The London Perl and Raku Workshop takes place on 26th Oct 2024. If your company depends on Perl, please consider sponsoring and/or attending.

NAME

HTTP::Simple - Simple procedural interface to HTTP::Tiny

SYNOPSIS

perl -MHTTP::Simple -e'getprint(shift)' 'https://example.com'

use HTTP::Simple;

my $content = get 'https://example.com';

if (mirror('https://example.com', '/path/to/file.html') == 304) { ... }

if (is_success(getprint 'https://example.com')) { ... }

postform('https://example.com', {foo => ['bar', 'baz']});

postjson('https://example.com', [{bar => 'baz'}]);

postfile('https://example.com', '/path/to/file.png');

DESCRIPTION

This module is a wrapper of HTTP::Tiny that provides simplified functions for performing HTTP requests in a similar manner to LWP::Simple, but with slightly more useful error handling. For full control of the request process and response handling, use HTTP::Tiny directly.

IO::Socket::SSL is required for HTTPS requests with HTTP::Tiny.

Request methods that return the body content of the response will return a byte string suitable for directly printing, but that may need to be decoded for text operations.

The HTTP::Tiny object used by these functions to make requests can be accessed as $HTTP::Simple::UA (for example, to configure the timeout, or replace it with a compatible object like HTTP::Tinyish).

The JSON encoder used by the JSON functions can be accessed as $HTTP::Simple::JSON, and defaults to a Cpanel::JSON::XS object if Cpanel::JSON::XS 4.11+ is installed, and otherwise a JSON::PP object. If replaced with a new object, it should have UTF-8 encoding/decoding enabled (usually the utf8 option). If it is set to a string, it will be used as a module name that is expected to have decode_json and encode_json functions.

FUNCTIONS

All functions are exported by default. Functions can also be requested individually or with the tags :request, :status, or :all.

get

my $contents = get($url);

Retrieves the document at the given URL with a GET request and returns it as a byte string. Throws an exception on connection or HTTP errors.

getjson

my $data = getjson($url);

Retrieves the JSON document at the given URL with a GET request and decodes it from JSON to a Perl structure. Throws an exception on connection, HTTP, or JSON errors.

my $headers = head($url);

Retrieves the headers at the given URL with a HEAD request and returns them as a hash reference. Header field names are normalized to lower case, and values may be an array reference if the header is repeated. Throws an exception on connection or HTTP errors.

getprint

my $status = getprint($url);

Retrieves the document at the given URL with a GET request and prints it as it is received. Returns the HTTP status code. Throws an exception on connection errors.

getstore

my $status = getstore($url, $path);

Retrieves the document at the given URL with a GET request and stores it to the given file path. Returns the HTTP status code. Throws an exception on connection or filesystem errors.

mirror

my $status = mirror($url, $path);

Retrieves the document at the given URL with a GET request and mirrors it to the given file path, using the If-Modified-Since headers to short-circuit if the file exists and is new enough, and the Last-Modified header to set its modification time. Returns the HTTP status code. Throws an exception on connection, HTTP, or filesystem errors.

postform

my $contents = postform($url, $form);

Sends a POST request to the given URL with the given hash or array reference of form data serialized to application/x-www-form-urlencoded. Returns the response body as a byte string. Throws an exception on connection or HTTP errors.

postjson

my $contents = postjson($url, $data);

Sends a POST request to the given URL with the given data structure encoded to JSON. Returns the response body as a byte string. Throws an exception on connection, HTTP, or JSON errors.

postfile

my $contents = postfile($url, $path);
my $contents = postfile($url, $path, $content_type);

Sends a POST request to the given URL, streaming the contents of the given file. The content type is passed as application/octet-stream if not specified. Returns the response body as a byte string. Throws an exception on connection, HTTP, or filesystem errors.

is_info

my $bool = is_info($status);

Returns true if the status code indicates an informational response (1xx).

is_success

my $bool = is_success($status);

Returns true if the status code indicates a successful response (2xx).

is_redirect

my $bool = is_redirect($status);

Returns true if the status code indicates a redirection response (3xx).

is_error

my $bool = is_error($status);

Returns true if the status code indicates an error response (4xx or 5xx).

is_client_error

my $bool = is_client_error($status);

Returns true if the status code indicates a client error response (4xx).

is_server_error

my $bool = is_server_error($status);

Returns true if the status code indicates a server error response (5xx).

BUGS

Report any issues on the public bugtracker.

AUTHOR

Dan Book <dbook@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is Copyright (c) 2019 by Dan Book.

This is free software, licensed under:

The Artistic License 2.0 (GPL Compatible)

SEE ALSO

LWP::Simple, HTTP::Tinyish, ojo