NAME

HTTP::Message - Class encapsulating HTTP messages

DESCRIPTION

A HTTP::Message object contains some headers and a content (body). The class is only used as a base class for HTTP::Request and HTTP::Response, and are never instantiated alone.

METHODS

$mess = new HTTP::Message;

Object constructor. It should only be called internally by this library. External code should construct HTTP::Request or HTTP::Response objects.

$mess->clone()

Returns a copy of the object.

$mess->content([$content])

$mess->add_content($data)

These methods manages the content of the message. The content() method sets the content if an argument is given. If no argument is given the content is not touched. In either case the previous content is returned.

The add_content() methods appends data to the content.

HEADER METHODS

All unknown HTTP::Message methods are delegated to the HTTP::Headers object that is part of every message. This allows convenient access to these methods. Refer to HTTP::Headers for details of these methods:

  $mess->header($field => $val);
  $mess->scan(&doit);
  $mess->push_header($field => $val);
  $mess->remove_header($field);

  $mess->date;
  $mess->expires;
  $mess->if_modified_since;
  $mess->last_modified;
  $mess->content_type;
  $mess->content_encoding;
  $mess->content_length;
  $mess->title;
  $mess->user_agent;
  $mess->server;
  $mess->from;
  $mess->referer;
  $mess->www_authenticate;
  $mess->authorization;
  $mess->authorization_basic;

$mess->headers_as_string([$endl])

Call the HTTP::Headers->as_string() method for the headers in the message.