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River stage four • 2190 direct dependents • 6260 total dependents
/ LWP::Protocol

NAME

LWP::Protocol - Base class for LWP protocols

SYNOPSIS


            

              
              
package LWP::Protocol::foo;
use parent qw(LWP::Protocol);

DESCRIPTION

This class is used as the base class for all protocol implementations supported by the LWP library.

When creating an instance of this class using LWP::Protocol::create($url), and you get an initialized subclass appropriate for that access method. In other words, the "create" in LWP::Protocol function calls the constructor for one of its subclasses.

All derived LWP::Protocol classes need to override the request() method which is used to service a request. The overridden method can make use of the collect() method to collect together chunks of data as it is received.

METHODS

The following methods and functions are provided:

new


            

              
              
my $prot = LWP::Protocol->new();

The LWP::Protocol constructor is inherited by subclasses. As this is a virtual base class this method should not be called directly.

create


            

              
              
my $prot = LWP::Protocol::create($scheme)

Create an object of the class implementing the protocol to handle the given scheme. This is a function, not a method. It is more an object factory than a constructor. This is the function user agents should use to access protocols.

implementor


            

              
              
my $class = LWP::Protocol::implementor($scheme, [$class])

Get and/or set implementor class for a scheme. Returns '' if the specified scheme is not supported.

request


            

              
              
$response = $protocol->request($request, $proxy, undef);
$response = $protocol->request($request, $proxy, '/tmp/sss');
$response = $protocol->request($request, $proxy, \&callback, 1024);
$response = $protocol->request($request, $proxy, $fh);

Dispatches a request over the protocol, and returns a response object. This method needs to be overridden in subclasses. Refer to LWP::UserAgent for description of the arguments.

collect


            

              
              
my $res = $prot->collect(undef, $response, $collector); # stored in $response
my $res = $prot->collect($filename, $response, $collector);
my $res = $prot->collect(sub { ... }, $response, $collector);

Collect the content of a request, and process it appropriately into a scalar, file, or by calling a callback. If the first parameter is undefined, then the content is stored within the $response. If it's a simple scalar, then it's interpreted as a file name and the content is written to this file. If it's a code reference, then content is passed to this routine. If it is a filehandle, or similar, such as a File::Temp object, content will be written to it.

The collector is a routine that will be called and which is responsible for returning pieces (as ref to scalar) of the content to process. The $collector signals EOF by returning a reference to an empty string.

The return value is the HTTP::Response object reference.

Note: We will only use the callback or file argument if $response->is_success(). This avoids sending content data for redirects and authentication responses to the callback which would be confusing.

collect_once


            

              
              
$prot->collect_once($arg, $response, $content)

Can be called when the whole response content is available as content. This will invoke "collect" in LWP::Protocol with a collector callback that returns a reference to $content the first time and an empty string the next.

SEE ALSO

Inspect the LWP/Protocol/file.pm and LWP/Protocol/http.pm files for examples of usage.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 1995-2001 Gisle Aas.

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.