HTTPConnect()

Description

HTTPConnect() connects a specified URL to a socket. It reads the HTTP status line but leaves the rest of the output. HTTPConnect() handles up to five redirects. If it doesn't load the specified URL after the fifth redirect, it fails, returning 0. As an option, you can specify the request method, GET or POST. If the method is POST, the last parameter is the content to send to the server. If you do not specify a method, GET is assumed.

Synopsis

require 'HTTPClient.pl';
...
&AppUtils::HTTPConnect($fh, $url, $method, $postArgs);

Arguments

Argument	Meaning
$fh	A file(socket) handle to create.
$url	The URL to use, of the form http://[host[:port]]/[path].
$method	The request method (optional).
$postArgs	Args for the POST method (optional).

Returns

Value	Meaning
0	Failure.
1	Success.

Example

The following code retrieves the current temperature for Elko, Nevada, and generates the HDML to display it as shown in Figure 12-1:

#!/usr/local/bin/perl5.001
#
require 'HDMLUtils.pl';
require 'HTTPClient.pl';
$ret = &AppUtils::HTTPConnect(\*HTTP,
        "http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/iwin/nv/hourly.html");
while (<HTTP>)
{
    if (/elko/i)
    {
    $report = $_;
        last;
    }
}
&AppUtils::HTTPDisconnect(\*HTTP);
if($ret == 0 || $report eq undef)
{
    $report = "Report not available";
}
$deck = "<HDML VERSION=3.0 TTL=0>".
    "<DISPLAY>".
    "$report".
    "</DISPLAY>".
    "</HDML>";
&AppUtils::OutputDeck($deck);

FIGURE  12-1.     Display card with the current temperatures for Stateline.