SimpleHttp - a simplified wrapper around Net::Http

SimpleHttp aims to reduce the complexity of Net::Http while providing the most commonly used (by me) http functionality.

INSTALLATION

  • Using gem

gem install simplehttp

  • Using setup.rb

ruby setup.rb config ruby setup.rb install

  • tarball and zip packages are available from RubyForge

FEATURES / USAGE

  • Require the lib:

require ‘simplehttp’

  • No fuss one line GET and POST requests:

str = SimpleHttp.get “www.example.com” str = SimpleHttp.get “www.example.com”

  • Can use URI or String url interchangibly

str = SimpleHttp.get URI.parse “www.example.com/”

  • Transparent Proxy Handling. Uses the ‘http_proxy’ environment variable if set, also provides a set_proxy method.

http = SimpleHttp.new “www.example.com” http.set_proxy “proxy.example.com:8000” http.post “query” => “example_query”

  • POST sends ruby Hashes as ‘application/x-www-form/urlencoded’ per default, but can send any data.

http = SimpleHttp.new “www.example.com/image_upload” http.post imageData, “img/png”

  • Automatically handles SSL

str = SimpleHttp.get “secure.example.com”

  • Easy HTTP Basic Authentication

str = SimpleHttp.get URI.parse(“usr:[email protected]”) #or http = SimpleHttp.new “www.example.com” http.basic_authentication “user”, “password” http.post “query” => “example_query”

  • Access headers of the request or response

http = SimpleHttp.new “www.example.com” http.request_headers=“useful header” http.get puts “server set cookie: #'set-cookie'”

  • Automatically follows Http Redirects.

The get and post methods return a String containing the body of the request if the request was successful (HTTP 200). In case of a redirect, the redirect is followed and the ultimate response is returned. Per Default, up to three redirects are followed, this behaviour can be modified by setting follow_num_redirects.

In case of any other type of response, an exception is raised.

The default behaviour can be modified by registering handlers using the register_response_handler method. E.g. if you’d like to retrieve the Date header instead of the body for successful transactions:

http = SimpleHttp.new … http.register_response_handler(Net::HTTPSuccess) {|req,res,http| res }

Or you’d like to print the Location and then raise an exception in case of a redirect:

http = SimpleHttp.new … http.register_response_handler(Net::HTTPRedirect) {|req,res,http| puts res raise “REDIRECT not allowed!” }