REST Bean

Properties Methods Events Configuration Settings Errors

The REST Component can be used to retrieve XML documents from the World Wide Web.

Syntax

IPWorks.Rest

Remarks

The REST Bean implements a standard REST client .

The bean contains a number of properties that map directly to HTTP request headers. All XML and JSON data received is parsed by the component and provided to the user through properties such as XPath, XElement, XText, etc. which allow traversal of the document structure. The Header event will provide the HTTP headers as returned by the server.

To receive a document, call the Get method with the URL to retrieve specified in the URL parameter. The bean will automatically parse the XML or JSON data, depending on the content type that is returned. Call the Delete method to delete a resource specified by the URL parameter.

The other two REST operations are for creating and updating resources. Some people wish to use the Post method for creating resources and the Put method for updating resources. Others choose to use the methods vice versa, or just one for both operations. So, you can POST XML or JSON data to the HTTP server by assigning it to the PostData property and then calling the Post method. Alternatively, you may use the PUT method instead.

To add authorization credentials to an outgoing request, you should specify the User and Password properties. The REST Bean supports Basic, Digest, and NTLM authentication through the AuthScheme property.

Property List

The following is the full list of the properties of the bean with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.


Accept	A list of acceptable MIME types for the request.
Authorization	The Authorization string to be sent to the server.
AuthScheme	The authentication scheme to use when server authorization is required.
BuildDOM	When True, an internal object model of the XML document is created.
Connected	Shows whether the component is connected.
ContentType	Content type for posts and puts.
Cookies	Collection of cookies.
Firewall	A set of properties related to firewall access.
FollowRedirects	Determines what happens when the server issues a redirect.
From	The email address of the HTTP agent (optional).
HTTPMethod	The HTTP method used for the request.
Idle	The current status of the component.
IfModifiedSince	A date determining the maximum age of the desired document.
LocalFile	The path to a local file for downloading. If the file exists, it is overwritten.
LocalHost	The name of the local host or user-assigned IP interface through which connections are initiated or accepted.
Namespaces	A collection of namespaces in the current stack.
OtherHeaders	Other headers as determined by the user (optional).
ParsedHeaders	Collection of headers returned from the last request.
Password	A password if authentication is to be used.
PostData	The data to post with the URL if the POST method is used.
Proxy	A set of properties related to proxy access.
Referer	Referer URL/document (optional).
StatusLine	The first line of the last server response.
Timeout	A timeout for the component.
TransferredData	The contents of the last response from the server.
TransferredDataLimit	The maximum of bytes of data to be transferred.
TransferredHeaders	The full set of headers as received from the server.
URL	The URL to which information is posted.
User	A user name if authentication is to be used.
Validate	When True, the parser checks that the document consists of well-formed XML.
XAttributes	A collection of attributes of the current element.
XChildren	Collection of child elements of the current element.
XElement	The name of the current element.
XErrorPath	An XPath to check the server response for errors.
XNamespace	The namespace of the current element.
XParent	The parent of the current element.
XPath	Provides a way to point to a specific element in the response.
XPrefix	The prefix of the current element.
XSubTree	A snapshot of the current element in the document.
XText	The text of the current element.

Method List

The following is the full list of the methods of the bean with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.


addCookie	Adds a cookie and the corresponding value to the outgoing request headers.
attr	Returns the value of the specified attribute.
config	Sets or retrieves a configuration setting .
delete	Deletes an object on the server.
doEvents	Processes events from the internal message queue.
get	Fetches the document using the HTTP GET method.
hasXPath	Determines whether a specific element exists in the document.
interrupt	Interrupt the current method.
post	Posts data to the HTTP server using the HTTP POST method.
put	Sends data to the HTTP server using the HTTP PUT method.
reset	Resets the component.

Event List

The following is the full list of the events fired by the bean with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.


Characters	Fired for plain text segments of the input stream.
Comment	Fired when a comment section is encountered.
Connected	Fired immediately after a connection completes (or fails).
ConnectionStatus	Fired to indicate changes in connection state.
Disconnected	Fired when a connection is closed.
EndElement	Fired when an end-element tag is encountered.
EndPrefixMapping	Fired when leaving the scope of a namespace declaration.
Error	Information about errors during data delivery.
EvalEntity	Fired every time an entity needs to be evaluated.
Header	Fired every time a header line comes in.
IgnorableWhitespace	Fired when a section of ignorable whitespace is encountered.
Meta	Fired when a meta section is encountered.
PI	Fired when a processing instruction section is encountered.
Redirect	Fired when a redirection is received from the server.
SetCookie	Fired for every cookie set by the server.
SpecialSection	Fired when a special section is encountered.
StartElement	Fired when a begin-element tag is encountered in the document.
StartPrefixMapping	Fired when entering the scope of a namespace declaration.
Status	Fired when the HTTP status line is received from the server.

Configuration Settings

The following is a list of configuration settings for the bean with short descriptions. Click on the links for further details.


From	Allows the specification of the email address of the HTTP agent.
CacheContent	If true, the original XML is saved in a buffer.
AcceptEncoding	Used to tell the server which types of content encodings the client supports.
AllowHTTPCompression	This property enables HTTP compression for receiving data.
AllowIdenticalRedirectURL	Allow redirects to the same URL.
Append	Whether to append data to LocalFile.
Authorization	The Authorization string to be sent to the server.
BytesTransferred	Contains the number of bytes transferred in the response data.
EncodeURL	If set to true the URL will be encoded by the component.
FollowRedirects	Determines what happens when the server issues a redirect.
GetOn302Redirect	If set to true the component will perform a GET on the new location.
HTTPVersion	The version of HTTP used by the component.
IfModifiedSince	A date determining the maximum age of the desired document.
KeepAlive	Determines whether the HTTP connection is closed after completion of the request.
MaxRedirectAttempts	Limits the number of redirects that are followed in a request.
OtherHeaders	Other headers as determined by the user (optional).
ProxyAuthorization	The authorization string to be sent to the proxy server.
ProxyAuthScheme	The authorization scheme to be used for the proxy.
ProxyPassword	A password if authentication is to be used for the proxy.
ProxyPort	Port for the proxy server (default 80).
ProxyServer	Name or IP address of a proxy server (optional).
ProxyUser	A user name if authentication is to be used for the proxy.
TransferredDataLimit	The maximum number of incoming bytes to be stored by the component.
TransferredHeaders	The full set of headers as received from the server.
UseChunkedEncoding	Enables or Disables HTTP chunked encoding for transfers.
ChunkSize	Specifies the chunk size in bytes when using chunked encoding.
UserAgent	Information about the user agent (browser).
KerberosSPN	The Service Principal Name for the Kerberos Domain Controller.
ConnectionTimeout	Sets a separate timeout value for establishing a connection.
FirewallAutoDetect	Tells the component whether or not to automatically detect and use firewall system settings, if available.
FirewallHost	Name or IP address of firewall (optional).
FirewallPassword	Password to be used if authentication is to be used when connecting through the firewall.
FirewallPort	The TCP port for the FirewallHost;.
FirewallType	Determines the type of firewall to connect through.
FirewallUser	A user name if authentication is to be used connecting through a firewall.
KeepAliveTime	The inactivity time in milliseconds before a TCP keep-alive packet is sent.
KeepAliveInterval	The retry interval, in milliseconds, to be used when a TCP keep-alive packet is sent and no response is received.
Linger	When set to True, connections are terminated gracefully.
LingerTime	Time in seconds to have the connection linger.
LocalHost	The name of the local host through which connections are initiated or accepted.
LocalPort	The TCP port in the local host where the component binds.
MaxLineLength	The maximum amount of data to accumulate when no EOL is found.
MaxTransferRate	The transfer rate limit in bytes per second.
RecordLength	The length of received data records.
TCPKeepAlive	Determines whether or not the keep alive socket option is enabled.
UseIPv6	Whether to use IPv6.
TcpNoDelay	Whether or not to delay when sending packets.
AbsoluteTimeout	Determines whether timeouts are inactivity timeouts or absolute timeouts.
FirewallData	Used to send extra data to the firewall.
InBufferSize	The size in bytes of the incoming queue of the socket.
OutBufferSize	The size in bytes of the outgoing queue of the socket.
CodePage	The system code page used for Unicode to Multibyte translations.