# Vert.x Web Client

Vert.x Web Client is an asynchronous HTTP and HTTP/2 client.

The Web Client makes easy to do HTTP request/response interactions with a web server, and provides advanced features like:

- Json body encoding / decoding

- request/response pumping

- request parameters

- unified error handling

- form submissions

The Web Client does not deprecate the Vert.x Core `HttpClient`, indeed it is based on this client and inherits its configuration and great features like pooling, HTTP/2 support, pipelining support, etc…​ The `HttpClient` should be used when fine grained control over the HTTP requests/responses is necessary.

The Web Client does not provide a WebSocket API, the Vert.x Core `HttpClient` should be used. It also does not handle cookies at the moment.

## Using the Web Client

To use Vert.x Web Client, add the following dependency to the dependencies section of your build descriptor:

- Maven (in your `pom.xml`):

    <dependency>
     <groupId>io.vertx</groupId>
     <artifactId>vertx-web-client</artifactId>
     <version>3.9.11</version>
    </dependency>

- Gradle (in your `build.gradle` file):

    dependencies {
     compile 'io.vertx:vertx-web-client:3.9.11'
    }

## Re-cap on Vert.x core HTTP client

Vert.x Web Client uses the API from Vert.x core, so it’s well worth getting familiar with the basic concepts of using `HttpClient` using Vert.x core, if you’re not already.

## Creating a Web Client

You create an `WebClient` instance with default options as follows

    require 'vertx-web-client/web_client'
    client = VertxWebClient::WebClient.create(vertx)

If you want to configure options for the client, you create it as follows

    require 'vertx-web-client/web_client'
    options = {
      'userAgent' => "My-App/1.2.3"
    }
    options['keepAlive'] = false
    client = VertxWebClient::WebClient.create(vertx, options)

Web Client options inherit Http Client options so you can set any one of them.

If your already have an HTTP Client in your application you can also reuse it

    require 'vertx-web-client/web_client'
    client = VertxWebClient::WebClient.wrap(httpClient)

Important | In most cases, a Web Client should be created once on application startup and then reused. Otherwise you lose a lot of benefits such as connection pooling and may leak resources if instances are not closed properly.

## Making requests

### Simple requests with no body

Often, you’ll want to make HTTP requests with no request body. This is usually the case with HTTP GET, OPTIONS and HEAD requests

    require 'vertx-web-client/web_client'

    client = VertxWebClient::WebClient.create(vertx)

    # Send a GET request
    client.get(8080, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri").send() { |ar_err,ar|
      if (ar_err == nil)
        # Obtain response
        response = ar

        puts "Received response with status code#{response.status_code()}"
      else
        puts "Something went wrong #{ar_err.get_message()}"
      end
    }

    # Send a HEAD request
    client.head(8080, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri").send() { |ar_err,ar|
      if (ar_err == nil)
        # Obtain response
        response = ar

        puts "Received response with status code#{response.status_code()}"
      else
        puts "Something went wrong #{ar_err.get_message()}"
      end
    }

You can add query parameters to the request URI in a fluent fashion

    client.get(8080, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri").add_query_param("param", "param_value").send() { |ar_err,ar|
      if (ar_err == nil)
        # Obtain response
        response = ar

        puts "Received response with status code#{response.status_code()}"
      else
        puts "Something went wrong #{ar_err.get_message()}"
      end
    }

Any request URI parameter will pre-populate the request

    request = client.get(8080, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri?param1=param1_value&param2=param2_value")

    # Add param3
    request.add_query_param("param3", "param3_value")

    # Overwrite param2
    request.set_query_param("param2", "another_param2_value")

Setting a request URI discards existing query parameters

    request = client.get(8080, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri")

    # Add param1
    request.add_query_param("param1", "param1_value")

    # Overwrite param1 and add param2
    request.uri("/some-uri?param1=param1_value&param2=param2_value")

### Writing request bodies

When you need to make a request with a body, you use the same API and call then `sendXXX` methods that expects a body to send.

Use `sendBuffer` to send a buffer body

    # Send a buffer to the server using POST, the content-length header will be set for you
    client.post(8080, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri").send_buffer(buffer) { |ar_err,ar|
      if (ar_err == nil)
        # Ok
      end
    }

Sending a single buffer is useful but often you don’t want to load fully the content in memory because it may be too large or you want to handle many concurrent requests and want to use just the minimum for each request. For this purpose the Web Client can send `ReadStream<Buffer>` (e.g a `AsyncFile` is a ReadStream<Buffer>`) with the `sendStream` method

    # When the stream len is unknown sendStream sends the file to the server using chunked transfer encoding
    client.post(8080, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri").send_stream(stream) { |ar_err,ar|
      if (ar_err == nil)
        # Ok
      end
    }

The Web Client takes care of setting up the transfer pump for you. Since the length of the stream is not know the request will use chunked transfer encoding .

When you know the size of the stream, you shall specify before using the `content-length` header

    fs.open("content.txt", {
    }) { |fileRes_err,fileRes|
      if (fileRes_err == nil)
        fileStream = fileRes

        fileLen = "1024"

        # Send the file to the server using POST
        client.post(8080, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri").put_header("content-length", fileLen).send_stream(fileStream) { |ar_err,ar|
          if (ar_err == nil)
            # Ok
          end
        }
      end
    }

The POST will not be chunked.

#### Json bodies

Often you’ll want to send Json body requests, to send a `JsonObject` use the `sendJsonObject`

    client.post(8080, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri").send_json_object({
      'firstName' => "Dale",
      'lastName' => "Cooper"
    }) { |ar_err,ar|
      if (ar_err == nil)
        # Ok
      end
    }

In Java, Groovy or Kotlin, you can use the `sendJson` method that maps a POJO (Plain Old Java Object) to a Json object using `Json.encode` method

    client.post(8080, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri").send_json(Java::ExamplesWebClientExamples::User.new("Dale", "Cooper")) { |ar_err,ar|
      if (ar_err == nil)
        # Ok
      end
    }

Note | the `Json.encode` uses the Jackson mapper to encode the object to Json.

#### Form submissions

You can send http form submissions bodies with the `sendForm` variant.

    require 'vertx/multi_map'
    form = Vertx::MultiMap.case_insensitive_multi_map()
    form.set("firstName", "Dale")
    form.set("lastName", "Cooper")

    # Submit the form as a form URL encoded body
    client.post(8080, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri").send_form(form) { |ar_err,ar|
      if (ar_err == nil)
        # Ok
      end
    }

By default the form is submitted with the `application/x-www-form-urlencoded` content type header. You can set the `content-type` header to `multipart/form-data` instead

    require 'vertx/multi_map'
    form = Vertx::MultiMap.case_insensitive_multi_map()
    form.set("firstName", "Dale")
    form.set("lastName", "Cooper")

    # Submit the form as a multipart form body
    client.post(8080, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri").put_header("content-type", "multipart/form-data").send_form(form) { |ar_err,ar|
      if (ar_err == nil)
        # Ok
      end
    }

If you want to upload files and send attributes, you can create a `MultipartForm` and use `sendMultipartForm`.

    require 'vertx-web-common/multipart_form'
    form = VertxWebCommon::MultipartForm.create().attribute("imageDescription", "a very nice image").binary_file_upload("imageFile", "image.jpg", "/path/to/image", "image/jpeg")

    # Submit the form as a multipart form body
    client.post(8080, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri").send_multipart_form(form) { |ar_err,ar|
      if (ar_err == nil)
        # Ok
      end
    }

### Writing request headers

You can write headers to a request using the headers multi-map as follows:

    request = client.get(8080, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri")
    headers = request.headers()
    headers.set("content-type", "application/json")
    headers.set("other-header", "foo")

The headers are an instance of `MultiMap` which provides operations for adding, setting and removing entries. Http headers allow more than one value for a specific key.

You can also write headers using putHeader

    request = client.get(8080, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri")
    request.put_header("content-type", "application/json")
    request.put_header("other-header", "foo")

### Configure the request to add authentication.

Authentication can be performed manually by setting the correct headers, or, using our predefined methods (We strongly suggest having HTTPS enabled, especially for authenticated requests):

In basic HTTP authentication, a request contains a header field of the form `Authorization: Basic <credentials>`, where credentials is the base64 encoding of id and password joined by a colon.

You can configure the request to add basic access authentication as follows:

    request = client.get(8080, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri").basic_authentication("myid", "mypassword")

In OAuth 2.0, a request contains a header field of the form `Authorization: Bearer <bearerToken>`, where bearerToken is the bearer token issued by an authorization server to access protected resources.

You can configure the request to add bearer token authentication as follows:

    request = client.get(8080, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri").bearer_token_authentication("myBearerToken")

### Reusing requests

The `send` method can be called multiple times safely, making it very easy to configure and reuse `HttpRequest` objects

    get = client.get(8080, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri")
    get.send() { |ar_err,ar|
      if (ar_err == nil)
        # Ok
      end
    }

    # Same request again
    get.send() { |ar_err,ar|
      if (ar_err == nil)
        # Ok
      end
    }

Beware though that `HttpRequest` instances are mutable. Therefore you should call the `copy` method before modifying a cached instance.

    get = client.get(8080, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri")
    get.send() { |ar_err,ar|
      if (ar_err == nil)
        # Ok
      end
    }

    # The "get" request instance remains unmodified
    get.copy().put_header("a-header", "with-some-value").send() { |ar_err,ar|
      if (ar_err == nil)
        # Ok
      end
    }

### Timeouts

You can set a timeout for a specific http request using `timeout`.

    client.get(8080, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri").timeout(5000).send() { |ar_err,ar|
      if (ar_err == nil)
        # Ok
      else
        # Might be a timeout when cause is java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException
      end
    }

If the request does not return any data within the timeout period an exception will be passed to the response handler.

## Handling http responses

When the Web Client sends a request you always deal with a single async result `HttpResponse`.

On a success result the callback happens after the response has been received

    client.get(8080, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri").send() { |ar_err,ar|
      if (ar_err == nil)

        response = ar

        puts "Received response with status code#{response.status_code()}"
      else
        puts "Something went wrong #{ar_err.get_message()}"
      end
    }

Caution | By default, a Vert.x Web Client request ends with an error only if something wrong happens at the network level. In other words, a `404 Not Found` response, or a response with the wrong content type, are not considered as failures. Use response predicates if you want the Web Client to perform sanity checks automatically.

Warning | Responses are fully buffered, use `BodyCodec.pipe` to pipe the response to a write stream

### Decoding responses

By default the Web Client provides an http response body as a `Buffer` and does not apply any decoding.

Custom response body decoding can be achieved using `BodyCodec`:

- Plain String

- Json object

- Json mapped POJO

- `WriteStream`

A body codec can decode an arbitrary binary data stream into a specific object instance, saving you the decoding step in your response handlers.

Use `BodyCodec.jsonObject` To decode a Json object:

    require 'vertx-web-common/body_codec'
    client.get(8080, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri").as(VertxWebCommon::BodyCodec.json_object()).send() { |ar_err,ar|
      if (ar_err == nil)
        response = ar

        body = response.body()

        puts "Received response with status code#{response.status_code()} with body #{body}"
      else
        puts "Something went wrong #{ar_err.get_message()}"
      end
    }

In Java, Groovy or Kotlin, custom Json mapped POJO can be decoded

    require 'vertx-web-common/body_codec'
    client.get(8080, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri").as(VertxWebCommon::BodyCodec.json(Java::ExamplesWebClientExamples::User::class)).send() { |ar_err,ar|
      if (ar_err == nil)
        response = ar

        user = response.body()

        puts "Received response with status code#{response.status_code()} with body #{user.get_first_name()} #{user.get_last_name()}"
      else
        puts "Something went wrong #{ar_err.get_message()}"
      end
    }

When large response are expected, use the `BodyCodec.pipe`. This body codec pumps the response body buffers to a `WriteStream` and signals the success or the failure of the operation in the async result response

    require 'vertx-web-common/body_codec'
    client.get(8080, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri").as(VertxWebCommon::BodyCodec.pipe(writeStream)).send() { |ar_err,ar|
      if (ar_err == nil)

        response = ar

        puts "Received response with status code#{response.status_code()}"
      else
        puts "Something went wrong #{ar_err.get_message()}"
      end
    }

Finally if you are not interested at all by the response content, the `BodyCodec.none` simply discards the entire response body

    require 'vertx-web-common/body_codec'
    client.get(8080, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri").as(VertxWebCommon::BodyCodec.none()).send() { |ar_err,ar|
      if (ar_err == nil)

        response = ar

        puts "Received response with status code#{response.status_code()}"
      else
        puts "Something went wrong #{ar_err.get_message()}"
      end
    }

When you don’t know in advance the content type of the http response, you can still use the `bodyAsXXX()` methods that decode the response to a specific type

    client.get(8080, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri").send() { |ar_err,ar|
      if (ar_err == nil)

        response = ar

        # Decode the body as a json object
        body = response.body_as_json_object()

        puts "Received response with status code#{response.status_code()} with body #{body}"
      else
        puts "Something went wrong #{ar_err.get_message()}"
      end
    }

Warning | this is only valid for the response decoded as a buffer.

### Response predicates

By default, a Vert.x Web Client request ends with an error only if something wrong happens at the network level.

In other words, you must perform sanity checks manually after the response is received:

    client.get(8080, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri").send() { |ar_err,ar|
      if (ar_err == nil)

        response = ar

        if (response.status_code() == 200 && response.get_header("content-type").==("application/json"))

          # Decode the body as a json object
          body = response.body_as_json_object()
          puts "Received response with status code#{response.status_code()} with body #{body}"

        else
          puts "Something went wrong #{response.status_code()}"
        end

      else
        puts "Something went wrong #{ar_err.get_message()}"
      end
    }

You can trade flexibility for clarity and conciseness using response predicates.

`Response predicates` can fail a request when the response does not match a criteria.

The Web Client comes with a set of out of the box predicates ready to use:

    require 'vertx-web-client/response_predicate'
    client.get(8080, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri").expect(VertxWebClient::ResponsePredicate::SC_SUCCESS).expect(VertxWebClient::ResponsePredicate::JSON).send() { |ar_err,ar|
      if (ar_err == nil)

        response = ar

        # Safely decode the body as a json object
        body = response.body_as_json_object()
        puts "Received response with status code#{response.status_code()} with body #{body}"

      else
        puts "Something went wrong #{ar_err.get_message()}"
      end
    }

You can also create custom predicates when existing predicates don’t fit your needs:

    require 'vertx-web-client/response_predicate_result'

    # Check CORS header allowing to do POST
    methodsPredicate = lambda { |resp|
      methods = resp.get_header("Access-Control-Allow-Methods")
      if (methods != nil)
        if (methods.contains?("POST"))
          return VertxWebClient::ResponsePredicateResult.success()
        end
      end
      return VertxWebClient::ResponsePredicateResult.failure("Does not work")
    }

    # Send pre-flight CORS request
    client.request(:OPTIONS, 8080, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri").put_header("Origin", "Server-b.com").put_header("Access-Control-Request-Method", "POST").expect(methodsPredicate).send() { |ar_err,ar|
      if (ar_err == nil)
        # Process the POST request now
      else
        puts "Something went wrong #{ar_err.get_message()}"
      end
    }

Tip | Response predicates are evaluated before the response body is received. Therefore you can’t inspect the response body in a predicate test function.

#### Predefined predicates

As a convenience, the Web Client ships a few predicates for common uses cases .

For status codes, e.g `ResponsePredicate.SC_SUCCESS` to verify that the response has a `2xx` code, you can also create a custom one:

    require 'vertx-web-client/response_predicate'
    client.get(8080, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri").expect(VertxWebClient::ResponsePredicate.status(200, 202)).send() { |ar_err,ar|
      # ....
    }

For content types, e.g `ResponsePredicate.JSON` to verify that the response body contains JSON data, you can also create a custom one:

    require 'vertx-web-client/response_predicate'
    client.get(8080, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri").expect(VertxWebClient::ResponsePredicate.content_type("some/content-type")).send() { |ar_err,ar|
      # ....
    }

Please refer to the `ResponsePredicate` documentation for a full list of predefined predicates.

### Handling 30x redirections

By default the client follows redirections, you can configure the default behavior in the `WebClientOptions`:

    require 'vertx-web-client/web_client'

    # Change the default behavior to not follow redirects
    client = VertxWebClient::WebClient.create(vertx, {
      'followRedirects' => false
    })

The client will follow at most `16` requests redirections, it can be changed in the same options:

    require 'vertx-web-client/web_client'

    # Follow at most 5 redirections
    client = VertxWebClient::WebClient.create(vertx, {
      'maxRedirects' => 5
    })

Note | For security reason, client won’t follow redirects for request with methods different from GET or HEAD

## Using HTTPS

Vert.x Web Client can be configured to use HTTPS in exactly the same way as the Vert.x `HttpClient`.

You can specify the behavior per request

    client.get(443, "myserver.mycompany.com", "/some-uri").ssl(true).send() { |ar_err,ar|
      if (ar_err == nil)
        # Obtain response
        response = ar

        puts "Received response with status code#{response.status_code()}"
      else
        puts "Something went wrong #{ar_err.get_message()}"
      end
    }

Or using create methods with absolute URI argument

    client.get_abs("https://myserver.mycompany.com:4043/some-uri").send() { |ar_err,ar|
      if (ar_err == nil)
        # Obtain response
        response = ar

        puts "Received response with status code#{response.status_code()}"
      else
        puts "Something went wrong #{ar_err.get_message()}"
      end
    }

## Sessions management

Vert.x web offers a web session management facility; to use it, you create a `WebClientSession` for every user (session) and use it instead of the `WebClient`.

### Creating a WebSession

You create a `WebClientSession` instance as follows

    require 'vertx-web-client/web_client'
    require 'vertx-web-client/web_client_session'
    client = VertxWebClient::WebClient.create(vertx)
    session = VertxWebClient::WebClientSession.create(client)

### Making requests

Once created, a `WebClientSession` can be used instead of a `WebClient` to do HTTP(s) requests and automatically manage any cookies received from the server(s) you are calling.

### Setting session level headers

You can set any session level headers to be added to every request as follows:

    require 'vertx-web-client/web_client_session'
    session = VertxWebClient::WebClientSession.create(client)
    session.add_header("my-jwt-token", jwtToken)

The headers will then be added to every request; notice that these headers will be sent to all hosts; if you need to send different headers to different hosts, you have to add them manually to every single request and not to the `WebClientSession`.

## Domain sockets

Since 3.7.1 the Web Client supports domain sockets, e.g you can interact with the local Docker daemon.

To achieve this, the `Vertx` instance must be created using a native transport, you can read the Vert.x core documentation that explains it clearly.

    require 'vertx/socket_address'
    require 'vertx-web-common/body_codec'
    require 'vertx-web-client/response_predicate'

    # Creates the unix domain socket address to access the Docker API
    serverAddress = Vertx::SocketAddress.domain_socket_address("/var/run/docker.sock")

    # We still need to specify host and port so the request HTTP header will be localhost:8080
    # otherwise it will be a malformed HTTP request
    # the actual value does not matter much for this example
    client.request(:GET, serverAddress, 8080, "localhost", "/images/json").expect(VertxWebClient::ResponsePredicate::SC_ACCEPTED).as(VertxWebCommon::BodyCodec.json_object()).send() { |ar_err,ar|
      if (ar_err == nil)
        # Obtain response
        response = ar

        puts "Current Docker images#{response.body()}"
      else
        puts "Something went wrong #{ar_err.get_message()}"
      end
    }