HTTP::...:Common(3pm) User Contributed Perl Documentation HTTP::...:Common(3pm)
NAME
HTTP::Request::Common - Construct common HTTP::Request objects
VERSION
version 7.00
SYNOPSIS
use HTTP::Request::Common;
$ua = LWP::UserAgent->new;
$ua->request(GET 'http://www.sn.no/');
$ua->request(POST 'http://somewhere/foo', foo => bar, bar => foo);
$ua->request(PATCH 'http://somewhere/foo', foo => bar, bar => foo);
$ua->request(PUT 'http://somewhere/foo', foo => bar, bar => foo);
$ua->request(OPTIONS 'http://somewhere/foo', foo => bar, bar => foo);
DESCRIPTION
This module provides functions that return newly created "HTTP::Request"
objects. These functions are usually more convenient to use than the
standard "HTTP::Request" constructor for the most common requests.
Note that LWP::UserAgent has several convenience methods, including
"get", "head", "delete", "post" and "put".
The following functions are provided:
GET $url
GET $url, Header => Value,...
The "GET" function returns an HTTP::Request object initialized with
the "GET" method and the specified URL. It is roughly equivalent to
the following call
HTTP::Request->new(
GET => $url,
HTTP::Headers->new(Header => Value,...),
)
but is less cluttered. What is different is that a header named
"Content" will initialize the content part of the request instead of
setting a header field. Note that GET requests should normally not
have a content, so this hack makes more sense for the "PUT", "PATCH"
and "POST" functions described below.
The get(...) method of LWP::UserAgent exists as a shortcut for
"$ua->request(GET ...)".
HEAD $url
HEAD $url, Header => Value,...
Like GET() but the method in the request is "HEAD".
The head(...) method of LWP::UserAgent exists as a shortcut for
"$ua->request(HEAD ...)".
DELETE $url
DELETE $url, Header => Value,...
Like "GET" but the method in the request is "DELETE". This function
is not exported by default.
PATCH $url
PATCH $url, Header => Value,...
PATCH $url, $form_ref, Header => Value,...
PATCH $url, Header => Value,..., Content => $form_ref
PATCH $url, Header => Value,..., Content => $content
The same as "POST" below, but the method in the request is "PATCH".
PUT $url
PUT $url, Header => Value,...
PUT $url, $form_ref, Header => Value,...
PUT $url, Header => Value,..., Content => $form_ref
PUT $url, Header => Value,..., Content => $content
The same as "POST" below, but the method in the request is "PUT"
OPTIONS $url
OPTIONS $url, Header => Value,...
OPTIONS $url, $form_ref, Header => Value,...
OPTIONS $url, Header => Value,..., Content => $form_ref
OPTIONS $url, Header => Value,..., Content => $content
The same as "POST" below, but the method in the request is "OPTIONS"
This was added in version 6.21, so you should require that in your
code:
use HTTP::Request::Common 6.21;
POST $url
POST $url, Header => Value,...
POST $url, $form_ref, Header => Value,...
POST $url, Header => Value,..., Content => $form_ref
POST $url, Header => Value,..., Content => $content
"POST", "PATCH" and "PUT" all work with the same parameters.
%data = ( title => 'something', body => something else' );
$ua = LWP::UserAgent->new();
$request = HTTP::Request::Common::POST( $url, [ %data ] );
$response = $ua->request($request);
They take a second optional array or hash reference parameter
$form_ref. The content can also be specified directly using the
"Content" pseudo-header, and you may also provide the $form_ref this
way.
The "Content" pseudo-header steals a bit of the header field
namespace as there is no way to directly specify a header that is
actually called "Content". If you really need this you must update
the request returned in a separate statement.
The $form_ref argument can be used to pass key/value pairs for the
form content. By default we will initialize a request using the
"application/x-www-form-urlencoded" content type. This means that
you can emulate an HTML <form> POSTing like this:
POST 'http://www.perl.org/survey.cgi',
[ name => 'Gisle Aas',
email => 'gisle@aas.no',
gender => 'M',
born => '1964',
perc => '3%',
];
This will create an HTTP::Request object that looks like this:
POST http://www.perl.org/survey.cgi
Content-Length: 66
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
name=Gisle%20Aas&email=gisle%40aas.no&gender=M&born=1964&perc=3%25
Multivalued form fields can be specified by either repeating the
field name or by passing the value as an array reference.
The POST method also supports the "multipart/form-data" content used
for Form-based File Upload as specified in RFC 1867. You trigger
this content format by specifying a content type of 'form-data' as
one of the request headers. If one of the values in the $form_ref
is an array reference, then it is treated as a file part
specification with the following interpretation:
[ $file, $filename, Header => Value... ]
[ undef, $filename, Header => Value,..., Content => $content ]
The first value in the array ($file) is the name of a file to open.
This file will be read and its content placed in the request. The
routine will croak if the file can't be opened. Use an "undef" as
$file value if you want to specify the content directly with a
"Content" header. The $filename is the filename to report in the
request. If this value is undefined, then the basename of the $file
will be used. You can specify an empty string as $filename if you
want to suppress sending the filename when you provide a $file
value.
If a $file is provided by no "Content-Type" header, then
"Content-Type" and "Content-Encoding" will be filled in
automatically with the values returned by
LWP::MediaTypes::guess_media_type()
Sending my ~/.profile to the survey used as example above can be
achieved by this:
POST 'http://www.perl.org/survey.cgi',
Content_Type => 'form-data',
Content => [ name => 'Gisle Aas',
email => 'gisle@aas.no',
gender => 'M',
born => '1964',
init => ["$ENV{HOME}/.profile"],
]
This will create an HTTP::Request object that almost looks this (the
boundary and the content of your ~/.profile is likely to be
different):
POST http://www.perl.org/survey.cgi
Content-Length: 388
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary="6G+f"
--6G+f
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="name"
Gisle Aas
--6G+f
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="email"
gisle@aas.no
--6G+f
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="gender"
M
--6G+f
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="born"
1964
--6G+f
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="init"; filename=".profile"
Content-Type: text/plain
PATH=/local/perl/bin:$PATH
export PATH
--6G+f--
If you set the $DYNAMIC_FILE_UPLOAD variable (exportable) to some
TRUE value, then you get back a request object with a subroutine
closure as the content attribute. This subroutine will read the
content of any files on demand and return it in suitable chunks.
This allow you to upload arbitrary big files without using lots of
memory. You can even upload infinite files like /dev/audio if you
wish; however, if the file is not a plain file, there will be no
"Content-Length" header defined for the request. Not all servers
(or server applications) like this. Also, if the file(s) change in
size between the time the "Content-Length" is calculated and the
time that the last chunk is delivered, the subroutine will "Croak".
The post(...) method of LWP::UserAgent exists as a shortcut for
"$ua->request(POST ...)".
SEE ALSO
HTTP::Request, LWP::UserAgent
Also, there are some examples in "EXAMPLES" in HTTP::Request that you
might find useful. For example, batch requests are explained there.
AUTHOR
Gisle Aas <gisle@activestate.com>
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
This software is copyright (c) 1994 by Gisle Aas.
This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.
perl v5.38.2 2024-10-10 HTTP::...:Common(3pm)
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