[ViewVC] Annotation of: cvs/AnyEvent-HTTP/README

NAME
    AnyEvent::HTTP - simple but non-blocking HTTP/HTTPS client

SYNOPSIS
       use AnyEvent::HTTP;

       http_get "http://www.nethype.de/", sub { print $_[1] };

       # ... do something else here

DESCRIPTION
    This module is an AnyEvent user, you need to make sure that you use and
    run a supported event loop.

    This module implements a simple, stateless and non-blocking HTTP client.
    It supports GET, POST and other request methods, cookies and more, all
    on a very low level. It can follow redirects supports proxies and
    automatically limits the number of connections to the values specified
    in the RFC.

    It should generally be a "good client" that is enough for most HTTP
    tasks. Simple tasks should be simple, but complex tasks should still be
    possible as the user retains control over request and response headers.

    The caller is responsible for authentication management, cookies (if the
    simplistic implementation in this module doesn't suffice), referer and
    other high-level protocol details for which this module offers only
    limited support.

  METHODS
    http_get $url, key => value..., $cb->($data, $headers)
        Executes an HTTP-GET request. See the http_request function for
        details on additional parameters.

    http_head $url, key => value..., $cb->($data, $headers)
        Executes an HTTP-HEAD request. See the http_request function for
        details on additional parameters.

    http_post $url, $body, key => value..., $cb->($data, $headers)
        Executes an HTTP-POST request with a request body of $body. See the
        http_request function for details on additional parameters.

    http_request $method => $url, key => value..., $cb->($data, $headers)
        Executes a HTTP request of type $method (e.g. "GET", "POST"). The
        URL must be an absolute http or https URL.

        The callback will be called with the response data as first argument
        (or "undef" if it wasn't available due to errors), and a hash-ref
        with response headers as second argument.

        All the headers in that hash are lowercased. In addition to the
        response headers, the "pseudo-headers" "HTTPVersion", "Status" and
        "Reason" contain the three parts of the HTTP Status-Line of the same
        name. The pseudo-header "URL" contains the original URL (which can
        differ from the requested URL when following redirects).

        If the server sends a header multiple lines, then their contents
        will be joined together with "\x00".

        If an internal error occurs, such as not being able to resolve a
        hostname, then $data will be "undef", "$headers->{Status}" will be
        599 and the "Reason" pseudo-header will contain an error message.

        A typical callback might look like this:

           sub {
              my ($body, $hdr) = @_;

              if ($hdr->{Status} =~ /^2/) {
                 ... everything should be ok
              } else {
                 print "error, $hdr->{Status} $hdr->{Reason}\n";
              }
           }

        Additional parameters are key-value pairs, and are fully optional.
        They include:

        recurse => $count (default: $MAX_RECURSE)
            Whether to recurse requests or not, e.g. on redirects,
            authentication retries and so on, and how often to do so.

        headers => hashref
            The request headers to use. Currently, "http_request" may
            provide its own "Host:", "Content-Length:", "Connection:" and
            "Cookie:" headers and will provide defaults for "User-Agent:"
            and "Referer:".

        timeout => $seconds
            The time-out to use for various stages - each connect attempt
            will reset the timeout, as will read or write activity. Default
            timeout is 5 minutes.

        proxy => [$host, $port[, $scheme]] or undef
            Use the given http proxy for all requests. If not specified,
            then the default proxy (as specified by $ENV{http_proxy}) is
            used.

            $scheme must be either missing or "http" for HTTP, or "https"
            for HTTPS.

        body => $string
            The request body, usually empty. Will be-sent as-is (future
            versions of this module might offer more options).

        cookie_jar => $hash_ref
            Passing this parameter enables (simplified) cookie-processing,
            loosely based on the original netscape specification.

            The $hash_ref must be an (initially empty) hash reference which
            will get updated automatically. It is possible to save the
            cookie_jar to persistent storage with something like JSON or
            Storable, but this is not recommended, as expire times are
            currently being ignored.

            Note that this cookie implementation is not of very high
            quality, nor meant to be complete. If you want complete cookie
            management you have to do that on your own. "cookie_jar" is
            meant as a quick fix to get some cookie-using sites working.
            Cookies are a privacy disaster, do not use them unless required
            to.

        Example: make a simple HTTP GET request for http://www.nethype.de/

           http_request GET => "http://www.nethype.de/", sub {
              my ($body, $hdr) = @_;
              print "$body\n";
           };

        Example: make a HTTP HEAD request on https://www.google.com/, use a
        timeout of 30 seconds.

           http_request
              GET     => "https://www.google.com",
              timeout => 30,
              sub {
                 my ($body, $hdr) = @_;
                 use Data::Dumper;
                 print Dumper $hdr;
              }
           ;

  GLOBAL FUNCTIONS AND VARIABLES
    AnyEvent::HTTP::set_proxy "proxy-url"
        Sets the default proxy server to use. The proxy-url must begin with
        a string of the form "http://host:port" (optionally "https:...").

    $AnyEvent::HTTP::MAX_RECURSE
        The default value for the "recurse" request parameter (default: 10).

    $AnyEvent::HTTP::USERAGENT
        The default value for the "User-Agent" header (the default is
        "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; AnyEvent::HTTP/$VERSION;
        +http://software.schmorp.de/pkg/AnyEvent)").

    $AnyEvent::HTTP::MAX_PERSISTENT
        The maximum number of persistent connections to keep open (default:
        8).

        Not implemented currently.

    $AnyEvent::HTTP::PERSISTENT_TIMEOUT
        The maximum time to cache a persistent connection, in seconds
        (default: 2).

        Not implemented currently.

    $AnyEvent::HTTP::ACTIVE
        The number of active connections. This is not the number of
        currently running requests, but the number of currently open and
        non-idle TCP connections. This number of can be useful for
        load-leveling.

SEE ALSO
    AnyEvent.

AUTHOR
       Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
       http://home.schmorp.de/

Revision:	1.4
Committed:	Thu Jul 24 06:01:10 2008 UTC (15 years, 9 months ago) by root
Branch:	MAIN
CVS Tags:	rel-1_04, rel-1_05
Changes since 1.3:	+1 -1 lines
Log Message:	1.04
#	User	Rev	Content
1	root	1.1	NAME
2	root	1.2	AnyEvent::HTTP - simple but non-blocking HTTP/HTTPS client
3	root	1.1
4			SYNOPSIS
5	root	1.2	use AnyEvent::HTTP;
6	root	1.1
7	root	1.3	http_get "http://www.nethype.de/", sub { print $_[1] };
8
9			# ... do something else here
10
11	root	1.1	DESCRIPTION
12			This module is an AnyEvent user, you need to make sure that you use and
13			run a supported event loop.
14
15	root	1.2	This module implements a simple, stateless and non-blocking HTTP client.
16			It supports GET, POST and other request methods, cookies and more, all
17			on a very low level. It can follow redirects supports proxies and
18			automatically limits the number of connections to the values specified
19			in the RFC.
20
21			It should generally be a "good client" that is enough for most HTTP
22			tasks. Simple tasks should be simple, but complex tasks should still be
23			possible as the user retains control over request and response headers.
24
25			The caller is responsible for authentication management, cookies (if the
26			simplistic implementation in this module doesn't suffice), referer and
27			other high-level protocol details for which this module offers only
28			limited support.
29
30			METHODS
31			http_get $url, key => value..., $cb->($data, $headers)
32			Executes an HTTP-GET request. See the http_request function for
33			details on additional parameters.
34
35			http_head $url, key => value..., $cb->($data, $headers)
36			Executes an HTTP-HEAD request. See the http_request function for
37			details on additional parameters.
38
39			http_post $url, $body, key => value..., $cb->($data, $headers)
40	root	1.4	Executes an HTTP-POST request with a request body of $body. See the
41	root	1.2	http_request function for details on additional parameters.
42
43			http_request $method => $url, key => value..., $cb->($data, $headers)
44			Executes a HTTP request of type $method (e.g. "GET", "POST"). The
45			URL must be an absolute http or https URL.
46
47			The callback will be called with the response data as first argument
48			(or "undef" if it wasn't available due to errors), and a hash-ref
49			with response headers as second argument.
50
51			All the headers in that hash are lowercased. In addition to the
52	root	1.3	response headers, the "pseudo-headers" "HTTPVersion", "Status" and
53			"Reason" contain the three parts of the HTTP Status-Line of the same
54			name. The pseudo-header "URL" contains the original URL (which can
55			differ from the requested URL when following redirects).
56
57			If the server sends a header multiple lines, then their contents
58			will be joined together with "\x00".
59	root	1.2
60			If an internal error occurs, such as not being able to resolve a
61			hostname, then $data will be "undef", "$headers->{Status}" will be
62			599 and the "Reason" pseudo-header will contain an error message.
63
64			A typical callback might look like this:
65
66			sub {
67			my ($body, $hdr) = @_;
68
69			if ($hdr->{Status} =~ /^2/) {
70			... everything should be ok
71			} else {
72			print "error, $hdr->{Status} $hdr->{Reason}\n";
73			}
74			}
75
76			Additional parameters are key-value pairs, and are fully optional.
77			They include:
78
79			recurse => $count (default: $MAX_RECURSE)
80			Whether to recurse requests or not, e.g. on redirects,
81			authentication retries and so on, and how often to do so.
82
83			headers => hashref
84			The request headers to use. Currently, "http_request" may
85			provide its own "Host:", "Content-Length:", "Connection:" and
86			"Cookie:" headers and will provide defaults for "User-Agent:"
87			and "Referer:".
88
89			timeout => $seconds
90			The time-out to use for various stages - each connect attempt
91			will reset the timeout, as will read or write activity. Default
92			timeout is 5 minutes.
93
94			proxy => [$host, $port[, $scheme]] or undef
95			Use the given http proxy for all requests. If not specified,
96			then the default proxy (as specified by $ENV{http_proxy}) is
97			used.
98
99			$scheme must be either missing or "http" for HTTP, or "https"
100			for HTTPS.
101
102			body => $string
103			The request body, usually empty. Will be-sent as-is (future
104			versions of this module might offer more options).
105
106			cookie_jar => $hash_ref
107			Passing this parameter enables (simplified) cookie-processing,
108			loosely based on the original netscape specification.
109
110			The $hash_ref must be an (initially empty) hash reference which
111			will get updated automatically. It is possible to save the
112			cookie_jar to persistent storage with something like JSON or
113			Storable, but this is not recommended, as expire times are
114			currently being ignored.
115
116			Note that this cookie implementation is not of very high
117			quality, nor meant to be complete. If you want complete cookie
118			management you have to do that on your own. "cookie_jar" is
119			meant as a quick fix to get some cookie-using sites working.
120			Cookies are a privacy disaster, do not use them unless required
121			to.
122
123			Example: make a simple HTTP GET request for http://www.nethype.de/
124
125			http_request GET => "http://www.nethype.de/", sub {
126			my ($body, $hdr) = @_;
127			print "$body\n";
128			};
129
130			Example: make a HTTP HEAD request on https://www.google.com/, use a
131			timeout of 30 seconds.
132
133			http_request
134			GET => "https://www.google.com",
135			timeout => 30,
136			sub {
137			my ($body, $hdr) = @_;
138			use Data::Dumper;
139			print Dumper $hdr;
140			}
141			;
142
143			GLOBAL FUNCTIONS AND VARIABLES
144			AnyEvent::HTTP::set_proxy "proxy-url"
145			Sets the default proxy server to use. The proxy-url must begin with
146			a string of the form "http://host:port" (optionally "https:...").
147
148			$AnyEvent::HTTP::MAX_RECURSE
149			The default value for the "recurse" request parameter (default: 10).
150
151			$AnyEvent::HTTP::USERAGENT
152			The default value for the "User-Agent" header (the default is
153			"Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; AnyEvent::HTTP/$VERSION;
154			+http://software.schmorp.de/pkg/AnyEvent)").
155
156			$AnyEvent::HTTP::MAX_PERSISTENT
157			The maximum number of persistent connections to keep open (default:
158			8).
159
160			Not implemented currently.
161
162			$AnyEvent::HTTP::PERSISTENT_TIMEOUT
163			The maximum time to cache a persistent connection, in seconds
164			(default: 2).
165
166			Not implemented currently.
167
168			$AnyEvent::HTTP::ACTIVE
169			The number of active connections. This is not the number of
170			currently running requests, but the number of currently open and
171			non-idle TCP connections. This number of can be useful for
172			load-leveling.
173	root	1.1
174			SEE ALSO
175	root	1.2	AnyEvent.
176	root	1.1
177			AUTHOR
178	root	1.3	Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
179			http://home.schmorp.de/
180	root	1.1