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HTTP File Specification

  • The .http file syntax.
  • How to create an .http file.
  • How to send a request from an .http file.

Requests​

The format for an HTTP request is HTTPMethod URL HTTPVersion, all on one line, where:

  • HTTPMethod is the HTTP method to use, for example:
    • OPTIONS
    • GET
    • HEAD
    • POST
    • PUT
    • PATCH
    • DELETE
    • TRACE
    • CONNECT
  • URL is the URL to send the request to. The URL can include query string parameters. The URL doesn't have to point to a local web project. It can point to any URL that Visual Studio can access.
  • HTTPVersion is optional and specifies the HTTP version that should be used, that's, HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2, or HTTP/3.

A file can contain multiple requests by using lines with ### as delimiters. The following example showing three requests in a file illustrates this syntax:

GET https://localhost:7220/weatherforecast

###

GET https://localhost:7220/weatherforecast?date=2023-05-11&location=98006

###

GET https://localhost:7220/weatherforecast HTTP/3

###

Request headers​

To add one or more headers, add each header on its own line immediately after the request line. Don't include any blank lines between the request line and the first header or between subsequent header lines. The format is header-name: value, as shown in the following examples:

GET https://localhost:7220/weatherforecast
Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2023 07:28:00 GMT

###

GET https://localhost:7220/weatherforecast
Cache-control: max-age=604800
Age: 100

###

Don't add any secrets to a source code repository.

Request body​

Add the request body after a blank line, as shown in the following example:

POST https://localhost:7220/weatherforecast
Content-Type: application/json
Accept-Language: en-US,en;q=0.5

{
    "date": "2023-05-10",
    "temperatureC": 30,
    "summary": "Warm"
}

###

Comments​

Lines that start with either # are comments. These lines are ignored when kulala sends HTTP requests.

Variables​

A line that starts with @ defines a variable by using the syntax @VariableName=Value.

Variables can be referenced in requests that are defined later in the file. They're referenced by wrapping their names in double curly braces, {{ and }}.

The following example shows two variables defined and used in a request:

@hostname=localhost
@port=44320

GET https://{{hostname}}:{{port}}/weatherforecast

Variables can be defined using values of other variables that were defined earlier in the file.

The following example uses one variable in the request instead of the two shown in the preceding example:

@hostname=localhost
@port=44320
@host={{hostname}}:{{port}}

GET https://{{host}}/api/search/tool