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Understanding Web Protocols: HTTP and HTTPS

Understanding Web Protocols: HTTP and HTTPS

Web protocols are the rules that govern the flow of information over the internet. When you want to access a webpage, your web browser sends a request to a server using these protocols, and the server sends back the requested webpage.

In this article, we will discuss two of the most widely used web protocols: HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) and HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure).

HTTP​

HTTP is the foundation of any data exchange on the Web. It is a protocol which allows the fetching of resources, such as HTML documents, images, etc. It is a request-response protocol in the client-server computing model.

Here is a simple example of how HTTP works:

  1. You type http://www.example.com into your web browser.
  2. Your web browser sends a request to the server where www.example.com is hosted.
  3. The server sends back the HTML of the webpage for www.example.com.
  4. Your web browser renders the HTML into a human-friendly webpage.

HTTP is not secure because the data transferred is not encrypted. This means that anyone who intercepts the data can read it. For example, if you submit a form on a webpage that is using HTTP, someone could potentially intercept and read the data that you submitted.

HTTPS​

HTTPS is essentially an HTTP connection that is secure. The 'S' at the end of HTTPS stands for 'Secure'. It means that all communications between your browser and the website are encrypted.

Here is the same example as above, but with HTTPS:

  1. You type https://www.example.com into your web browser.
  2. Your web browser sends a request to the server where www.example.com is hosted.
  3. The server sends back the HTML of the webpage for www.example.com.
  4. Your web browser renders the HTML into a human-friendly webpage.

The difference is that the data transferred is encrypted, so even if someone intercepts the data, they won't be able to read it without the encryption key.

HTTP and HTTPS in Python​

Python’s requests module provides in-built method called get() for making a GET request to a specified URI.

Here's an example of how you might use the requests module to make a HTTP request:

import requests

response = requests.get('http://www.example.com')

# print the status code
print(response.status_code)

# print the content
print(response.text)

If you want to make a HTTPS request, you can do it the same way:

import requests

response = requests.get('https://www.example.com')

# print the status code
print(response.status_code)

# print the content
print(response.text)

With Python's requests module, it's easy to make HTTP and HTTPS requests. You don't have to worry about the details of the underlying protocol.

Conclusion​

HTTP and HTTPS are protocols that dictate how data is transferred over the internet. While HTTP is not secure, HTTPS offers encryption for secure data transfer. Python's requests module simplifies the process of making HTTP and HTTPS requests by abstracting the complexities of these protocols, allowing us to fetch resources from the web with ease.

That's all for this tutorial! Hopefully, you now have a good understanding of what HTTP and HTTPS are, as well as how to make HTTP and HTTPS requests in Python. Keep practicing and happy coding!