So, yesterday I was messing around with some APIs, you know, the usual stuff, when I bumped into this “204 No Content” thing. I’m like, “What the heck does that even mean?” It got me curious, so I decided to do a little digging.
First, I tried sending a few requests to an API endpoint I was working with. I made a DELETE request to remove some resource. And boom, the server sent back a 204. Then it hit me – this probably means the action was successful, but there’s no need to show anything new to the user, no body returned.
Then, I did what any curious person would do: I hit up Google. I read through a bunch of articles, and basically, the gist is this: 204 means the server got my request, processed it just fine, and there’s nothing more to say.
- It’s like when you ask someone to do something, they do it, and then just give you a nod. No need for extra words.
- And the client, the browser or whatever, doesn’t have to navigate or change the current page.
I also found out that 204 is one of those HTTP status codes. Apparently, there’s a whole bunch of them, each with its own special meaning. I saw that codes starting with 2 generally mean success, codes with 4 mean there is something wrong on the client side, while codes with 5 mean there is something wrong on the server side, which is kind of neat.
I went on to experiment a bit more. I tried different types of requests, like PUT and POST, to see when a 204 would pop up. It seemed like it’s mostly used when you’re updating or deleting something, and there’s no new content to send back in the response.
Practical Implication
From a user’s perspective, a 204 might not be very noticeable. Things just happen behind the scenes. But for developers, it’s a useful way to know that an operation was successful without having to send back a bunch of data. It can also help with SEO things that I didn’t quite get into.
So, that’s my little adventure with the 204 status code. It’s one of those small things that you might not think about much, but it plays a part in making the web work smoothly. I’m still not a pro at this API stuff, but I’m learning something new every day, which is pretty cool. Hope this was helpful, I will share more stories like this one when I encounter them. Cheers!
