# ibrowse [](http://travis-ci.org/cmullaparthi/ibrowse)
ibrowse is a HTTP client written in erlang.
**License:** ibrowse is available under two different licenses.
LGPL or the BSD license.
**Comments to:** chandrashekhar.mullaparthi@gmail.com
**Current Version:** 4.4.2
**Latest Version:** git://github.com/cmullaparthi/ibrowse.git
## Features
* [RFC2616](http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2616.txt) compliant (AFAIK)
* supports GET, POST, OPTIONS, HEAD, PUT, DELETE, TRACE,
MKCOL, PROPFIND, PROPPATCH, LOCK, UNLOCK, MOVE and COPY
* Understands HTTP/0.9, HTTP/1.0 and HTTP/1.1
* Understands chunked encoding
* Can generate requests using [Chunked Transfer-Encoding](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chunked_transfer_encoding)
* Pools of connections to each webserver
* Pipelining support
* Download to file
* Asynchronous requests. Responses are streamed to a process
* Basic authentication
* Supports proxy authentication
* Supports SOCKS5
* Authentication methods 0 (No authentication) and 2(Username/password) supported
* Can talk to secure webservers using SSL
* *Any other features in the code not listed here :)*
## Usage Examples
Remember to start ibrowse first:
```erlang
5> ibrowse:start().
{ok,<0.94.0>}
```
### Synchronous Requests
A simple `GET` request:
```erlang
6> ibrowse:send_req("http://intranet/messenger/", [], get).
{ok,"200",
[{"Server","Microsoft-IIS/5.0"},
{"Content-Location","http://intranet/messenger/index.html"},
{"Date","Fri, 17 Dec 2004 15:16:19 GMT"},
{"Content-Type","text/html"},
{"Accept-Ranges","bytes"},
{"Last-Modified","Fri, 17 Dec 2004 08:38:21 GMT"},
{"Etag","\"aa7c9dc313e4c41:d77\""},
{"Content-Length","953"}],
"<html>...</html>"}
```
A `GET` using a proxy:
```erlang
7> ibrowse:send_req("http://www.google.com/", [], get, [],
[{proxy_user, "XXXXX"},
{proxy_password, "XXXXX"},
{proxy_host, "proxy"},
{proxy_port, 8080}], 1000).
{ok,"302",
[{"Date","Fri, 17 Dec 2004 15:22:56 GMT"},
{"Content-Length","217"},
{"Content-Type","text/html"},
{"Set-Cookie",
"PREF=ID=f58155c797f9..."},
{"Server","GWS/2.1"},
{"Location",
"http://www.google.co.uk/cxfer?c=PREF%3D:TM%3D110329..."},
{"Via","1.1 netapp01 (NetCache NetApp/5.5R2)"}],
"<HTML>...</HTML>\r\n"}
```
A `GET` response saved to file. A temporary file is created and the
filename returned. The response will only be saved to file if the
status code is in the `200` range. The directory to download to can
be set using the application env var `download_dir` - the default
is the current working directory:
```erlang
8> ibrowse:send_req("http://www.erlang.se/", [], get, [],
[{proxy_user, "XXXXX"},
{proxy_password, "XXXXX"},
{proxy_host, "proxy"},
{proxy_port, 8080},
{save_response_to_file, true}], 1000).
{error,req_timedout}
9> ibrowse:send_req("http://www.erlang.se/", [], get, [],
[{proxy_user, "XXXXX"},
{proxy_password, "XXXXX"},
{proxy_host, "proxy"},
{proxy_port, 8080},
{save_response_to_file, true}], 5000).
{ok,"200",
[{"Transfer-Encoding","chunked"},
{"Date","Fri, 17 Dec 2004 15:24:36 GMT"},
{"Content-Type","text/html"},
{"Server","Apache/1.3.9 (Unix)"},
{"Via","1.1 netapp01 (NetCache NetApp/5.5R2)"}],
{file,"/Users/chandru/code/ibrowse/src/ibrowse_tmp_file_1103297041125854"}}
```
Setting the size of the connection pool and pipeline. This sets the
number of maximum connections to the specified server to `10` and the pipeline
size to `1`. Connections are assumed to be already setup.
```erlang
11> ibrowse:set_dest("www.hotmail.com", 80, [{max_sessions, 10},
{max_pipeline_size, 1}]).
ok
```
Example using the `HEAD` method:
```erlang
56> ibrowse:send_req("http://www.erlang.org", [], head).
{ok,"200",
[{"Date","Mon, 28 Feb 2005 04:40:53 GMT"},
{"Server","Apache/1.3.9 (Unix)"},
{"Last-Modified","Thu, 10 Feb 2005 09:31:23 GMT"},
{"Etag","\"8d71d-1efa-420b29eb\""},
{"Accept-ranges","bytes"},
{"Content-Length","7930"},
{"Content-Type","text/html"}],
[]}
```
Example using the `OPTIONS` method:
```erlang
62> ibrowse:send_req("http://www.sun.com", [], options).
{ok,"200",
[{"Server","Sun Java System Web Server 6.1"},
{"Date","Mon, 28 Feb 2005 04:44:39 GMT"},
{"Content-Length","0"},
{"P3p",
"policyref=\"http://www.sun.com/p3p/Sun_P3P_Policy.xml\", CP=\"CAO DSP COR CUR ADMa DEVa TAIa PSAa PSDa CONi TELi OUR SAMi PUBi IND PHY ONL PUR COM NAV INT DEM CNT STA POL PRE GOV\""},
{"Set-Cookie",
"SUN_ID=X.X.X.X:169191109565879; EXPIRES=Wednesday, 31-Dec-2025 23:59:59 GMT; DOMAIN=.sun.com; PATH=/"},
{"Allow",
"HEAD, GET, PUT, POST, DELETE, TRACE, OPTIONS, MOVE, INDEX, MKDIR, RMDIR"}],
[]}
```
### Asynchronous Requests
Example of an asynchronous `GET` request:
```erlang
18> ibrowse:send_req("http://www.google.com", [], get, [],
[{proxy_user, "XXXXX"},
{proxy_password, "XXXXX"},
{proxy_host, "proxy"},
{proxy_port, 8080},
{stream_to, self()}]).
{ibrowse_req_id,{1115,327256,389608}}
19> flush().
Shell got {ibrowse_async_headers,{1115,327256,389608},
"302",
[{"Date","Thu, 05 May 2005 21:06:41 GMT"},
{"Content-Length","217"},
{"Content-Type","text/html"},
{"Set-Cookie",
"PREF=ID=b601f16bfa32f071:CR=1:TM=1115327201:LM=1115327201:S=OX5hSB525AMjUUu7; expires=Sun, 17-Jan-2038 19:14:07 GMT; path=/; domain=.google.com"},
{"Server","GWS/2.1"},
{"Location",
"http://www.google.co.uk/cxfer?c=PREF%3D:TM%3D1115327201:S%3DDS9pDJ4IHcAuZ_AS&prev=/"},
{"Via",
"1.1 hatproxy01 (NetCache NetApp/5.6.2)"}]}
Shell got {ibrowse_async_response,{1115,327256,389608},
"<HTML>...</HTML>\r\n"}
Shell got {ibrowse_async_response_end,{1115,327256,389608}}
ok
```
Another asynchronous `GET` request:
```erlang
24> ibrowse:send_req("http://yaws.hyber.org/simple_ex2.yaws", [], get, [],
[{proxy_user, "XXXXX"},
{proxy_password, "XXXXX"},
{proxy_host, "proxy"},
{proxy_port, 8080},
{stream_to, self()}]).
{ibrowse_req_id,{1115,327430,512314}}
25> flush().
Shell got {ibrowse_async_headers,{1115,327430,512314},
"200",
[{"Date","Thu, 05 May 2005 20:58:08 GMT"},
{"Content-Length","64"},
{"Content-Type","text/html;charset="},
{"Server",
"Yaws/1.54 Yet Another Web Server"},
{"Via",
"1.1 hatproxy01 (NetCache NetApp/5.6.2)"}]}
Shell got {ibrowse_async_response,{1115,327430,512314},
"<html>...</html>\n"}
Shell got {ibrowse_async_response_end,{1115,327430,512314}}
```
Example of request which fails when using the async option. Here
the `{ibrowse_req_id, ReqId}` is not returned. Instead the error code is
returned.
```erlang
68> ibrowse:send_req("http://www.earlyriser.org", [], get, [], [{stream_to, self()}]).
{error,conn_failed}
```
### Other Examples
Example of request using both Proxy-Authorization and authorization
by the final webserver:
```erlang
17> ibrowse:send_req("http://www.erlang.se/lic_area/protected/patches/erl_756_otp_beam.README",
[], get, [],
[{proxy_user, "XXXXX"},
{proxy_password, "XXXXX"},
{proxy_host, "proxy"},
{proxy_port, 8080},
{basic_auth, {"XXXXX", "XXXXXX"}}]).
{ok,"200",
[{"Accept-Ranges","bytes"},
{"Date","Thu, 05 May 2005 21:02:09 GMT"},
{"Content-Length","2088"},
{"Content-Type","text/plain"},
{"Server","Apache/1.3.9 (Unix)"},
{"Last-Modified","Tue, 03 May 2005 15:08:18 GMT"},
{"ETag","\"1384c8-828-427793e2\""},
{"Via","1.1 hatproxy01 (NetCache NetApp/5.6.2)"}],
"Patch Id:\t\terl_756_otp_beam\n..."}
```
Example of a `TRACE` request. Very interesting! yaws.hyber.org didn't
support this. Nor did www.google.com. But good old BBC supports this:
```erlang
37> ibrowse:send_req("http://www.bbc.co.uk/", [], trace, [],
[{proxy_user, "XXXXX"},
{proxy_password, "XXXXX"},
{proxy_host, "proxy"},
{proxy_port, 8080}]).
{ok,"200",
[{"Transfer-Encoding","chunked"},
{"Date","Thu, 05 May 2005 21:40:27 GMT"},
{"Content-Type","message/http"},
{"Server","Apache/2.0.51 (Unix)"},
{"Set-Cookie",
"BBC-UID=7452e72a..."},
{"Set-Cookie",
"BBC-UID=7452e72a..."},
{"Via","1.1 hatproxy01 (NetCache NetApp/5.6.2)"}],
"TRACE / HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: www.bbc.co.uk\r\nConnection: keep-alive\r\nX-Forwarded-For: 172.24.28.29\r\nVia: 1.1 hatproxy01 (NetCache NetApp/5.6.2)\r\nCookie: BBC-UID=7452e...\r\n\r\n"}
```
A `GET` using a socks5:
```erlang
ibrowse:send_req("http://google.com", [], get, [],
[{socks5_host, "127.0.0.1"},
{socks5_port, 5335}]).
ibrowse:send_req("http://google.com", [], get, [],
[{socks5_host, "127.0.0.1"},
{socks5_port, 5335},
{socks5_user, "user4321"},
{socks5_password, "pass7654"}]).
```
