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<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN" 
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<refentry id="libsoup-request-howto">
<refmeta>
<refentrytitle>libsoup Client SoupRequest API</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>3</manvolnum>
<refmiscinfo>LIBSOUP Library</refmiscinfo>
</refmeta>

<refnamediv>
<refname>libsoup Client SoupRequest API</refname><refpurpose>Using
libsoup with a mix of <literal>http</literal> and non-<literal>http</literal> URIs.</refpurpose>
</refnamediv>

<refsect2>
<title><type>SoupRequest</type></title>

<para>
<link linkend="SoupRequest"><type>SoupRequest</type></link> is an
abstract type representing a request for a particular URI. The
<type>SoupRequest</type> API is an alternative to the <link
linkend="SoupMessage"><type>SoupMessage</type></link>-based <link
linkend="SoupSession"><type>SoupSession</type></link> APIs which may be
useful to programs that want to deal with multiple kinds of URIs.
</para>

<para>
<type>SoupRequest</type> officially became part of the
<application>libsoup</application> API in 2.42 with the addition of
<link
linkend="soup-session-request"><function>soup_session_request</function></link>
and the related functions. However, parts of it are also available as
far back as <application>libsoup</application> 2.34 via the
(now-deprecated) <type>SoupRequester</type> session feature, if you
define <literal>LIBSOUP_USE_UNSTABLE_REQUEST_API</literal> before
including the <application>libsoup</application> headers.
</para>

<para>
Additionally, before <application>libsoup</application> 2.42, the
<type>SoupRequest</type> API was the only way to stream an HTTP
response body via <link
linkend="GInputStream"><type>GInputStream</type></link>. As of 2.42,
there are streaming APIs based on <type>SoupMessage</type> (<link
linkend="soup-session-send"><function>soup_session_send</function></link>
and <link
linkend="soup-session-send-async"><function>soup_session_send_async</function></link>),
so applications that are using <type>SoupRequest</type> with only
<literal>http</literal> and <literal>https</literal> URIs can be
ported to those APIs now.
</para>

</refsect2>

<refsect2>
<title>Creating a SoupRequest</title>

<para>
There are four <type>SoupSession</type> methods for creating
<type>SoupRequest</type>s:
</para>

<itemizedlist>
    <listitem>
	<para>
	    <link linkend="soup-session-request"><function>soup_session_request</function></link>
	    takes an arbitrary URI as a string, and returns a <link
	    linkend="SoupRequest"><type>SoupRequest</type></link>.
	</para>
    </listitem>
    <listitem>
	<para>
	    <link linkend="soup-session-request-uri"><function>soup_session_request_uri</function></link>
	    takes an arbitrary URI as a <link linkend="SoupURI"><type>SoupURI</type></link>,
	    and returns a <link linkend="SoupRequest"><type>SoupRequest</type></link>.
	</para>
    </listitem>
    <listitem>
	<para>
	    <link linkend="soup-session-request-http"><function>soup_session_request_http</function></link>
	    takes an HTTP method and an <literal>http</literal> or <literal>https</literal> URI as a string, and returns a <link
	    linkend="SoupRequestHTTP"><type>SoupRequestHTTP</type></link>.
	</para>
    </listitem>
    <listitem>
	<para>
	    <link linkend="soup-session-request-http-uri"><function>soup_session_request_http_uri</function></link>
	    takes an HTTP method and an <literal>http</literal> or <literal>https</literal> URI as a <link linkend="SoupURI"><type>SoupURI</type></link>,
	    and returns a <link linkend="SoupRequestHTTP"><type>SoupRequestHTTP</type></link>.
	</para>
    </listitem>
</itemizedlist>

</refsect2>

<refsect2>
<title>Sending a SoupRequest</title>

<para>
Once you have created a <type>SoupRequest</type>, you can send it with
either <link
linkend="soup-request-send"><function>soup_request_send</function></link>
or <link
linkend="soup-request-send-async"><function>soup_request_send_async</function></link>.
This will provide you with a <link
linkend="GInputStream"><type>GInputStream</type></link> which you can
read to get the response body.
</para>

<para>
After sending, you can use <link
linkend="soup-request-get-content-length"><function>soup_request_get_content_length</function></link>
and <link
linkend="soup-request-get-content-type"><function>soup_request_get_content_type</function></link>
to get information about the response body.
</para>

<para>
As with the streaming <type>SoupMessage</type>-based APIs,
<function>soup_request_send</function> and
<function>soup_request_send_async</function> only return errors if a
transport-level problem occurs (eg, it could not connect to the host,
or the request was cancelled). In the case of an HTTP request, use the
message's <structfield>status_code</structfield> field to determine
whether the request was successful or not at the HTTP level (ie, "<literal>200
OK</literal>" vs "<literal>401 Bad Request</literal>"). (You can call <link
linkend="soup-request-http-get-message"><function>soup_request_http_get_message</function></link>
to get the request's corresponding <link
linkend="SoupMessage"><type>SoupMessage</type></link>, to look at the
status code or other HTTP metadata.)
</para>

</refsect2>

<refsect2>
<title>Supported URI types, and adding your own</title>

<para>
Different URI types are implemented by different subclasses of
<type>SoupRequest</type>. <application>libsoup</application> currently
implements three <type>SoupRequest</type> classes:
</para>

<variablelist>
    <varlistentry>
	<term><link linkend="SoupRequestHTTP"><type>SoupRequestHTTP</type></link></term>
	<listitem><para>
	    Handles <literal>http</literal> and
	    <literal>https</literal> URI.
	</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
	<term><link linkend="SoupRequestData"><type>SoupRequestData</type></link></term>
	<listitem><para>
	    Handles <literal>data</literal> URIs containing inline data.
	</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
	<term><link linkend="SoupRequestFile"><type>SoupRequestFile</type></link></term>
	<listitem><para>
	    Handles <literal>file</literal> and
	    <link linkend="GResource"><literal>resource</literal></link> URIs.
	    If you request a URI corresponding to a directory, this
	    will generate an HTML listing of the directory.
	</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
</variablelist>

<para>
You can add additional URI types by implementing your own
<type>SoupRequest</type> subclass; set the
<type>SoupRequestClass</type>'s <structfield>schemes</structfield>
field to point to a <literal>NULL</literal>-terminated array of scheme
names, implement the various <type>SoupRequest</type> methods, and
then register the type with your <type>SoupSession</type> by calling
<link linkend="soup-session-add-feature-by-type"><function>soup_session_add_feature_by_type</function></link>
and passing the <link linkend="GType"><type>GType</type></link> of
your request class.
</para>

</refsect2>

</refentry>