NAME
ne_request_create, ne_request_dispatch, ne_request_destroy - low-level HTTP request handling
SYNOPSIS
#include <ne_request.h>
ne_request *ne_request_create(ne_session *session, const char *method, const char *path);
int ne_request_dispatch(ne_request *req);
void ne_request_destroy(ne_request *req);
DESCRIPTION
An HTTP request, represented by the
ne_request
type, specifies that some operation is to be performed on some resource. The
ne_request_create
function creates a request object, specifying the operation in the
method
parameter. The location of the resource is determined by the server in use for the session given by the
sess
parameter, combined with the
path
parameter.
The
path
string used must conform to the
abs_path
definition given in RFC2396, with an optional "?query" part, and must be URI-escaped by the caller (for instance, using
ne_path_escape). If the string comes from an untrusted source, failure to perform URI-escaping results in a security vulnerability.
To dispatch a request, and process the response, the
ne_request_dispatch
function can be used. An alternative is to use the (more complex, but more flexible) combination of the
ne_begin_request,
ne_end_request, and
ne_read_response_block
functions; see
ne_begin_request.
To add extra headers in the request, the functions
ne_add_request_header
and
ne_print_request_header
can be used. To include a message body with the request, one of the functions
ne_set_request_body_buffer,
ne_set_request_body_fd, or
ne_set_request_body_provider
can be used.
The return value of
ne_request_dispatch
indicates merely whether the request was sent and the response read successfully. To discover the result of the operation,
ne_get_status, along with any processing of the response headers and message body.
A request can only be dispatched once: calling
ne_request_dispatch
more than once on a single
ne_request
object produces undefined behaviour. Once all processing associated with the request object is complete, use the
ne_request_destroy
function to destroy the resources associated with it. Any subsequent use of the request object produces undefined behaviour.
RETURN VALUE
The
ne_request_create
function returns a pointer to a request object (and never
NULL).
The
ne_request_dispatch
function returns zero if the request was dispatched successfully, and a non-zero error code otherwise.
ERRORS
NE_ERROR
Request failed (see session error string)
NE_LOOKUP
The DNS lookup for the server (or proxy server) failed.
NE_AUTH
Authentication failed on the server.
NE_PROXYAUTH
Authentication failed on the proxy server.
NE_CONNECT
A connection to the server could not be established.
NE_TIMEOUT
A timeout occurred while waiting for the server to respond.
EXAMPLE
An example of applying a
MKCOL
operation to the resource at the location
http://www.example.com/foo/bar/:
ne_session *sess = ne_session_create("http", "www.example.com", 80);
ne_request *req = ne_request_create(sess, "MKCOL", "/foo/bar/");
if (ne_request_dispatch(req)) {
printf("Request failed: %s\n", ne_get_error(sess));
}
ne_request_destroy(req);
SEE ALSO
ne_get_error,
ne_set_error,
ne_get_status,
ne_add_request_header,
ne_set_request_body_buffer.