11.3. Standard Module `httplib`

This module defines a class which implements the client side of the HTTP protocol. It is normally not used directly --- the module urllib uses it to handle URLs that use HTTP. The module defines one class, HTTP. An HTTP instance represents one transaction with an HTTP server. It should be instantiated passing it a host and optional port number. If no port number is passed, the port is extracted from the host string if it has the form host:port, else the default HTTP port (80) is used. If no host is passed, no connection is made, and the connect method should be used to connect to a server. For example, the following calls all create instances that connect to the server at the same host and port:

>>> h1 = httplib.HTTP('www.cwi.nl')
>>> h2 = httplib.HTTP('www.cwi.nl:80')

>>> h3 = httplib.HTTP('www.cwi.nl', 80)

Once an HTTP instance has been connected to an HTTP server, it should be used as follows:

1. 1. Make exactly one call to the putrequest() method.
2. 2. Make zero or more calls to the putheader() method.
3. 3. Call the endheaders() method (this can be omitted if step 4 makes no calls).
4. 4. Optional calls to the send() method.
5. 5. Call the getreply() method.
6. 6. Call the getfile() method and read the data off the file object that it returns.

11.3. Standard Module httplib

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11.3. Standard Module `httplib`