Boost C++ Libraries

6

message

At the highest level, these free functions send or receive a complete HTTP message in one call. They are designed for ease of use: read, write, async_read, and async_write.

5

parser, serializer

For more control, callers may take responsibility for managing the required parser or serializer transient state objects. This allows additional configuration such as limiting the number of bytes for message components during parsing, or regulating the size of buffers emitted during output. These functions send or receive complete messages using a serializer or parser: read, write, async_read, and async_write.

4

header

Sometimes it is necessary to first send or receive the HTTP header. For example, to read the header and take action before continuing to read the body. These functions use a parser or serializer to read or write the header: read_header, write_header, async_read_header, and async_write_header.

3

partial message

All of the stream operations at higher levels thus far have operated on a complete header or message. At this level it is possible to send and receive messages incrementally. This allows resource constrained implementations to perform work bounded on storage, or allows better control when setting timeouts for example. These functions read or write bounded amounts of data and return the number of bytes transacted: read_some, write_some, async_read_some, and async_write_some.

2

chunked-body

Until now parse and serialize operations apply or remove the chunked transfer coding as needed for message payloads whose size is not known ahead of time. For some domain specific niches, it is necessary to assume direct control over incoming or outgoing chunks in a chunk encoded message payload. For parsing this is achieved by setting hooks using the functions on_chunk_header and/or on_chunk_body. For serializing callers may first emit the header, and then use these buffer sequence adapters to control the contents of each chunk including chunk extensions and the trailer-part: chunk_body, chunk_crlf, chunk_header, and chunk_last.

1

buffers

For ultimate control, the use of library stream algorithms may be bypassed entirely and instead work directly with buffers by calling members of parser or serializer.

0

user-defined

In addition to the typical customization points of Stream and DynamicBuffer, user-defined types may replace parts of the library implementation at the lowest level. The customization points include Fields for creating a container to store HTTP fields, Body for defining containers and algorithms used for HTTP message payloads, and user-defined subclasses of basic_parser for implementing custom message representation strategies.