Request Body
In HTTP requests such as POST and PUT, where data is sent to the web server as opposed to requested from the web server, the data is located inside the HTTP Request Body. The formatting of the data can take many forms, but some common ones are URL Encoded, Form Data, JSON, or XML.
URL Encoded | Form Data | JSON | XML
URL Encoded (application/x-www-form-urlencoded)
A format where data is structured in pairs of key and value where (key=value). Multiple pairs are separated by an (&) symbol, such as key1=value1&key2=value2. Special characters are percent-encoded.
Example :
POST /profile HTTP/1.1
Host: tryhackme.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Content-Length: 33
name=Aleksandra&age=27&country=US
Form Data (multipart/form-data)
Allows multiple data blocks to be sent where each block is separated by a boundary string. The boundary string is the defined header of the request itself. This type of formatting can be used to send binary data, such as when uploading files or images to a web server.
Example :
POST /upload HTTP/1.1
Host: tryhackme.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=----WebKitFormBoundary7MA4YWxkTrZu0gW
----WebKitFormBoundary7MA4YWxkTrZu0gW
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="username"
aleksandra
----WebKitFormBoundary7MA4YWxkTrZu0gW
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="profile_pic"; filename="aleksandra.jpg"
Content-Type: image/jpeg
[Binary Data Here representing the image]
----WebKitFormBoundary7MA4YWxkTrZu0gW--
JSON (application/json)
In this format, the data can be sent using the JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) structure. Data is formatted in pairs of name : value. Multiple pairs are separated by commas, all contained within curly braces {}.
JSON or JavaScript Object Notation is an open standard file and data interchange format that uses human-readable text to store and transmit data objects consisting of attribute–value pairs and arrays.
Example :
POST /api/user HTTP/1.1
Host: tryhackme.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0
Content-Type: application/json
Content-Length: 62
{
"name": "Aleksandra",
"age": 27,
"country": "US"
}
XML (application/xml)
In XML formatting, data is structured inside labels called tags, which have an opening and closing. These labels can be nested within each other. You can see in the example below the opening and closing of the tags to send details about a user called Aleksandra.
XML or Extensible Markup Language is a markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable
Example :
POST /api/user HTTP/1.1
Host: tryhackme.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0
Content-Type: application/xml
Content-Length: 124
<user>
<name>Aleksandra</name>
<age>27</age>
<country>US</country>
</user>