Introduction to the Apache Web Server - ApacheCon

Section 7
MIME
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/mod/mod mime.html
MIME - Multipart Internet Mail Extensions - was created in order that attachments could be sent via email,
rather than having email restricted to plain text only. HTTP is built around MIME, and headers in general.
Perhaps this section would better be labeled HTTP Headers.
• Multipart Internet Mail Extensions
• RFC 2045 - 2049
• HTTP based entirely on MIME standards
• MIME header tells the browser what type of document it is getting
• Content-Type: major/minor
• Content-Type: text/html
• Content-Type: image/gif
• Content-Type: Application/Unknown
• The browser has a list of mappings to applications, so that it knows how to display the content.
7.1 HTTP headers
Slight rewind here - HTTP is all about headers. Most of the information about a transaction is contained
in the headers. The body is actually quite uninteresting (at least from a protocol perspective).
http://webtools.mozilla.org/web-sniffer - Tool for viewing the complete HTTP transaction, including all
headers.
Or, try http://www.web-caching.org/showheaders.html
or, http://www.mdb.ku.dk/tarvin/http_tool
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