Speak HTTP like a local
Talking to an HTTP server with curl can be fun, but most of the time it's a PITA.
http-console is a simple and intuitive interface for speaking the HTTP protocol.
PS: HTTP has never been this much fun.
http-console was written for node, so make sure you have that installed first. Then you need npm, node's package manager.
Once you're all set, run:
$ npm install http-console
It'll download the dependencies, and install the command-line tool in /usr/local/bin.
Let's assume we have a CouchDB instance running locally.
To connect, we run http-console, passing it the server host and port as such:
$ http-console 127.0.0.1:5984
To have line-editing and command history, we can run it through rlwrap:
$ rlwrap http-console 127.0.0.1:5984
Once connected, we should see the http prompt:
http://127.0.0.1:5984/>
server navigation is similar to directory navigation, except a little simpler:
http://127.0.0.1:5984/> /logs
http://127.0.0.1:5984/logs> /46
http://127.0.0.1:5984/logs/46> ..
http://127.0.0.1:5984/logs> ..
http://127.0.0.1:5984/>
HTTP requests are issued with the HTTP verbs GET, PUT, POST, HEAD and DELETE, and a relative path:
http://127.0.0.1:5984/> GET /
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: 2010年5月31日 04:43:39 GMT
Content-Length: 41
{
couchdb: "Welcome",
version: "0.11.0"
}
http://127.0.0.1:5984/> GET /bob
HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
Date: 2010年5月31日 04:45:32 GMT
Content-Length: 44
{
error: "not_found",
reason: "no_db_file"
}
When issuing POST and PUT commands, we have the opportunity to send data too:
http://127.0.0.1:5984/> /rabbits
http://127.0.0.1:5984/rabbits> POST
... {"name":"Roger"}
HTTP/1.1 201 Created
Location: http://127.0.0.1/rabbits/2fd9db055885e6982462a10e54003127
Date: 2010年5月31日 05:09:15 GMT
Content-Length: 95
{
ok: true,
id: "2fd9db055885e6982462a10e54003127",
rev: "1-0c3db91854f26486d1c3922f1a651d86"
}
Sometimes, it's useful to set HTTP headers:
http://127.0.0.1:5984/> Accept: application/json
http://127.0.0.1:5984/> X-Lodge: black
These headers are sent with all requests in this session. To see all active headers,
run the \headers command:
http://127.0.0.1:5984/> \headers
Accept: application/json
X-Lodge: black
Removing headers is just as easy:
http://127.0.0.1:5984/> Accept:
http://127.0.0.1:5984/> \headers
X-Lodge: black
You can enable cookie tracking with the --cookies option flag.
To see what cookies are stored, use the \cookies command.
To enable SSL, pass the --ssl flag.
Ctrl-D
nuff' said.