HTTP status code

The HTTP 207 status code stands for "Multi-Status". It is a WebDAV-specific response, used when a single request involves multiple operations, and the server needs to return multiple status codes for different parts of the request.

When is HTTP 207 Used?

• Used in WebDAV (Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning), an extension of HTTP for managing files on remote servers.
• When a client makes a request that affects multiple resources (e.g., batch file operations), and the server must return different statuses for each resource.
• The response body is usually in XML format, containing details of each operation's success or failure.

Example Scenarios

• Batch File Copy/Move Operations – Some files succeed, while others fail.
• Updating Multiple Resources – A request modifies multiple files, and some updates fail.
• Deleting Multiple Files – Some files are deleted successfully, while others encounter issues.

Example

Client Request (Deleting Multiple Files)

  
    DELETE /files HTTP/1.1
    Host: example.com
    Content-Type: application/xml

    <delete>
      <file>/docs/file1.txt</file>
      <file>/docs/file2.txt</file>
    </delete>
  

Server Response (Multi-Status Result)

  
    HTTP/1.1 207 Multi-Status
    Content-Type: application/xml

    <multistatus>
      <response>
        <href>/docs/file1.txt</href>
        <status>HTTP/1.1 204 No Content</status>
      </response>
      <response>
        <href>/docs/file2.txt</href>
        <status>HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden</status>
      </response>
    </multistatus>
  

Summary

HTTP 207 means the request affected multiple resources, and the response provides individual status codes for each. It is primarily used in WebDAV for batch operations on files.