Are responses to HTTP requests required?

Question

I think it's a generally applicable question, but this is what I'm trying to do: small Node.JS app that receives a POST request from GroupMe whenever a message is posted in a group to trigger and fulfills a completely separate action. They state that the callback URL will receive an HTTP POST request from us every time a message is published to that group. It doesn't make much of a difference to me if I need to respond to the POST, but I was curious if it's even necessary or if it had any negative implications.

var server = http.createServer(function(request, response) {
    doStuff(request);
});

Answer 1

It really depends what you're doing, but generally if no response is sent then applications or users which expect there to be one will wait until the connection times out, which may take up to a minute or longer, get a time out error and assume your service doesn't work.

You don't have to send any text, just a HTTP response code will do. Have doStuff() return whether it was successful and send the appropriate code based on it:

var server = http.createServer(function(request, response) {
    response.send(doStuff(request) ? 200 : 400);
});

200 means OK, 400 means Bad Request

Answer 2

What I know in the field of HTTP request and response, You should at least say response.end().

If you won't say response.end client will be waiting for response. So better to say a response.end after tour task.

var server = http.createServer(function(request, response) {
    doStuff(request);
    response.end(); //It tells browser/client that server has finished it's work on this request.
});