HTTP 202 Accepted

Overview

The HTTP 202 Accepted status code is used to indicate that the request has been accepted for processing, but the processing is not yet complete.

Purpose

The HTTP 202 response is used to acknowledge receipt of a request which will be processed asynchronously, typically in scenarios where processing does not occur immediately.

Usage

Client Behavior:

Send Request: The client sends an HTTP request that might require time-consuming processing.
Receive Response: The client receives the HTTP 202 status, indicating the request is accepted but not yet completed.

Server Behavior:

Accept Request: The server accepts the request and begins processing.
Deferred Action: The server processes the request in a background or asynchronous task.

Scenarios

Asynchronous Operations: Useful for requests that trigger background tasks or batch processing.
Delayed Processing: For operations where immediate completion is not possible, and further processing is scheduled.

Sequence Diagram

A sequence diagram to illustrate the flow of requests and responses for the HTTP 202 status:

sequenceDiagram
    participant Client
    participant Server as Web Server

    Note over Client: Client sends a request
    Client->>Server: POST /async-operation HTTP/1.1
    Note over Server: Server acknowledges and starts processing
    Server->>Client: HTTP/1.1 202 Accepted

Curl Request and Response Example

A Curl example demonstrating how to send a request that might result in an HTTP 202 Accepted response:

curl -i -X POST http://example.com/async-operation
# Expected response: HTTP/1.1 202 Accepted

PHP cURL Request and Response Example

PHP code using cURL to send a request that could receive an HTTP 202 Accepted response:

<?php
$ch = curl_init('http://example.com/async-operation');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
if (curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE) == 202) {
    echo "Request accepted for processing.";
}
curl_close($ch);
?>

Python Request and Response Example

A Python script using the requests library to send a request and handle an HTTP 202 Accepted response:

import requests
response = requests.post('http://example.com/async-operation')
if response.status_code == 202:
    print("Request accepted for processing")

Apache Configuration for HTTP 202 Accepted

Apache configuration to handle requests that might result in an HTTP 202 Accepted response:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName example.com
    # Proxy to a backend server that handles asynchronous processing
    ProxyPass /async-operation http://backend_server/
    ProxyPassReverse /async-operation http://backend_server/
</VirtualHost>

NGINX Configuration for HTTP 202 Accepted

NGINX server configuration to proxy requests to a backend that may return an HTTP 202 Accepted response:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com;
    location /async-operation {
        proxy_pass http://backend_server;
        # Additional configurations for asynchronous processing
    }
}

HTTP 201 Created HTTP 203 Non-Authoritative Information