200OK
200 OK means the request succeeded. What comes back depends on the method: a GET returns the resource, a POST returns the result or status of the action, and PUT or DELETE returns the status of the action.
What does it mean?
A 200 response is heuristically cacheable unless the method definition or explicit cache headers say otherwise. It is the default success code for a successful GET, but it is not the only correct success code.
The response body is a representation of the target resource for GET and HEAD, the status or result of the action for POST, and the status of the action for PUT and DELETE.
When does it happen?
- A page or API resource is returned successfully.
- A form submission succeeds and you want to return the result.
- A PUT or DELETE completes and you want to confirm it.
How do you fix it?
If you run the server
- Use 201 Created when the request created a resource and you can return its URL.
- Use 204 No Content when the action succeeded and there is no body to return.
- Do not return 200 with an error message in the body. That is a soft error and it breaks clients, caches, and monitoring.
If you are just visiting
- Nothing to fix. The request worked.
- If the page looks wrong, the problem is in the content, not the status code.
