= SimpleHttp - a simplified wrapper around Net::Http

SimpleHttp aims to reduce the complexity of Net::Http while providing
the most commonly used (by me) http functionality. 

INSTALLATION

* Using +gem+

	gem install simplehttp

* Using +setup.rb+

	ruby setup.rb config
	ruby setup.rb install

* tarball and zip packages are available from
  RubyForge[http://rubyforge.org/projects/simplehttp/]



FEATURES / USAGE

* Require the lib: 
	
	require 'simplehttp'

* No fuss one line GET and POST requests:
	
	str = SimpleHttp.get "http://www.example.com"
	str = SimpleHttp.get "www.example.com"

* Can use URI or String url interchangibly

	str = SimpleHttp.get URI.parse "http://www.example.com/"

* Transparent Proxy Handling. Uses the 'http_proxy' environment
  variable if set, also provides a +set_proxy+ method.

	http = SimpleHttp.new "http://www.example.com"
	http.set_proxy "http://proxy.example.com:8000"
	http.post "query" => "example_query"

* POST sends ruby Hashes as 'application/x-www-form/urlencoded' per
  default, but can send any data.

	http = SimpleHttp.new "http://www.example.com/image_upload"
	http.post imageData, "img/png"

* Automatically handles SSL
	
	str = SimpleHttp.get "https://secure.example.com"

* Easy HTTP Basic Authentication
	str = SimpleHttp.get URI.parse("http://usr:pwd@www.example.com") 
	#or
	http = SimpleHttp.new "http://www.example.com"
	http.basic_authentication "user", "password"
	http.post "query" => "example_query" 

* Access headers of the request or response
	http = SimpleHttp.new "www.example.com"
	http.request_headers["X-Custom-Header"]="useful header"	
	http.get
	puts "server set cookie: #{http.response_headers['set-cookie']}"
	
* Automatically follows Http Redirects.
	

The +get+ and +post+ methods return a +String+ containing the
body of the request if the request was successful (HTTP 200). In case of
a redirect, the redirect is followed and the ultimate response is
returned. Per Default, up to three redirects are followed, this
behaviour can be modified by setting +follow_num_redirects+. 

In case of any other type of response, an exception is raised.

The default behaviour can be modified by registering handlers
using the +register_response_handler+ method. E.g. if you'd like to
retrieve the +Date+ header instead of the body for successful
transactions:

	http = SimpleHttp.new ...
	http.register_response_handler(Net::HTTPSuccess) {|req,res,http|
		res['date']
	}

Or you'd like to print the +Location+ and then raise an exception in
case of a redirect:

	
	http = SimpleHttp.new ...
	http.register_response_handler(Net::HTTPRedirect) {|req,res,http|
		puts res['location']
		raise "REDIRECT not allowed!"
	}