how can we perform crud operations on that. This will be only backend code and you must know Js, nodeJs, express.js, and JSON before starting out this. This Node.js server code sets up a RESTful API for managing student data. It provides endpoints for performing CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations on a collection of student records. The server uses the Express.js framework to handle HTTP requests.