http

General purpose data, functions, and utilities for use by LFE HTTP clients, servers, URL-parsers, web frameworks, etc.

Table of Contents

• Features
• Examples
• Installation
• License

Features ↟

• Binary-first design: All strings are binaries by default for optimal performance
• Fluent builder pattern: Chain operations for readable code
• Request maps: (http.request:new #"GET" "http://example.com")
• Response helpers: (http.response:ok #"Hello, World!"), (http.response:json 200 data)
• Smart headers: Case-insensitive lookups, single-pass conversions
• Erlang httpc interop: (http.c:request "http://google.com")
• 150+ status codes: (http.status:im-a-teapot), (http.status:code->message 200)
• 2000+ MIME types: (http.mimetype:from-extension "json")
• Query parameters: Automatic parsing and reconstruction
• Content helpers: set-json, set-form, set-text for common formats

Examples ↟

Basic HTTP Client Requests

Start the required applications:

(inets:start)
(ssl:start)

Simple GET request:

> (http.c:request "https://httpbin.org/get")
#(ok #m(status 200
headers #m(#"Content-Type"#"application/json" ...)
body #"..."
version 1.1))

GET request with custom headers:

> (let* ((req (http.request:new "https://httpbin.org/headers"))
(req-with-headers (http.request:set-header req #"User-Agent"#"lfe-http/1.0")))
(http.c:request req-with-headers))
#(ok #m(status 200 ...))

POST request with JSON:

> (let* ((body #"{\"name\":\"LFE\",\"type\":\"language\"}")
(req (http.request:new #"POST""https://httpbin.org/post"))
(req-with-json (http.request:set-json req body)))
(http.c:request req-with-json))
#(ok #m(status 200 ...))

POST with custom headers and body:

> (let* ((headers (http.header:add (http.header:new)
#"Content-Type"#"application/x-www-form-urlencoded"))
(body #"key1=value1&key2=value2"))
(http.c:request #"POST""https://httpbin.org/post" body headers))
#(ok #m(status 200 ...))

Working with Headers

Create a new headers map:

> (http.header:new)
#m()

Add headers:

> (let* ((h1 (http.header:new))
(h2 (http.header:add h1 #"Content-Type"#"application/json"))
(h3 (http.header:add h2 #"Accept"#"application/json")))
h3)
#m(#"Content-Type"#"application/json"#"Accept"#"application/json")

Convert from a property list:

> (http.header:from-list '(#(#"Content-Type"#"text/plain")
#(#"Accept"#"*/*")))#m(#"Content-Type" #"text/plain" #"Accept" #"*/*")

Get header values (case-sensitive):

> (let ((headers (http.header:from-list '(#(#"Content-Type"#"application/json")))))
(http.header:get headers #"Content-Type"))
#"application/json"

Get header values (case-insensitive):

> (let ((headers (http.header:from-list '(#(#"Content-Type"#"application/json")))))
(http.header:get headers #"content-type" 'undefined #m(case-insensitive true)))
#"application/json"

Merge headers:

> (let ((h1 (http.header:from-list '(#(#"Accept"#"application/json"))))
(h2 (http.header:from-list '(#(#"Content-Type"#"text/plain")))))
(http.header:merge h1 h2))
#m(#"Accept"#"application/json"#"Content-Type"#"text/plain")

Installation ↟

Add it to your rebar.config deps:

{deps, [
...
{http, "1.0.0", {pkg, lfe_http}}
]}.

License ↟

Apache License, Version 2.0

Copyright © 2023-2025, Duncan McGreggor oubiwann@gmail.com.