phpman > perldoc > HTTP::Request(3pm)

NAME
    HTTP::Request - HTTP style request message

VERSION
    version 6.36

SYNOPSIS
     require HTTP::Request;
     $request = HTTP::Request->new(GET => 'http://www.example.com/');

    and usually used like this:

     $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new;
     $response = $ua->request($request);

DESCRIPTION
    "HTTP::Request" is a class encapsulating HTTP style requests, consisting of a request line, some
    headers, and a content body. Note that the LWP library uses HTTP style requests even for
    non-HTTP protocols. Instances of this class are usually passed to the request() method of an
    "LWP::UserAgent" object.

    "HTTP::Request" is a subclass of "HTTP::Message" and therefore inherits its methods. The
    following additional methods are available:

    $r = HTTP::Request->new( $method, $uri )
    $r = HTTP::Request->new( $method, $uri, $header )
    $r = HTTP::Request->new( $method, $uri, $header, $content )
        Constructs a new "HTTP::Request" object describing a request on the object $uri using method
        $method. The $method argument must be a string. The $uri argument can be either a string, or
        a reference to a "URI" object. The optional $header argument should be a reference to an
        "HTTP::Headers" object or a plain array reference of key/value pairs. The optional $content
        argument should be a string of bytes.

    $r = HTTP::Request->parse( $str )
        This constructs a new request object by parsing the given string.

    $r->method
    $r->method( $val )
        This is used to get/set the method attribute. The method should be a short string like
        "GET", "HEAD", "PUT", "PATCH" or "POST".

    $r->uri
    $r->uri( $val )
        This is used to get/set the uri attribute. The $val can be a reference to a URI object or a
        plain string. If a string is given, then it should be parsable as an absolute URI.

    $r->header( $field )
    $r->header( $field => $value )
        This is used to get/set header values and it is inherited from "HTTP::Headers" via
        "HTTP::Message". See HTTP::Headers for details and other similar methods that can be used to
        access the headers.

    $r->accept_decodable
        This will set the "Accept-Encoding" header to the list of encodings that decoded_content()
        can decode.

    $r->content
    $r->content( $bytes )
        This is used to get/set the content and it is inherited from the "HTTP::Message" base class.
        See HTTP::Message for details and other methods that can be used to access the content.

        Note that the content should be a string of bytes. Strings in perl can contain characters
        outside the range of a byte. The "Encode" module can be used to turn such strings into a
        string of bytes.

    $r->as_string
    $r->as_string( $eol )
        Method returning a textual representation of the request.

EXAMPLES
    Creating requests to be sent with LWP::UserAgent or others can be easy. Here are a few examples.

  Simple POST
    Here, we'll create a simple POST request that could be used to send JSON data to an endpoint.

        #!/usr/bin/env perl

        use strict;
        use warnings;

        use HTTP::Request ();
        use JSON::MaybeXS qw(encode_json);

        my $url = 'https://www.example.com/api/user/123';
        my $header = ['Content-Type' => 'application/json; charset=UTF-8'];
        my $data = {foo => 'bar', baz => 'quux'};
        my $encoded_data = encode_json($data);

        my $r = HTTP::Request->new('POST', $url, $header, $encoded_data);
        # at this point, we could send it via LWP::UserAgent
        # my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new();
        # my $res = $ua->request($r);

  Batch POST Request
    Some services, like Google, allow multiple requests to be sent in one batch.
    <https://developers.google.com/drive/v3/web/batch> for example. Using the "add_part" method from
    HTTP::Message makes this simple.

        #!/usr/bin/env perl

        use strict;
        use warnings;

        use HTTP::Request ();
        use JSON::MaybeXS qw(encode_json);

        my $auth_token = 'auth_token';
        my $batch_url = 'https://www.googleapis.com/batch';
        my $url = 'https://www.googleapis.com/drive/v3/files/fileId/permissions?fields=id';
        my $url_no_email = 'https://www.googleapis.com/drive/v3/files/fileId/permissions?fields=id&sendNotificationEmail=false';

        # generate a JSON post request for one of the batch entries
        my $req1 = build_json_request($url, {
            emailAddress => 'example AT appsrocks.com',
            role => "writer",
            type => "user",
        });

        # generate a JSON post request for one of the batch entries
        my $req2 = build_json_request($url_no_email, {
            domain => "appsrocks.com",
            role => "reader",
            type => "domain",
        });

        # generate a multipart request to send all of the other requests
        my $r = HTTP::Request->new('POST', $batch_url, [
            'Accept-Encoding' => 'gzip',
            # if we don't provide a boundary here, HTTP::Message will generate
            # one for us. We could use UUID::uuid() here if we wanted.
            'Content-Type' => 'multipart/mixed; boundary=END_OF_PART'
        ]);

        # add the two POST requests to the main request
        $r->add_part($req1, $req2);
        # at this point, we could send it via LWP::UserAgent
        # my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new();
        # my $res = $ua->request($r);
        exit();

        sub build_json_request {
            my ($url, $href) = @_;
            my $header = ['Authorization' => "Bearer $auth_token", 'Content-Type' => 'application/json; charset=UTF-8'];
            return HTTP::Request->new('POST', $url, $header, encode_json($href));
        }

SEE ALSO
    HTTP::Headers, HTTP::Message, HTTP::Request::Common, HTTP::Response

AUTHOR
    Gisle Aas <gisle AT 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.