diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/http.n')
-rw-r--r-- | doc/http.n | 360 |
1 files changed, 360 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/doc/http.n b/doc/http.n new file mode 100644 index 0000000..36227ce --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/http.n @@ -0,0 +1,360 @@ +'\" +'\" Copyright (c) 1995-1997 Sun Microsystems, Inc. +'\" +'\" See the file "license.terms" for information on usage and redistribution +'\" of this file, and for a DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES. +'\" +'\" SCCS: @(#) http.n 1.11 97/08/07 16:45:02 +'\" +.so man.macros +.TH "Http" n 8.0 Tcl "Tcl Built-In Commands" +.BS +'\" Note: do not modify the .SH NAME line immediately below! +.SH NAME +Http \- Client-side implementation of the HTTP/1.0 protocol. +.SH SYNOPSIS +\fBpackage require http ?2.0?\fP +.sp +\fB::http::config \fI?options?\fR +.sp +\fB::http::geturl \fIurl ?options?\fR +.sp +\fB::http::formatQuery \fIlist\fR +.sp +\fB::http::reset \fItoken\fR +.sp +\fB::http::wait \fItoken\fR +.sp +\fB::http::status \fItoken\fR +.sp +\fB::http::size \fItoken\fR +.sp +\fB::http::code \fItoken\fR +.sp +\fB::http::data \fItoken\fR +.BE + +.SH DESCRIPTION +.PP +The \fBhttp\fR package provides the client side of the HTTP/1.0 +protocol. The package implements the GET, POST, and HEAD operations +of HTTP/1.0. It allows configuration of a proxy host to get through +firewalls. The package is compatible with the \fBSafesock\fR security +policy, so it can be used by untrusted applets to do URL fetching from +a restricted set of hosts. +.PP +The \fB::http::geturl\fR procedure does a HTTP transaction. +Its \fIoptions \fR determine whether a GET, POST, or HEAD transaction +is performed. +The return value of \fB::http::geturl\fR is a token for the transaction. +The value is also the name of an array in the ::http namespace + that contains state +information about the transaction. The elements of this array are +described in the STATE ARRAY section. +.PP +If the \fB-command\fP option is specified, then +the HTTP operation is done in the background. +\fB::http::geturl\fR returns immediately after generating the +HTTP request and the callback is invoked +when the transaction completes. For this to work, the Tcl event loop +must be active. In Tk applications this is always true. For pure-Tcl +applications, the caller can use \fB::http::wait\fR after calling +\fB::http::geturl\fR to start the event loop. +.SH COMMANDS +.TP +\fB::http::config\fP ?\fIoptions\fR? +The \fB::http::config\fR command is used to set and query the name of the +proxy server and port, and the User-Agent name used in the HTTP +requests. If no options are specified, then the current configuration +is returned. If a single argument is specified, then it should be one +of the flags described below. In this case the current value of +that setting is returned. Otherwise, the options should be a set of +flags and values that define the configuration: +.RS +.TP +\fB\-accept\fP \fImimetypes\fP +The Accept header of the request. The default is */*, which means that +all types of documents are accepted. Otherwise you can supply a +comma separated list of mime type patterns that you are +willing to receive. For example, "image/gif, image/jpeg, text/*". +.TP +\fB\-proxyhost\fP \fIhostname\fP +The name of the proxy host, if any. If this value is the +empty string, the URL host is contacted directly. +.TP +\fB\-proxyport\fP \fInumber\fP +The proxy port number. +.TP +\fB\-proxyfilter\fP \fIcommand\fP +The command is a callback that is made during +\fB::http::geturl\fR +to determine if a proxy is required for a given host. One argument, a +host name, is added to \fIcommand\fR when it is invoked. If a proxy +is required, the callback should return a two element list containing +the proxy server and proxy port. Otherwise the filter should return +an empty list. The default filter returns the values of the +\fB\-proxyhost\fR and \fB\-proxyport\fR settings if they are +non-empty. +.TP +\fB\-useragent\fP \fIstring\fP +The value of the User-Agent header in the HTTP request. The default +is \fB"Tcl http client package 2.0."\fR +.RE +.TP +\fB::http::geturl\fP \fIurl\fP ?\fIoptions\fP? +The \fB::http::geturl \fR command is the main procedure in the package. +The \fB\-query\fR option causes a POST operation and +the \fB\-validate\fR option causes a HEAD operation; +otherwise, a GET operation is performed. The \fB::http::geturl\fR command +returns a \fItoken\fR value that can be used to get +information about the transaction. See the STATE ARRAY section for +details. The \fB::http::geturl\fR command blocks until the operation +completes, unless the \fB\-command\fR option specifies a callback +that is invoked when the HTTP transaction completes. +\fB::http::geturl\fR takes several options: +.RS +.TP +\fB\-blocksize\fP \fIsize\fP +The blocksize used when reading the URL. +At most +\fIsize\fR +bytes are read at once. After each block, a call to the +\fB\-progress\fR +callback is made. +.TP +\fB\-channel\fP \fIname\fP +Copy the URL contents to channel \fIname\fR instead of saving it in +\fBstate(body)\fR. +.TP +\fB\-command\fP \fIcallback\fP +Invoke \fIcallback\fP after the HTTP transaction completes. +This option causes \fB::http::geturl\fP to return immediately. +The \fIcallback\fP gets an additional argument that is the \fItoken\fR returned +from \fB::http::geturl\fR. This token is the name of an array that is +described in the STATE ARRAY section. Here is a template for the +callback: +.RS +.CS +proc httpCallback {token} { + upvar #0 $token state + # Access state as a Tcl array +} +.CE +.RE +.TP +\fB\-handler\fP \fIcallback\fP +Invoke \fIcallback\fP whenever HTTP data is available; if present, nothing +else will be done with the HTTP data. This procedure gets two additional +arguments: the socket for the HTTP data and the \fItoken\fR returned from +\fB::http::geturl\fR. The token is the name of a global array that is described +in the STATE ARRAY section. The procedure is expected to return the number +of bytes read from the socket. Here is a template for the callback: +.RS +.CS +proc httpHandlerCallback {socket token} { + upvar #0 $token state + # Access socket, and state as a Tcl array + ... + (example: set data [read $socket 1000];set nbytes [string length $data]) + ... + return nbytes +} +.CE +.RE +.TP +\fB\-headers\fP \fIkeyvaluelist\fP +This option is used to add extra headers to the HTTP request. The +\fIkeyvaluelist\fR argument must be a list with an even number of +elements that alternate between keys and values. The keys become +header field names. Newlines are stripped from the values so the +header cannot be corrupted. For example, if \fIkeyvaluelist\fR is +\fBPragma no-cache\fR then the following header is included in the +HTTP request: +.CS +Pragma: no-cache +.CE +.TP +\fB\-progress\fP \fIcallback\fP +The \fIcallback\fR is made after each transfer of data from the URL. +The callback gets three additional arguments: the \fItoken\fR from +\fB::http::geturl\fR, the expected total size of the contents from the +\fBContent-Length\fR meta-data, and the current number of bytes +transferred so far. The expected total size may be unknown, in which +case zero is passed to the callback. Here is a template for the +progress callback: +.RS +.CS +proc httpProgress {token total current} { + upvar #0 $token state +} +.CE +.RE +.TP +\fB\-query\fP \fIquery\fP +This flag causes \fB::http::geturl\fR to do a POST request that passes the +\fIquery\fR to the server. The \fIquery\fR must be a x-url-encoding +formatted query. The \fB::http::formatQuery\fR procedure can be used to +do the formatting. +.TP +\fB\-timeout\fP \fImilliseconds\fP +If \fImilliseconds\fR is non-zero, then \fB::http::geturl\fR sets up a timeout +to occur after the specified number of milliseconds. +A timeout results in a call to \fB::http::reset\fP and to +the \fB-command\fP callback, if specified. +The return value of \fB::http::status\fP is \fBtimeout\fP +after a timeout has occurred. +.TP +\fB\-validate\fP \fIboolean\fP +If \fIboolean\fR is non-zero, then \fB::http::geturl\fR does an HTTP HEAD +request. This request returns meta information about the URL, but the +contents are not returned. The meta information is available in the +\fBstate(meta) \fR variable after the transaction. See the STATE +ARRAY section for details. +.RE +.TP +\fB::http::formatQuery\fP \fIkey value\fP ?\fIkey value\fP ...? +This procedure does x-url-encoding of query data. It takes an even +number of arguments that are the keys and values of the query. It +encodes the keys and values, and generates one string that has the +proper & and = separators. The result is suitable for the +\fB\-query\fR value passed to \fB::http::geturl\fR. +.TP +\fB::http::reset\fP \fItoken\fP ?\fIwhy\fP? +This command resets the HTTP transaction identified by \fItoken\fR, if +any. This sets the \fBstate(status)\fP value to \fIwhy\fP, which defaults to \fBreset\fR, and then calls the registered \fB\-command\fR callback. +.TP +\fB::http::wait\fP \fItoken\fP +This is a convenience procedure that blocks and waits for the +transaction to complete. This only works in trusted code because it +uses \fBvwait\fR. +.TP +\fB::http::data\fP \fItoken\fP +This is a convenience procedure that returns the \fBbody\fP element +(i.e., the URL data) of the state array. +.TP +\fB::http::status\fP \fItoken\fP +This is a convenience procedure that returns the \fBstatus\fP element of +the state array. +.TP +\fB::http::code\fP \fItoken\fP +This is a convenience procedure that returns the \fBhttp\fP element of the +state array. +.TP +\fB::http::size\fP \fItoken\fP +This is a convenience procedure that returns the \fBcurrentsize\fP +element of the state array. +.SH "STATE ARRAY" +The \fB::http::geturl\fR procedure returns a \fItoken\fR that can be used to +get to the state of the HTTP transaction in the form of a Tcl array. +Use this construct to create an easy-to-use array variable: +.CS +upvar #0 $token state +.CE +The following elements of the array are supported: +.RS +.TP +\fBbody\fR +The contents of the URL. This will be empty if the \fB\-channel\fR +option has been specified. This value is returned by the \fB::http::data\fP command. +.TP +\fBcurrentsize\fR +The current number of bytes fetched from the URL. +This value is returned by the \fB::http::size\fP command. +.TP +\fBerror\fR +If defined, this is the error string seen when the HTTP transaction +was aborted. +.TP +\fBhttp\fR +The HTTP status reply from the server. This value +is returned by the \fB::http::code\fP command. The format of this value is: +.RS +.CS +\fIcode string\fP +.CE +The \fIcode\fR is a three-digit number defined in the HTTP standard. +A code of 200 is OK. Codes beginning with 4 or 5 indicate errors. +Codes beginning with 3 are redirection errors. In this case the +\fBLocation\fR meta-data specifies a new URL that contains the +requested information. +.RE +.TP +\fBmeta\fR +The HTTP protocol returns meta-data that describes the URL contents. +The \fBmeta\fR element of the state array is a list of the keys and +values of the meta-data. This is in a format useful for initializing +an array that just contains the meta-data: +.RS +.CS +array set meta $state(meta) +.CE +Some of the meta-data keys are listed below, but the HTTP standard defines +more, and servers are free to add their own. +.TP +\fBContent-Type\fR +The type of the URL contents. Examples include \fBtext/html\fR, +\fBimage/gif,\fR \fBapplication/postscript\fR and +\fBapplication/x-tcl\fR. +.TP +\fBContent-Length\fR +The advertised size of the contents. The actual size obtained by +\fB::http::geturl\fR is available as \fBstate(size)\fR. +.TP +\fBLocation\fR +An alternate URL that contains the requested data. +.RE +.TP +\fBstatus\fR +Either \fBok\fR, for successful completion, \fBreset\fR for +user-reset, or \fBerror\fR for an error condition. During the +transaction this value is the empty string. +.TP +\fBtotalsize\fR +A copy of the \fBContent-Length\fR meta-data value. +.TP +\fBtype\fR +A copy of the \fBContent-Type\fR meta-data value. +.TP +\fBurl\fR +The requested URL. +.RE +.SH EXAMPLE +.DS +# Copy a URL to a file and print meta-data +proc ::http::copy { url file {chunk 4096} } { + set out [open $file w] + set token [geturl $url -channel $out -progress ::http::Progress \\ + -blocksize $chunk] + close $out + # This ends the line started by http::Progress + puts stderr "" + upvar #0 $token state + set max 0 + foreach {name value} $state(meta) { + if {[string length $name] > $max} { + set max [string length $name] + } + if {[regexp -nocase ^location$ $name]} { + # Handle URL redirects + puts stderr "Location:$value" + return [copy [string trim $value] $file $chunk] + } + } + incr max + foreach {name value} $state(meta) { + puts [format "%-*s %s" $max $name: $value] + } + + return $token +} +proc ::http::Progress {args} { + puts -nonewline stderr . ; flush stderr +} + +.DE +.SH "SEE ALSO" +safe(n), socket(n), safesock(n) +.SH KEYWORDS +security policy, socket + + |