Notes on the format of HTTP requests and responses

Last published : Sep 24, 2026
The NetScaler appliance does not check for the validity of the HTTP callout request. Therefore, before you configure HTTP callouts, you must know the format of an HTTP request. You must also know the format of an HTTP response, because configuring an HTTP callout involves configuring expressions that evaluate the response from the HTTP callout agent.
This section includes the following sections:
  • Format of an HTTP Request
  • Format of an HTTP Response
Related information

Format of an HTTP Request

An HTTP request contains a series of lines that each end with a carriage return and a line feed, represented as either <CR><LF> or \r\n.
The first line of a request (the message line ) contains the HTTP method and target. For example, a message line for a GET request contains the keyword GET and a string that represents the object that is to be fetched, as shown in the following example:
GET /mysite/mydirectory/index.html HTTP/1.1\r\n
The rest of the request contains HTTP headers, including a required Host header and, if applicable, a message body.
The request ends with a bank line (an extra <CR><LF> or \r\n).
Following is an example of a request:
Get /mysite/index.html HTTP/1.1\r\n
Host: 10.101.101.10\r\n
Accept: */*\r\n
\r\n

Format of an HTTP Response

An HTTP response contains a status message, response HTTP headers, and the requested object or, if the requested object cannot be served, an error message.
Following is an example of a response:
HTTP/1.1 200 OK\r\n
Content-Length: 55\r\n
Content-Type: text/html\r\n
Last-Modified: Wed, 12 Aug 1998 15:03:50 GMT\r\n
Accept-Ranges: bytes\r\n
ETag: “04f97692cbd1:377”\r\n
Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:29:07 GMT\r\n
\r\n
<55-character response>