HTTP headers for the responsible developer

https://www.twilio.com/blog/a-http-headers-for-the-responsible-developer

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19856419

Developers have the power to build the web for everyone, but that power needs to be used responsibly. What matters, in the end, is building things that help and enable people.

In this article, I want to share how HTTP headers can help you build better products for a better web for everyone.

HTTP – HyperText Transfer Protocol

Let’s talk about HTTP first. HTTP is the protocol used by computers to request and send data over the web.

When a browser requests a resource from a server it uses HTTP. This request includes a set of key-value pairs giving information like the version of the browser or what file formats it understands. These key-value pairs are called request headers.

The server answers with the requested resource but also sends response headers giving information on the resource or the server itself.

Request: 
GET https://the-responsible.dev/
Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate, br
Accept-Language: en-GB,en-US;q=0.9,en;q=0.8,de;q=0.7 ...

Response:
Connection: keep-alive
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2019 12:59:38 GMT ... Response Body

HTTP is the foundation of the web today and it offers many ways to improve user experience. Let’s dive into how you can use HTTP headers to build a web that is safe, affordable and respectful

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