POE::Filter::HTTPD - convert stream to HTTP::Request; HTTP::Response to stream

  $httpd = POE::Filter::HTTPD->new();
  $arrayref_with_http_response_as_string =
    $httpd->put($full_http_response_object);
  $arrayref_with_http_request_object =
    $line->get($arrayref_of_raw_data_chunks_from_driver);

The HTTPD filter parses the first HTTP 1.0 request from an incoming stream into an HTTP::Request object (if the request is good) or an HTTP::Response object (if the request was malformed). To send a response, give its put() method a HTTP::Response object.

Here is a sample input handler:

  sub got_request {
    my ($heap, $request) = @_[HEAP, ARG0];

    # The Filter::HTTPD generated a response instead of a request.
    # There must have been some kind of error.  You could also check
    # (ref($request) eq 'HTTP::Response').
    if ($request->isa('HTTP::Response')) {
      $heap->{wheel}->put($request);
      return;
    }

    # Process the request here.
    my $response = HTTP::Response->new(2);
    $response->push_header( 'Content-Type', 'text/html' );
    $response->content( $request->as_string() );

    $heap->{wheel}->put($response);
  }

Please see the documentation for HTTP::Request and HTTP::Response.

Please see POE::Filter.

It is possible to generate invalid HTTP using libwww. This is specifically a problem if you are talking to a Filter::HTTPD driven daemon using libwww. For example, the following code (taken almost verbatim from the HTTP::Request::Common documentation) will cause an error in a Filter::HTTPD daemon:

  use HTTP::Request::Common;
  use LWP::UserAgent;

  my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new();
  $ua->request(POST 'http://some/poe/driven/site', [ foo => 'bar' ]);

By default, HTTP::Request is HTTP version agnostic. It makes no attempt to add an HTTP version header unless you specifically declare a protocol using CW$request->protocol('HTTP/1.0').

According to the HTTP 1.0 RFC (1945), when faced with no HTTP version header, the parser is to default to HTTP/0.9. Filter::HTTPD follows this convention. In the transaction detailed above, the Filter::HTTPD based daemon will return a 400 error since POST is not a valid HTTP/0.9 request type.

It is perfectly possible to use Filter::HTTPD for streaming output media. Even if it's not possible to change the input filter from Filter::HTTPD, by setting the output_filter to Filter::Stream and omitting any content in the HTTP::Response object.

  $wheel->put($response); # Without content, it sends just headers.
  $wheel->set_output_filter(POE::Filter::Stream->new());
  $wheel->put("Raw content.");

POE::Filter.

The SEE ALSO section in POE contains a table of contents covering the entire POE distribution.

* Keep-alive is not supported.

* The full http 1.0 spec is not supported, specifically DELETE, LINK, and UNLINK.

The HTTPD filter was contributed by Artur Bergman.

Please see POE for more information about authors and contributors.