We have this software that has a webservices component.
Now, the administrator of this system has come to me, wanting to import data into the system by using the webservices component.
So, I went to read the documentation to try to figure this thing out and I am seeing things like this:
Click here to see what I'm talking about (this looks best in firefox, chrome, & safari)
That documentation gives examples of interacting with the system using HTTP verbs such as GET, POST, PUT, DELETE. But in my limited experience, I have never had to send neither an HTTP PUT nor a DELETE.
How do you do it? I have built HTML forms that have method="post" or method="get" and the request is sent to whatever is specified in the action attribute (action="someResource"). But I don't really know what to do with this PUT thing.
If I had to guess, I would have to build an application that creates some sort of an HTTP Request object and set all the properties of it and somehow include the data I want to PUT to the RESOURCE (
I am trying to use REST terminology, which is something else is very new to me
). Then I would send the request using my programming language and blah blah blah. I am just speculating on this. Please offer up some assistance!
I thought that I was a web developer, since I know things like XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc. but it's starting to look like I don't know anything about the foundations of the web at all (HTTP).
EDIT
PS: I program mostly with .net. So, any examples in .net would be pretty awesome.
Best Answer
Here's a C# example using HttpWebRequest:
Update: there's now an HttpClient class in System.Net.Http (available as a NuGet package) that makes this a bit easier: