Why is HTTP protocol called as a stateless protocol?

Question

Hi we want to the reason why HTTP protocol is called state less .

Senthilkumar · Answer

Hi Abhishek, HTTP Protocol stands for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. It is the protocol used to convey information of World Wide Web (WWW). HTTP protocol is a stateless and connectionless protocol. HTTP is called as a stateless protocol because each command is request is executed independently, without any knowledge of the requests that were executed before it. It is the protocol used for the web. It is based on a request/request paradigm. In this protocol the communication generally takes place over a TCP/IP protocol. The HTTP protocol is a stateless protocol, and the Internet is a stateless development environment" is often used. This simply means that the HyperText Transfer Protocol that is the backbone of the Web is unable to retain a memory of the identity of each client that connects to a Web site and therefore treats each request for a Web page as a unique and independent connection, with no relationship whatsoever to the connections that preceded it. For viewing statically generated pages the stateless nature of the HTTP protocol is not usually a problem because the page you view will be the same no matter what previous operations you had performed. However for applications such as shopping carts which accumulate information as you shop it is extremely important to know what has happened previously, for example what you have in your basket. What is needed for these applications is a way to "maintain state" allowing connections to be tracked so that the application can respond to a request based on what has previously taken place. For more info: http://www.roseindia.net/jsp/jspsession/HttpProtocol.shtml

Sam Hobbs · Answer

Note that the wiki.answers.com article says that ActiveX, Java, JavaScript and cookies are new technologies, but ActiveX was introduced in 1996 for Windows desktop applications that had nothing to do with the internet. JavaScript was also created about that time; it was created for the internet but it is not new.

Jignesh Trivedi · Answer

hi, please refer http://www.roseindia.net/jsp/jspsession/HttpProtocol.shtml http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_Http_known_as_stateless_protocol hope this help.

Sam Hobbs · Answer

Originally, a HTML file is just a file containing a document. HTML documents originally did not even have scripts. HTML originally were (until HTML version 5) a type of SGML file and SGML is a word-processing format. The HTTP protocol is designed to simply allow a client to get a copy of a HTML file (document). The client gets the document from the server and the server forgets about the client; HTTP is not designed for the server to remember the client. There are many ways for servers to remember a client and that type of thing is usually called a session but the HTTP protocol does not do that.

Satyapriya Nayak · Answer

Hi Abhishek, HTTP is called a stateless protocol because in this each command is executed independently, without any knowledge of the commands that came before it. It is the protocol used for the web. It is Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. It is based on a request paradigm. In this protocol the communication generally takes place over a TCP/IP protocol. Http Request method are: 1. GET 2. POST 3. HEAD 4. TRACE 5. DELETE 6. OPTIONS 7. PUT Thanks

Why is HTTP protocol called as a stateless protocol?

Answers (5)