Working with HttpRequest content body is unwieldy.

[DartBot]

This issue was originally filed by @butlermatt

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Currently an HttpRequest (even when not persistent) is a Stream of List<int>. As such to get the entire content body we need to do something like this:

List<int> body = new List<int>();
request.listen(body.addAll, onDone: () {
  var str = new String.fromCharCodes(body);
  // Now do something with the string of data
});

While there some modifications we can do like transform it to a StringDecoder then convert to a list then join said list of strings into the result.. ultimately that's just as (if not more) unwieldy. And neither option seems very dart-y.

I'm wondering if HttpRequest should provide a helper method or property to provide the 'body' of the HttpRequest. Something similar to:

httpRequest.content.then((List<int> body) {
  // Optional since we may not always want strings
  var str = new String.fromCharCodes(body);
  // now do stuff.
});

[sgjesse]

I was actually thinking about this earlier today, and came up with the following:

How about having a class which can do this either as a transformer (for the server) or through a future (usable on both client and server).

Something like this - see example usage below.

class HttpBody implements StreamTransformer<HttpRequest, HttpRequestBody> {
  static int BINARY = 0;
  static int TEXT = 1;
  static int JSON = 2;
  static int FORM = 3;

  static Future<HttpRequestBody> processRequestBody(HttpRequest request);

  static Future<HttpResponseBody> processResponseBody(HttpResponse response)

  // The content type e.g. application/json, application/octet-stream, application/x-www-form-urlencoded, ...
  String get mimeType;

  // Something better that mimeType, e.g. HttpBody.JSON, HttpBody.BINARY, HttpBody.FORM, HttpBody.TEXT ...
  int get type ...

  // The actual body, type of this depending on type (Map for JSON and FROM, List<int> for BINARY etc.
  dynamic get body;

  // Map if JSON, null otherwise
  Map get json;

  // List<int> if BINARY, null otherwise
  List<int>> get binary;

  // Map if FORM, null otherwise
  Map get form;

  // String if TEXT, null otherwise
  String get text;
}

class HttpRequestBody extends HttpBody {
  // The original request for access to all headers etc.
  HttpRequest get request;
}

class HttpResponseBody extends HttpBody {
  // The original response for access to all headers etc.
  HttpResponse get request;
}

HttpServer.bind().then((server) {
  server
      .transform(new HttpBodyHandler())
      .listen((HttpRequestBody body) {
        body.mimeType ... // The content type e.g. application/json, application/octet-stream, application/x-www-form-urlencoded, ...
        body.type ... // Something better that mimeType, e.g. HttpBody.JSON, HttpBody.BINARY, HttpBody.FORM, HttpBody.TEXT ...
        body.body ... // The actual body, type of this depending on type (Map for JSON and FROM, List<int> for BINARY etc.
        body.json ... // Map if JSON, null otherwise
        body.binary ... // List<int> if BINARY, null otherwise
        body.form ... // Map if FORM, null otherwise
        body.text ... // String if TEXT, null otherwise
        body.request ... // The original request for access to all headers etc.
  }

  HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
  client.getUrl(...)
      .then((HttpClientRequest request) {
        return request.close();
      })
      .then((HttpClientResponse response) {
        HttpBodyHandler.processBody(response).then((HttpResponseBody body) {
          body.contentType ... // As above
          body.body ... // As above
          body.response ... // the original response for access to all headers etc.
        }
      }
}

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Added this to the M4 milestone.
Added Area-IO, Accepted labels.

[sethladd]

For the record, yes! :) Also, for WebSocketTransformer. Thanks!

[DartBot]

This comment was originally written by @butlermatt

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Sounds very good. Though perhaps also add a getter to the HttpRequestBody to provide the response (ie HttpResponse get response => request.response;), otherwise we'd need to write something like:

body.request.response.addString(replyJson);

better to be just:

body.response...

Otherwise, yes I love the idea. Especially since it would work so well with many of the already existing routing implementations (or at least mine ;).

But definitely the key point for me is having the body content available synchronously instead of as a stream of data I have to 'collect'. All the extra functionality (body.type) is just the cherry on top ;)

[sgjesse]

Removed this from the M4 milestone.
Added this to the M5 milestone.

[andersjohnsen]

Landed a few days ago. We'll look into user-defined types down the road.

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Set owner to @Skabet.
Removed this from the M5 milestone.
Added this to the M4 milestone.
Added Fixed label.

[sgjesse]

The change landed in https://code.google.com/p/dart/source/detail?r=21202 support mime types text/* and application/json.

Built-in form support (for both application/x-www-form-urlencoded and multipart/form-data) and configuration will be added.

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Removed the owner.
Removed this from the M4 milestone.
Added this to the M5 milestone.
Added Accepted label.

[sgjesse]

Issue #2488 has been merged into this issue.

[sgjesse]

Marked this as blocking #7391.

[sgjesse]

Issue #2787 has been merged into this issue.

[sgjesse]

Issue #5040 has been merged into this issue.

[sgjesse]

With the addition of HttpBodyHandler in dart:io the body handling has become much simpler.

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Added Fixed label.

[kevmoo]

Removed Area-IO label.
Added Area-Library, Library-IO labels.