This method is the full featured HTTP access method that provides full support for the HTTP protocol including POST data, Basic Authentication and HTTPS protocol support. Requires HTTPConnect() to open a connection first and HTTPClose() to shut down.

Note: Use HTTPGet instead!
HttpGet provides most of the functionality of the low level HttpConnect/HttpGetEx combo, but is easier and more reliable as it handles all the connection setup/cleanup automatically.

o.HTTPGetEx(tcPage, @tcBuffer, @tnBufferSize, tcHeaders, tcFileName)

Return Value

0 on success, an error number on failure.

Parameters

tcPage
The Web server relative link to retrieve. Typically this will be an HTML page or a script page.
Example: /wonnect/default.htm

@tcBuffer
This is the result buffer that will contain data retrieved from the Web server. The size of this buffer depends on the input and output values of tnBufferSize

@tnBufferSize
This value determines the size of the result buffer returned. Pass in a size and HTTPGetEx will only return that many bytes or less. Pass in 0 and the buffer is dynamically sized to the request's size. On output this value will contain the actual size of the HTTP response.

tcHeaders
Optional - Allows you to specify custom HTTP headers to send to the server. Note these are client side headers.
Example:

"Referer: http://myserver.com/somelink.htm" + CRLF + ;
"User-Agent: Rick's great Browser V1.0" +CRLF +;
"Custom: Wonk it!"

Easier: Use the AddHeader() method to add headers.

tcFileName
Optional - A filename to cause the captured data to be streamed directly to a file rather than into the @tcBuffer variable. Use this for strings that will be large such as file downloads. tcBuffer must be passed in as "" and the size as 0 for this option to work

Remarks

HTTPGetEx also supports an optional 'event method' interface. You can subclass wwIPStuff and implement a method called OnHTTPBufferUpdate() in which case this method is called whenever wwIPStuff receives a chunk of data.

When the result returns you can also retrieve cHTTPHeader to see any HTTP headers that were returned from the server.

Other properties to check out:

nHTTPPort - If you want to use other ports than 80/443
nHTTPPostMode - URL Encoded or MultiPart forms
cHTTPHeaders - Returns HTTP headers of the result
nHTTPWorkBufferSize - Size of the chunks that HTTPGetEx uses to read data from the server
lHTTPCancelDownload - Flag that can be set to cancel a HTTPGetEx request
cResultCode - HTTP Header result code (200,500,404 etc.) that you can use to check for additional

Example

oHTTP = CREATEOBJECT("wwHttp")

*** Connect to the server
oHTTP.HTTPConnect("www.west-wind.com")

*** Let's post some data TO the server
oHTTP.AddPostKey("Client","B")
oHTTP.AddPostKey("FromDate","01/01/96")

*** Initialize the variables that will be filled by HTTPGetEx
lcHTML=""
lnText=0

*** Send the POST data and retrieve HTTP result
lnResult=oHTTP.HTTPGetEx("/wconnect/wc.dll?wwDemo~ShowHours",;
                         @lcHTML,@lnText)
IF lnResult # 0
   ? lnResult, oHTTP.cErrorMsg
   RETURN
ENDIF


? TRIM(lcHTML)
* ShowHTML( lcHTML )


oHTTP.HTTPClose()   && Close the connection

See also:

Class wwHTTP | wwHTTP::AddPostkey | wwIPStuff::OnHTTPBufferUpdate | wwIPStuff::HTTPGetHeader | wwIPStuff::HTTPGetEx