# REST Requests
<a name="requests-rest-overview"></a>

Amazon Route 53 REST requests are HTTPS requests, as defined by RFC 2616 (for more information, go to [https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2616.txt](https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2616.txt)). This section describes the structure of an Route 53 REST request. 

A typical REST action consists of sending a single HTTPS request to Route 53, and waiting for the response. Like any HTTP request, a REST request to Route 53 contains a request method, a URI, request headers, and sometimes a query string or request body. The response contains an HTTP status code, response headers, and sometimes a response body.

## Request URI
<a name="requests-rest-uri"></a>

The request URI always starts with a forward slash and then the version of the Route 53 API you use (for example, 2013-04-01). The remainder of the URI indicates the particular resource you want to act on. For example, following is the URI you use when creating a new hosted zone. (For more information, see [CreateHostedZone](API_CreateHostedZone.md).)

```
1. /2013-04-01/hostedzone
```

## About the Request Time Stamp
<a name="requests-rest-time-stamp"></a>

You must provide the time stamp in either the HTTP `Date` header or the AWS `x-amz-date` header (some HTTP client libraries don't let you set the `Date` header). When an `x-amz-date` header is present, the system ignores any `Date` header when authenticating the request.

The time stamp must be within 5 minutes of the AWS system time when the request is received. If it isn't, the request fails with the `RequestExpired` error code. This is to prevent replays of your requests by an adversary.

The date must be specified in ISO 8601 format, for example, `2016-03-03T19:20:25.177Z`. For more information about ISO 8601 format, see the Wikipedia article [ISO 8601](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601).

## Request Body
<a name="requests-rest-body"></a>

Many of the Route 53 API actions require you to include XML in the body of the request. The XML conforms to the Route 53 schema. 

**Example Request**  
The following example request uses a simple XML statement to create a hosted zone named example.com with the reference identifier, *myUniqueIdentifier*.  
The XML elements in your request must appear in the order listed.  

```
 1. POST /2013-04-01/hostedzone HTTP/1.1
 2. host:route53.amazonaws.com
 3. x-amz-date:date and time of the request
 4. authorization:AWS4-HMAC-SHA256
 5.               Credential=AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE/date of the request in yyyymmdd format/us-east-1/route53domains/aws4_request,
 6.               SignedHeaders=content-length;content-type;host;user-agent;x-amz-date;x-amz-target,
 7.               Signature=computed signature
 8. [Other required headers]
 9. 		
10. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
11. <CreateHostedZoneRequest xmlns="https://route53.amazonaws.com/
12. doc/2013-04-01/">
13.    <Name>example.com.</Name>
14.    <CallerReference>myUniqueIdentifier</CallerReference>
15.    <HostedZoneConfig>
16.       <Comment>This is my hosted zone.</Comment>
17.    </HostedZoneConfig>
18. </CreateHostedZoneRequest>
```