Using inets http client

[Michael McDaniel]

On Sun, Jun 05, 2005 at 03:24:03AM +0100, Will Newton wrote:
> On Saturday 04 June 2005 20:37, Michael McDaniel wrote:
> 
> Thanks for your quick reply.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
	You are welcome.
~M

> 
> > It appears that when the http:request/4 returns (successfully),
> > http_wait_with_timeout(RequestId, 15000) is then called and prints dots.
> >
> > I suggest adding
> > 			io:format'~p~n', [RequestId]) ,
> >
> > just before the call to http_wait_with_timeout(RequestId, 15000) in
> > get_url/1 and see what gets printed.
> 
> #Ref<0.0.0.68>
> 
> I'm not sure how to interpret this value...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Apologies for any confusion I caused.  I am accustomed to using
http:request/4  synchronously and directly and using the URL
response returned.

When I wrote the first note I had not run the code you provided.
>From looking at it, I was thinking that 'RequestId' would actually
contain the result from the request.  Of course it does not.

Now I also am confused about why this is not working.

Interestingly, this 

 get_url(Url) ->
     application:start(inets),

     case (catch http:request(get, {Url, []}, [], [{sync, false}])) of
       {ok, RequestId} ->

           receive
               {http, {RequestId, Result}} ->
                   io:format('~p~n', [Result]) ;
               {http, {RequestId, {error, Reason}}} ->
                   throw({error, Reason})
           after 7000 -> throw({timeout})
           end ;

       _ ->
           io:format("http request failed~n")
     end.

will return the Result.

According to documentation of http:request/4, "... a message will be sent to the
calling process on the format ...".

Both get_url/1 and http_wait_with_timeout/2 have the same process id so I am
not understanding why the result does not come back to http_wait_with_timeout/2
but does come back to get_url/1.


The following will retry also.

get_url(Url, Timeout) ->
   application:start(inets),

   if Timeout < 0 -> exit({timeout}) ;
      true        -> true
   end ,

   case (catch http:request(get, {Url, []}, [], [])) of
	{ok, Result} ->       {ok, Result} ;
         _ ->
		io:format('.', []) , timer:sleep(1000) ,
		get_url(Url, Timeout-1000)
   end.        


Any help from others about the original code is welcome.

~Michael