LWP::Simple

LWP::Simple(3pm)      User Contributed Perl Documentation     LWP::Simple(3pm)



NAME
       LWP::Simple - simple procedural interface to LWP

SYNOPSIS
        perl -MLWP::Simple -e 'getprint "http://www.sn.no"'

        use LWP::Simple;
        $content = get("http://www.sn.no/");
        die "Couldn't get it!" unless defined $content;

        if (mirror("http://www.sn.no/", "foo") == RC_NOT_MODIFIED) {
            ...
        }

        if (is_success(getprint("http://www.sn.no/"))) {
            ...
        }

DESCRIPTION
       This module is meant for people who want a simplified view of the lib-
       www-perl library.  It should also be suitable for one-liners.  If you
       need more control or access to the header fields in the requests sent
       and responses received, then you should use the full object-oriented
       interface provided by the "LWP::UserAgent" module.

       The following functions are provided (and exported) by this module:

       get($url)
          The get() function will fetch the document identified by the given
          URL and return it.  It returns "undef" if it fails.  The $url argu-
          ment can be either a simple string or a reference to a URI object.

          You will not be able to examine the response code or response head-
          ers (like 'Content-Type') when you are accessing the web using this
          function.  If you need that information you should use the full OO
          interface (see LWP::UserAgent).

       head($url)
          Get document headers. Returns the following 5 values if successful:
          ($content_type, $document_length, $modified_time, $expires, $server)

          Returns an empty list if it fails.  In scalar context returns TRUE
          if successful.

       getprint($url)
          Get and print a document identified by a URL. The document is
          printed to the selected default filehandle for output (normally STD-
          OUT) as data is received from the network.  If the request fails,
          then the status code and message are printed on STDERR.  The return
          value is the HTTP response code.

       getstore($url, $file)
          Gets a document identified by a URL and stores it in the file. The
          return value is the HTTP response code.

       mirror($url, $file)
          Get and store a document identified by a URL, using If-modified-
          since, and checking the Content-Length.  Returns the HTTP response
          code.

       This module also exports the HTTP::Status constants and procedures.
       You can use them when you check the response code from getprint(),
       getstore() or mirror().  The constants are:

          RC_CONTINUE
          RC_SWITCHING_PROTOCOLS
          RC_OK
          RC_CREATED
          RC_ACCEPTED
          RC_NON_AUTHORITATIVE_INFORMATION
          RC_NO_CONTENT
          RC_RESET_CONTENT
          RC_PARTIAL_CONTENT
          RC_MULTIPLE_CHOICES
          RC_MOVED_PERMANENTLY
          RC_MOVED_TEMPORARILY
          RC_SEE_OTHER
          RC_NOT_MODIFIED
          RC_USE_PROXY
          RC_BAD_REQUEST
          RC_UNAUTHORIZED
          RC_PAYMENT_REQUIRED
          RC_FORBIDDEN
          RC_NOT_FOUND
          RC_METHOD_NOT_ALLOWED
          RC_NOT_ACCEPTABLE
          RC_PROXY_AUTHENTICATION_REQUIRED
          RC_REQUEST_TIMEOUT
          RC_CONFLICT
          RC_GONE
          RC_LENGTH_REQUIRED
          RC_PRECONDITION_FAILED
          RC_REQUEST_ENTITY_TOO_LARGE
          RC_REQUEST_URI_TOO_LARGE
          RC_UNSUPPORTED_MEDIA_TYPE
          RC_INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR
          RC_NOT_IMPLEMENTED
          RC_BAD_GATEWAY
          RC_SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE
          RC_GATEWAY_TIMEOUT
          RC_HTTP_VERSION_NOT_SUPPORTED

       The HTTP::Status classification functions are:

       is_success($rc)
          True if response code indicated a successful request.

       is_error($rc)
          True if response code indicated that an error occurred.

       The module will also export the LWP::UserAgent object as $ua if you ask
       for it explicitly.

       The user agent created by this module will identify itself as
       "LWP::Simple/#.##" (where "#.##" is the libwww-perl version number) and
       will initialize its proxy defaults from the environment (by calling
       $ua->env_proxy).

CAVEAT
       Note that if you are using both LWP::Simple and the very popular CGI.pm
       module, you may be importing a "head" function from each module, pro-
       ducing a warning like "Prototype mismatch: sub main::head ($) vs none".
       Get around this problem by just not importing LWP::Simple's "head"
       function, like so:

               use LWP::Simple qw(!head);
               use CGI qw(:standard);  # then only CGI.pm defines a head()

       Then if you do need LWP::Simple's "head" function, you can just call it
       as "LWP::Simple::head($url)".

SEE ALSO
       LWP, lwpcook, LWP::UserAgent, HTTP::Status, lwp-request, lwp-mirror



perl v5.8.4                       2004-04-06                  LWP::Simple(3pm)