Variant objects in the context of HTTP are objects served by an Origin Content Server in a type of transmitted data variation (i.e. uncompressed, compressed, different languages, etc.).
HTTP/1.1 (1997–1999) introduces Content/Accept headers. These are used in HTTP requests and responses to state which variant the data is presented in.
Example Scenario
Client:
Server:
References
Variant object Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA