HTTP-LIB.PL Updates.

I've made some updates to the library http-lib.pl to support proxied GETs, POSTs and HEADs. I also cleaned up the code to use fewer throw away buffers, save the retrieved header in $httpHead and the error code in $httpErrorCode. When an error occurs the HTTP buffer contains the HTTP header's first line that should contain the human readable error. Here's where to get it:

Library http-lib.pl (as .txt file) dated 14 June 1998.
Test file http-tst.pl (as .txt file) dated 17 June 1998.
This file http-lib-doco.htm dated 17 June 1998.

The proxy support is enabled by calling HTTPProxy ($host, $port); where host is the IP address that the proxy request will be sent to.

The actual routines available are:

$buf = HTTPPost ($fileName, $site, $port, $queryString);
$buf = HTTPGet ($fileName, $site, $port, $queryString);
$buf = HTTPHead ($fileName, $site, $port, $queryString);

Where:

$fileName = the full pathname of the file to retrieve. Use '/' for the root directory.
$site = name or IP address that the proxy will process (ie. the IP address to GET data from).
$port = the site's HTTP port, usually 80, but sometimes 8080, 8008 etc.
$queryString = String holding name/value pairs in the form:
For example 'x=23&y=44' could be used to simulate a click on an image.

Here's some sample code that gets the data from URL

http://www.anzwers.com.au:$80/index.htm?isbn=0201634627

using the proxy wingate:80 that's local to my network ...

$proxyHost = 'wingate';
$proxyPort = 80;

&HTTPProxy ($proxyHost, $porxyPort);

$port = 80;
$site = 'www.anzwers.com.au';
$queryString = "isbn=0201634627";
$fileName = "/index.htm";

$buf = &HTTPGet ($fileName, $site, $port, $queryString);

unless ($httpErrorCode) {
  print 'DATA ->\n' . $buf . '<- END\n';
}

Needless to say, you should plug in real values in the example above.

I intend to enhance this code to:

Handle 302 MOVED HTTP status returns by doing an automatic redirection.
Handle If-Modified-Since: in the request header to get around local proxy caching.
Save and return (or not!) cookies for sites that need them.
Write a simple caching proxy server just for the hell-of-it.
Incorporate suggestions...

Any questions, suggestion, etc. Mail me, Peter Gargano, at peter@mail.techedge.com.au and flame, complain or ...