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 "http://www.example.com"
  str = SimpleHttp.get "www.example.com"
  

• Can use URI or String url interchangibly

  str = SimpleHttp.get URI.parse "http://www.example.com/"
  

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

  http = SimpleHttp.new "http://www.example.com"
  http.set_proxy "http://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 "http://www.example.com/image_upload"
  http.post imageData, "img/png"
  

• Automatically handles SSL

  str = SimpleHttp.get "https://secure.example.com"
  

• Easy HTTP Basic Authentication str = SimpleHttp.get URI.parse("http://usr:pwd@www.example.com") #or http = SimpleHttp.new "http://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: #httphttp.response_headers['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['date']
}

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['location']
	raise "REDIRECT not allowed!"
}