description

# HttpClient class abstract interface

An HTTP client for communicating with an HTTP server.

> Note: You should avoid directly using `HttpClient` to make HTTP requests. You can use `HttpClient` indirectly through the `IOClient` adapter in `package:http`.

> Using a higher-level library, like `package:http`, allows you to switch implementations with minimal changes to your code. For example, `package:http` `Client` has implementations for the browser and implementations that use platform native HTTP clients on Android and iOS. Unlike `HttpClient`, these native implementations work with the proxies, VPNs, etc.

Sends HTTP requests to an HTTP server and receives responses. Maintains state, including session cookies and other cookies, between multiple requests to the same server.

HttpClient contains a number of methods to send an HttpClientRequest to an Http server and receive an HttpClientResponse back. For example, you can use the get, getUrl, post, and postUrl methods for GET and POST requests, respectively.

## Making a simple GET request: an example

A `getUrl` request is a two-step process, triggered by two Futures. When the first future completes with an HttpClientRequest, the underlying network connection has been established, but no data has been sent. In the callback function for the first future, the HTTP headers and body can be set on the request. Either the first write to the request object or a call to close sends the request to the server.

When the HTTP response is received from the server, the second future, which is returned by close, completes with an HttpClientResponse object. This object provides access to the headers and body of the response. The body is available as a stream implemented by `HttpClientResponse`. If a body is present, it must be read. Otherwise, it leads to resource leaks. Consider using HttpClientResponse.drain if the body is unused.

    var client = HttpClient();
    try {
      HttpClientRequest request = await client.get('localhost', 80, '/file.txt');
      // Optionally set up headers...
      // Optionally write to the request object...
      HttpClientResponse response = await request.close();
      // Process the response
      final stringData = await response.transform(utf8.decoder).join();
      print(stringData);
    } finally {
      client.close();
    }

The future for HttpClientRequest is created by methods such as getUrl and open.

## HTTPS connections

An `HttpClient` can make HTTPS requests, connecting to a server using the TLS (SSL) secure networking protocol. Calling getUrl with an https: scheme will work automatically, if the server's certificate is signed by a root CA (certificate authority) on the default list of well-known trusted CAs, compiled by Mozilla.

To add a custom trusted certificate authority, or to send a client certificate to servers that request one, pass a SecurityContext object as the optional `context` argument to the `HttpClient` constructor. The desired security options can be set on the SecurityContext object.

## Headers

All `HttpClient` requests set the following header by default:

    Accept-Encoding: gzip

This allows the HTTP server to use gzip compression for the body if possible. If this behavior is not desired set the `Accept-Encoding` header to something else. To turn off gzip compression of the response, clear this header:

     request.headers.removeAll(HttpHeaders.acceptEncodingHeader)

## Closing the `HttpClient`

`HttpClient` supports persistent connections and caches network connections to reuse them for multiple requests whenever possible. This means that network connections can be kept open for some time after a request has completed. Use HttpClient.close to force the `HttpClient` object to shut down and to close the idle network connections.

## Turning proxies on and off

By default the `HttpClient` uses the proxy configuration available from the environment, see findProxyFromEnvironment. To turn off the use of proxies set the findProxy property to `null`.

    HttpClient client = HttpClient();
    client.findProxy = null;

## Constructors

HttpClient({SecurityContext? context})
  factory

## Properties

authenticate ← Future<bool> Function(Uri url, String scheme, String? realm)?
  Sets the function to be called when a site is requesting authentication.
  no getter
authenticateProxy ← Future<bool> Function(String host, int port, String scheme, String? realm)?
  Sets the function to be called when a proxy is requesting authentication.
  no getter
autoUncompress ↔ bool
  Gets and sets whether the body of a response will be automatically uncompressed.
  getter/setter pair
badCertificateCallback ← bool Function(X509Certificate cert, String host, int port)?
  Sets a callback that will decide whether to accept a secure connection with a server certificate that cannot be authenticated by any of our trusted root certificates.
  no getter
connectionFactory ← Future<ConnectionTask<Socket>> Function(Uri url, String? proxyHost, int? proxyPort)?
  Sets the function used to create socket connections.
  no getter
connectionTimeout ↔ Duration?
  Gets and sets the connection timeout.
  getter/setter pair
findProxy ← String Function(Uri url)?
  Sets the function used to resolve the proxy server to be used for opening an HTTP connection to the specified `url`. If this function is not set, direct connections will always be used.
  no getter
hashCode → int
  The hash code for this object.
  no setterinherited
idleTimeout ↔ Duration
  Gets and sets the idle timeout of non-active persistent (keep-alive) connections.
  getter/setter pair
keyLog ← dynamic Function(String line)?
  Sets a callback that will be called when new TLS keys are exchanged with the server. It will receive one line of text in NSS Key Log Format for each call. Writing these lines to a file will allow tools (such as Wireshark) to decrypt communication between the this client and the server. This is meant to allow network-level debugging of secure sockets and should not be used in production code. For example:
  no getter
maxConnectionsPerHost ↔ int?
  Gets and sets the maximum number of live connections, to a single host.
  getter/setter pair
runtimeType → Type
  A representation of the runtime type of the object.
  no setterinherited
userAgent ↔ String?
  Gets and sets the default value of the `User-Agent` header for all requests generated by this HttpClient.
  getter/setter pair

## Methods

addCredentials(Uri url, String realm, HttpClientCredentials credentials) → void
  Add credentials to be used for authorizing HTTP requests.
addProxyCredentials(String host, int port, String realm, HttpClientCredentials credentials) → void
  Add credentials to be used for authorizing HTTP proxies.
close({bool force = false}) → void
  Shuts down the HTTP client.
delete(String host, int port, String path) → Future<HttpClientRequest>
  Opens an HTTP connection using the DELETE method.
deleteUrl(Uri url) → Future<HttpClientRequest>
  Opens an HTTP connection using the DELETE method.
get(String host, int port, String path) → Future<HttpClientRequest>
  Opens an HTTP connection using the GET method.
getUrl(Uri url) → Future<HttpClientRequest>
  Opens an HTTP connection using the GET method.
head(String host, int port, String path) → Future<HttpClientRequest>
  Opens an HTTP connection using the HEAD method.
headUrl(Uri url) → Future<HttpClientRequest>
  Opens an HTTP connection using the HEAD method.
noSuchMethod(Invocation invocation) → dynamic
  Invoked when a nonexistent method or property is accessed.
  inherited
open(String method, String host, int port, String path) → Future<HttpClientRequest>
  Opens an HTTP connection.
openUrl(String method, Uri url) → Future<HttpClientRequest>
  Opens an HTTP connection.
patch(String host, int port, String path) → Future<HttpClientRequest>
  Opens an HTTP connection using the PATCH method.
patchUrl(Uri url) → Future<HttpClientRequest>
  Opens an HTTP connection using the PATCH method.
post(String host, int port, String path) → Future<HttpClientRequest>
  Opens an HTTP connection using the POST method.
postUrl(Uri url) → Future<HttpClientRequest>
  Opens an HTTP connection using the POST method.
put(String host, int port, String path) → Future<HttpClientRequest>
  Opens an HTTP connection using the PUT method.
putUrl(Uri url) → Future<HttpClientRequest>
  Opens an HTTP connection using the PUT method.
toString() → String
  A string representation of this object.
  inherited

## Operators

operator ==(Object other) → bool
  The equality operator.
  inherited

## Static Properties

enableTimelineLogging ↔ bool
  Current state of HTTP request logging from all HttpClients to the developer timeline.
  getter/setter pair

## Static Methods

findProxyFromEnvironment(Uri url, {Map<String, String>? environment}) → String
  Function for resolving the proxy server to be used for an HTTP connection from the proxy configuration specified through environment variables.

## Constants

defaultHttpPort → const int
defaultHttpsPort → const int