About
HTTP (The Gem! a.k.a. http.rb) is an easy-to-use client library for making requests from Ruby. It uses a simple method chaining system for building requests, similar to Python's Requests.
Under the hood, http.rb uses the llhttp parser, a fast HTTP parsing native extension.
This library isn't just yet another wrapper around Net::HTTP
. It implements the HTTP
protocol natively and outsources the parsing to native extensions.
Why http.rb?
Clean API: http.rb offers an easy-to-use API that should be a breath of fresh air after using something like Net::HTTP.
Maturity: http.rb is one of the most mature Ruby HTTP clients, supporting features like persistent connections and fine-grained timeouts.
Performance: using native parsers and a clean, lightweight implementation, http.rb achieves high performance while implementing HTTP in Ruby instead of C.
Installation
Add this line to your application's Gemfile:
gem "http"
And then execute:
$ bundle
Or install it yourself as:
$ gem install http
Inside of your Ruby program do:
require "http"
...to pull it in as a dependency.
Documentation
Please see the http.rb wiki for more detailed documentation and usage notes.
The following API documentation is also available:
Basic Usage
Here's some simple examples to get you started:
>> HTTP.get("https://github.com").to_s
=> "\n\n\n<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html lang=\"en\" class=\"\">\n <head prefix=\"o..."
That's all it takes! To obtain an HTTP::Response
object instead of the response
body, all we have to do is omit the #to_s
on the end:
>> HTTP.get("https://github.com")
=> #<HTTP::Response/1.1 200 OK {"Server"=>"GitHub.com", "Date"=>"Tue, 10 May...>
We can also obtain an HTTP::Response::Body
object for this response:
>> HTTP.get("https://github.com").body
=> #<HTTP::Response::Body:3ff756862b48 @streaming=false>
The response body can be streamed with HTTP::Response::Body#readpartial
.
In practice, you'll want to bind the HTTP::Response::Body
to a local variable
and call #readpartial
on it repeatedly until it returns nil
:
>> body = HTTP.get("https://github.com").body
=> #<HTTP::Response::Body:3ff756862b48 @streaming=false>
>> body.readpartial
=> "\n\n\n<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html lang=\"en\" class=\"\">\n <head prefix=\"o..."
>> body.readpartial
=> "\" href=\"/apple-touch-icon-72x72.png\">\n <link rel=\"apple-touch-ic..."
# ...
>> body.readpartial
=> nil
Supported Ruby Versions
This library aims to support and is tested against the following Ruby versions:
- JRuby 9.3
- Ruby 2.6
- Ruby 2.7
- Ruby 3.0
- Ruby 3.1
- Ruby 3.2
If something doesn't work on one of these versions, it's a bug.
This library may inadvertently work (or seem to work) on other Ruby versions, however support will only be provided for the versions listed above.
If you would like this library to support another Ruby version or implementation, you may volunteer to be a maintainer. Being a maintainer entails making sure all tests run and pass on that implementation. When something breaks on your implementation, you will be responsible for providing patches in a timely fashion. If critical issues for a particular implementation exist at the time of a major release, support for that Ruby version may be dropped.
Contributing to http.rb
- Fork http.rb on GitHub
- Make your changes
- Ensure all tests pass (
bundle exec rake
) - Send a pull request
- If we like them we'll merge them
- If we've accepted a patch, feel free to ask for commit access!
Copyright
Copyright © 2011-2022 Tony Arcieri, Alexey V. Zapparov, Erik Michaels-Ober, Zachary Anker. See LICENSE.txt for further details.