Introduction

The HTTP Client library provides you with a low-level API to create and execute HTTP requests (over both plain TCP/HTTP and secure SSL/TLS/HTTPS connections). You can use this library download files from the web, or call REST APIs of web services required by your model. The library provides you with complete freedom to programmatically construct an HTTP request with all headers required for the service that you want to call.

The library does not create request bodies, nor does it interpret and translate response bodies into AIMMS data. The latter is left completely to your AIMMS model.

Tip

For processing the body the Data Exchange Library can be used. It can handle different types, like JSON, XML and CSV.

Adding the HTTP Client library to your model

The HTTP Client component is provided in the form of a library HTTPClient in the AIMMS Library Repository, which is accessible from within the Library Manager within your model. After selecting the HTTPClient library from the Library Manager, it will be downloaded from the AIMMS Library Repository, and added to your model.

To add the HTTP Client library to your model, open the Library Manager from the File menu, and click the Add Library from Repository button. This will open a dialog displaying all libraries that you can download from the AIMMS Library Repository. Select HTTPClient from the list to add the library to your model, or select a specific version to upgrade from a previous version you already installed before.

Example

The following example shows the implementation of the web::downloadFile() method implemented in the HTTP Client library. It demonstrates the lower-level native methods used to

  • create the HTTP request to perform the file retrieval

  • set various HTTP headers and library options

  • set the method to retrieve the response body into a given destination file name

  • execute the query, and

  • close the HTTP request

    ! Setup the web-request
web::request_create(requestId);
web::request_setURL(requestId, url);
if (username <> "" ) then
    ! see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_access_authentication
    web::base64_encode( userName + ":" + password, authorization);
    myHttpHeaders[ 'Authorization' ] := "Basic " + authorization;
    web::request_setHeaders(requestId, myHttpHeaders);
endif;
web::request_setResponseBody(requestId, 'File', destination);

web::request_getOptions(requestId, myClientOptions);
myClientOptions['requestTimeout'] := "30"; ! 30 seconds
web::request_setOptions(requestId, myClientOptions);

! invoke the web-request
web::request_invoke(requestId, responseCode);
if (responseCode <> 200) then
    raise error "Web Request failed ";
endif;

web::request_close(requestId);

Tip

More examples can be found in our HTTP Library HowTo.

Limitations

The library does not support compression (see also web::request_setHeaders()).