HTTP status codes - What happened to dev.to ?
Younes

Younes @yoadev

About: Senior Fullstack Developer behind Yukari Labs, Subtile AI, BeDevs, ...

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Joined:
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HTTP status codes - What happened to dev.to ?

Publish Date: Dec 18 '18
54 14

Hello everyone,
Today, I will speak about HTTP status codes.

Yesterday at 7:30 pm, I was giving a look to Github and, I don't know why, I needed to visit dev.to.
But when I tried to load the page, I received a beautiful 'Error 503' with a dog looking at me! 😝

And that's how I found myself writing this little post to you.

"Always look on the bright side of life." 🌔, My mom.

So...here we go!

First of all, why do we need a status code?

A status code is a little message from the server that tells you how things went with your request (if everything went well, etc...).
So you can imagine how necessary it is to get feedback on the status of a request.

There are several status codes and each one is dedicated to a specific situation.

Categories

The HTTP status codes are divided into 5 different classes defined by the first number they are composed of.

Here is a list of the classes described in the RFC 7231, page 47:

  • 1xx: Informational - Request received, continuing process
  • 2xx: Success - The action was successfully received, understood, and accepted
  • 3xx: Redirection - Further action must be taken in order to complete the request
  • 4xx: Client Error - The request contains bad syntax or cannot be fulfilled
  • 5xx: Server Error - The server failed to fulfill an apparently valid request

A quick look at the most frequent status codes

The number one is, of course, the famous:

  • Error 404 Not Found
    ERr0r4O4
    This error occurs when the resources you ask doesn't exist, try to check the orthography and stay calm 🙏😄.

  • 503 Service Unavailable
    ERr0r5O3
    The error I had the good fortune to see yesterday appears mainly when the server is busy (overloaded by too many requests ?) or when the server is in maintenance.
    It is usually temporary, so be patient!

  • 200 OK
    are you sure everything is fine ??
    A normal user doesn't even know about its existence, this status code means that everything goes well.
    You asked for X, I found it, and I've shown it to you.

  • Etc...
    an image
    There is a lot of HTTP status code, so I let you see by yourself here.

As you can see the most frequent status codes are errors 😭😂.

So that's it for this article, like every time, feel free to remind me if I forgot something 😜

I know, I know, you're sad.
But I will come back as soon as possible with other better posts than the previous one. (I hope so)

Comments 14 total

  • Ben Halpern
    Ben HalpernDec 19, 2018

    Well this post is evidence that the service did come back online eventually 😄

    Actually, due to edge caching, most pages were still deliverable despite issues with the central application.

    • Younes
      YounesDec 19, 2018

      Yes, it only lasted a few minutes, thankfully 😄.

      Effectively, I noticed it later.

  • Erick Navarro
    Erick NavarroDec 19, 2018

    418 Im a tea pot

    • Younes
      YounesDec 19, 2018

      how could I forget it 😭😂

    • Philip Hallstrom
      Philip HallstromDec 20, 2018

      For the first time in 25 years of development I actually got to use that in a production system. It was for a brief lived feature where I needed to ensure I wouldn't step on another status' toes so worked wonderfully.

  • Tomer
    TomerDec 19, 2018

    If you're looking for a visual map. http.cat is a great resource

    • Younes
      YounesDec 19, 2018

      Quite interesting. Thank you ! 😂

  • Younes
    YounesDec 19, 2018

    I'll do better next time. 😅

    Thank's for the feedback !

  • Christopher Kruse
    Christopher KruseDec 20, 2018

    For easy reference, who can say no to puppies? httpstatusdogs.com

  • Younes
    YounesDec 20, 2018

    it wasn't my goal, sorry for that 😂😅

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