Class Client

The end user interface for doing HTTP requests.

Scoped clients

If you're doing multiple requests to the same hostname it's often convenient to use the constructor arguments to create a scoped client. This allows you to keep your code DRY and not repeat hostnames, authentication, and other options.

Doing requests

Once you've created an instance of Client you can do requests using several methods. Each corresponds to a different HTTP method.

  • get()
  • post()
  • put()
  • delete()
  • patch()

Cookie management

Client will maintain cookies from the responses done with a client instance. These cookies will be automatically added to future requests to matching hosts. Cookies will respect the Expires, Path and Domain attributes. You can get the client's CookieCollection using cookies()

You can use the 'cookieJar' constructor option to provide a custom cookie jar instance you've restored from cache/disk. By default an empty instance of Cake\Http\Client\CookieCollection will be created.

Sending request bodies

By default any POST/PUT/PATCH/DELETE request with $data will send their data as application/x-www-form-urlencoded unless there are attached files. In that case multipart/form-data will be used.

When sending request bodies you can use the type option to set the Content-Type for the request:

$http->get('/users', [], ['type' => 'json']);

The type option sets both the Content-Type and Accept header, to the same mime type. When using type you can use either a full mime type or an alias. If you need different types in the Accept and Content-Type headers you should set them manually and not use type

Using authentication

By using the auth key you can use authentication. The type sub option can be used to specify which authentication strategy you want to use. CakePHP comes with a few built-in strategies:

  • Basic
  • Digest
  • Oauth

Using proxies

By using the proxy key you can set authentication credentials for a proxy if you need to use one. The type sub option can be used to specify which authentication strategy you want to use. CakePHP comes with built-in support for basic authentication.

Cake\Http\Client uses Cake\Core\InstanceConfigTrait
Namespace: Cake\Http
Mixin: \Cake\Core\InstanceConfigTrait
Location: Http/Client.php

Properties summary

Inherited Properties

Method Summary

  • __construct() public
    Create a new HTTP Client.
  • Add authentication headers to the request.
  • _addProxy() protected
    Add proxy authentication headers.
  • _createAuth() protected
    Create the authentication strategy.
  • _createRequest() protected
    Creates a new request object based on the parameters.
  • _doRequest() protected
    Helper method for doing non-GET requests.
  • _mergeOptions() protected
    Does a recursive merge of the parameter with the scope config.
  • _sendRequest() protected
    Send a request without redirection.
  • _typeHeaders() protected

    Returns headers for Accept/Content-Type based on a short type or full mime-type.

  • addCookie() public
    Adds a cookie to the Client collection.
  • buildUrl() public
    Generate a URL based on the scoped client options.
  • cookies() public
    Get the cookies stored in the Client.
  • delete() public
    Do a DELETE request.
  • get() public
    Do a GET request.
  • head() public
    Do a HEAD request.
  • options() public
    Do an OPTIONS request.
  • patch() public
    Do a PATCH request.
  • post() public
    Do a POST request.
  • put() public
    Do a PUT request.
  • send() public
    Send a request.
  • trace() public
    Do a TRACE request.

Method Detail

__construct()source public

__construct( array $config [] )

Create a new HTTP Client.

Config options

You can set the following options when creating a client:

  • host - The hostname to do requests on.
  • port - The port to use.
  • scheme - The default scheme/protocol to use. Defaults to http.
  • timeout - The timeout in seconds. Defaults to 30
  • ssl_verify_peer - Whether or not SSL certificates should be validated. Defaults to true.
  • ssl_verify_peer_name - Whether or not peer names should be validated. Defaults to true.
  • ssl_verify_depth - The maximum certificate chain depth to traverse. Defaults to 5.
  • ssl_verify_host - Verify that the certificate and hostname match. Defaults to true.
  • redirect - Number of redirects to follow. Defaults to false.

Parameters

array $config optional []
Config options for scoped clients.

_addAuthentication()source protected

_addAuthentication( Cake\Http\Client\Request $request , array $options )

Add authentication headers to the request.

Uses the authentication type to choose the correct strategy and use its methods to add headers.

Parameters

Cake\Http\Client\Request $request
The request to modify.
array $options
Array of options containing the 'auth' key.

Returns

Cake\Http\Client\Request
The updated request object.

_addProxy()source protected

_addProxy( Cake\Http\Client\Request $request , array $options )

Add proxy authentication headers.

Uses the authentication type to choose the correct strategy and use its methods to add headers.

Parameters

Cake\Http\Client\Request $request
The request to modify.
array $options
Array of options containing the 'proxy' key.

Returns

Cake\Http\Client\Request
The updated request object.

_createAuth()source protected

_createAuth( array $auth , array $options )

Create the authentication strategy.

Use the configuration options to create the correct authentication strategy handler.

Parameters

array $auth
The authentication options to use.
array $options
The overall request options to use.

Returns

mixed
Authentication strategy instance.

Throws

Cake\Core\Exception\Exception
when an invalid strategy is chosen.

_createRequest()source protected

_createRequest( string $method , string $url , mixed $data , array $options )

Creates a new request object based on the parameters.

Parameters

string $method
HTTP method name.
string $url
The url including query string.
mixed $data
The request body.
array $options
The options to use. Contains auth, proxy, etc.

Returns

Cake\Http\Client\Request

_doRequest()source protected

_doRequest( string $method , string $url , mixed $data , array $options )

Helper method for doing non-GET requests.

Parameters

string $method
HTTP method.
string $url
URL to request.
mixed $data
The request body.
array $options
The options to use. Contains auth, proxy, etc.

Returns

Cake\Http\Client\Response

_mergeOptions()source protected

_mergeOptions( array $options )

Does a recursive merge of the parameter with the scope config.

Parameters

array $options
Options to merge.

Returns

array
Options merged with set config.

_sendRequest()source protected

_sendRequest( Cake\Http\Client\Request $request , array $options )

Send a request without redirection.

Parameters

Cake\Http\Client\Request $request
The request to send.
array $options
Additional options to use.

Returns

Cake\Http\Client\Response

_typeHeaders()source protected

_typeHeaders( string $type )

Returns headers for Accept/Content-Type based on a short type or full mime-type.

Parameters

string $type
short type alias or full mimetype.

Returns

array
Headers to set on the request.

Throws

Cake\Core\Exception\Exception
When an unknown type alias is used.

addCookie()source public

addCookie( Cake\Http\Cookie\CookieInterface $cookie )

Adds a cookie to the Client collection.

Parameters

Cake\Http\Cookie\CookieInterface $cookie
Cookie object.

Returns


$this

buildUrl()source public

buildUrl( string $url , string|array $query [] , array $options [] )

Generate a URL based on the scoped client options.

Parameters

string $url
Either a full URL or just the path.
string|array $query optional []
The query data for the URL.
array $options optional []
The config options stored with Client::config()

Returns

string
A complete url with scheme, port, host, and path.

cookies()source public

cookies( )

Get the cookies stored in the Client.

Returns

Cake\Http\Client\CookieCollection

delete()source public

delete( string $url , mixed $data [] , array $options [] )

Do a DELETE request.

Parameters

string $url
The url or path you want to request.
mixed $data optional []
The request data you want to send.
array $options optional []
Additional options for the request.

Returns

Cake\Http\Client\Response

get()source public

get( string $url , array $data [] , array $options [] )

Do a GET request.

The $data argument supports a special _content key for providing a request body in a GET request. This is generally not used, but services like ElasticSearch use this feature.

Parameters

string $url
The url or path you want to request.
array $data optional []
The query data you want to send.
array $options optional []
Additional options for the request.

Returns

Cake\Http\Client\Response

head()source public

head( string $url , array $data [] , array $options [] )

Do a HEAD request.

Parameters

string $url
The url or path you want to request.
array $data optional []
The query string data you want to send.
array $options optional []
Additional options for the request.

Returns

Cake\Http\Client\Response

options()source public

options( string $url , mixed $data [] , array $options [] )

Do an OPTIONS request.

Parameters

string $url
The url or path you want to request.
mixed $data optional []
The request data you want to send.
array $options optional []
Additional options for the request.

Returns

Cake\Http\Client\Response

patch()source public

patch( string $url , mixed $data [] , array $options [] )

Do a PATCH request.

Parameters

string $url
The url or path you want to request.
mixed $data optional []
The request data you want to send.
array $options optional []
Additional options for the request.

Returns

Cake\Http\Client\Response

post()source public

post( string $url , mixed $data [] , array $options [] )

Do a POST request.

Parameters

string $url
The url or path you want to request.
mixed $data optional []
The post data you want to send.
array $options optional []
Additional options for the request.

Returns

Cake\Http\Client\Response

put()source public

put( string $url , mixed $data [] , array $options [] )

Do a PUT request.

Parameters

string $url
The url or path you want to request.
mixed $data optional []
The request data you want to send.
array $options optional []
Additional options for the request.

Returns

Cake\Http\Client\Response

send()source public

send( Cake\Http\Client\Request $request , array $options [] )

Send a request.

Used internally by other methods, but can also be used to send handcrafted Request objects.

Parameters

Cake\Http\Client\Request $request
The request to send.
array $options optional []
Additional options to use.

Returns

Cake\Http\Client\Response

trace()source public

trace( string $url , mixed $data [] , array $options [] )

Do a TRACE request.

Parameters

string $url
The url or path you want to request.
mixed $data optional []
The request data you want to send.
array $options optional []
Additional options for the request.

Returns

Cake\Http\Client\Response

Methods used from Cake\Core\InstanceConfigTrait

_configDelete()source protected

_configDelete( string $key )

Deletes a single config key.

Parameters

string $key
Key to delete.

Throws

Cake\Core\Exception\Exception
if attempting to clobber existing config

_configRead()source protected

_configRead( string|null $key )

Reads a config key.

Parameters

string|null $key
Key to read.

Returns

mixed

_configWrite()source protected

_configWrite( string|array $key , mixed $value , boolean|string $merge false )

Writes a config key.

Parameters

string|array $key
Key to write to.
mixed $value
Value to write.
boolean|string $merge optional false

True to merge recursively, 'shallow' for simple merge, false to overwrite, defaults to false.

Throws

Cake\Core\Exception\Exception
if attempting to clobber existing config

config()source public

config( string|array|null $key null , mixed|null $value null , boolean $merge true )

Gets/Sets the config.

Usage

Reading the whole config:

$this->config();

Reading a specific value:

$this->config('key');

Reading a nested value:

$this->config('some.nested.key');

Setting a specific value:

$this->config('key', $value);

Setting a nested value:

$this->config('some.nested.key', $value);

Updating multiple config settings at the same time:

$this->config(['one' => 'value', 'another' => 'value']);

Deprecated

3.4.0 use setConfig()/getConfig() instead.

Parameters

string|array|null $key optional null
The key to get/set, or a complete array of configs.
mixed|null $value optional null
The value to set.
boolean $merge optional true
Whether to recursively merge or overwrite existing config, defaults to true.

Returns

mixed
Config value being read, or the object itself on write operations.

Throws

Cake\Core\Exception\Exception
When trying to set a key that is invalid.

configShallow()source public

configShallow( string|array $key , mixed|null $value null )

Merge provided config with existing config. Unlike config() which does a recursive merge for nested keys, this method does a simple merge.

Setting a specific value:

$this->configShallow('key', $value);

Setting a nested value:

$this->configShallow('some.nested.key', $value);

Updating multiple config settings at the same time:

$this->configShallow(['one' => 'value', 'another' => 'value']);

Parameters

string|array $key
The key to set, or a complete array of configs.
mixed|null $value optional null
The value to set.

Returns


$this

getConfig()source public

getConfig( string|null $key null , mixed $default null )

Returns the config.

Usage

Reading the whole config:

$this->getConfig();

Reading a specific value:

$this->getConfig('key');

Reading a nested value:

$this->getConfig('some.nested.key');

Reading with default value:

$this->getConfig('some-key', 'default-value');

Parameters

string|null $key optional null
The key to get or null for the whole config.
mixed $default optional null
The return value when the key does not exist.

Returns

mixed
Config value being read.

setConfig()source public

setConfig( string|array $key , mixed|null $value null , boolean $merge true )

Sets the config.

Usage

Setting a specific value:

$this->setConfig('key', $value);

Setting a nested value:

$this->setConfig('some.nested.key', $value);

Updating multiple config settings at the same time:

$this->setConfig(['one' => 'value', 'another' => 'value']);

Parameters

string|array $key
The key to set, or a complete array of configs.
mixed|null $value optional null
The value to set.
boolean $merge optional true
Whether to recursively merge or overwrite existing config, defaults to true.

Returns


$this

Throws

Cake\Core\Exception\Exception
When trying to set a key that is invalid.

Properties detail

$_adaptersource

protected Cake\Http\Client\Adapter\Stream

Adapter for sending requests. Defaults to Cake\Http\Client\Adapter\Stream

$_cookiessource

protected Cake\Http\Client\CookieCollection

List of cookies from responses made with this client.

Cookies are indexed by the cookie's domain or request host name.

$_defaultConfigsource

protected array

Default configuration for the client.

[
    'adapter' => 'Cake\Http\Client\Adapter\Stream',
    'host' => null,
    'port' => null,
    'scheme' => 'http',
    'timeout' => 30,
    'ssl_verify_peer' => true,
    'ssl_verify_peer_name' => true,
    'ssl_verify_depth' => 5,
    'ssl_verify_host' => true,
    'redirect' => false,
]

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Licensed under the MIT License.
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https://api.cakephp.org/3.5/class-Cake.Http.Client.html