Slide 5.4: Network connection (cont.)

Network Connection (Cont.)

HTTP/1.0 allows an open-ended set of methods to be used to indicate the purpose of a request:

The GET method: Information from a form using the GET method is appended onto the end of the action URI being requested. This is not a secure way to transmit form data since the form data is appended to a string of characters visible in your browser's “location” window, such as,
```
   scriptname.cgi?somedata=example&homephone=123-1234
```
The HEAD method: The HEAD method is used to ask only for information about a document, not for the document itself.

The POST method: This method transmits all form input information immediately after the requested URI. The submitted data is not visible (it does not appear in the URL as with the get method).

And likewise, you can set some of the HTTP properties. The HTTP User-Agent (or browser ID) request header contains information about compatibility, the browser, and the platform name. For example,

   c.setRequestProperty( "User-Agent",
     "Profile/MIDP-1.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.0" );

If there is a method that requires data to be sent or received from the server, there is a state transition from Setup to Connected. Examples of methods that cause the transition include:


   openInputStream
   openOutputStream
   openDataInputStream
   openDataOutputStream


   getLength
   getType
   getDate
   getExpiration

While the connection is open, some of these methods that may be invoked:


   getURL
   getProtocol

   getHost
   getPort