authenticate(+Boolean)

If false (default true), do not try to automatically authenticate the client if a 401 (Unauthorized) status code is received.

authorization(+Term)

Send authorization. See also http_set_authorization/2. Supported schemes:

basic(+User, +Password)

HTTP Basic authentication.

bearer(+Token)

HTTP Bearer authentication.

digest(+User, +Password)

HTTP Digest authentication. This option is only provided if the plugin library(http/http_digest) is also loaded.

unix_socket(+Path)

Connect to the given Unix domain socket. In this scenario the host name and port or ignored. If the server replies with a redirect message and the host differs from the original host as normal TCP connection is used to handle the redirect. This option is inspired by curl(1)’s option‘--unix-socket`.

connection(+Connection)

Specify the Connection header. Default is close. The alternative is Keep-alive. This maintains a pool of available connections as determined by keep_connection/1. The library(http/websockets) uses Keep-alive, Upgrade. Keep-alive connections can be closed explicitly using http_close_keep_alive/1. Keep-alive connections may significantly improve repetitive requests on the same server, especially if the IP route is long, HTTPS is used or the connection uses a proxy.

final_url(-FinalURL)

Unify FinalURL with the final destination. This differs from the original URL if the returned head of the original indicates an HTTP redirect (codes 301, 302 or 303). Without a redirect, FinalURL is the same as URL if URL is an atom, or a URL constructed from the parts.

header(Name, -AtomValue)

If provided, AtomValue is unified with the value of the indicated field in the reply header. Name is matched case-insensitive and the underscore (_) matches the hyphen (-). Multiple of these options may be provided to extract multiple header fields. If the header is not available AtomValue is unified to the empty atom (” ).

headers(-List)

If provided, List is unified with a list of Name(Value) pairs corresponding to fields in the reply header. Name and Value follow the same conventions used by the header(Name,Value) option. A pseudo header status_code(Code) is added to provide the HTTP status as an integer. See also raw_headers(-List) which provides the entire HTTP reply header in unparsed representation.

method(+Method)

One of get (default), head, delete, post, put or patch. The head message can be used in combination with the header(Name, Value) option to access information on the resource without actually fetching the resource itself. The returned stream must be closed immediately.

If post(Data) is provided, the default is post.

size(-Size)

Size is unified with the integer value of Content-Length in the reply header.

version(-Version)

Version is a pair Major-Minor, where Major and Minor are integers representing the HTTP version in the reply header.

range(+Range)

Ask for partial content. Range is a term Unit(From,To), where From is an integer and To is either an integer or the atom end. HTTP 1.1 only supports Unit = bytes. E.g., to ask for bytes 1000-1999, use the option range(bytes(1000,1999))

raw_encoding(+Encoding)

Do not install a decoding filter for Encoding. For example, using raw_encoding('applocation/gzip') the system will not decompress the stream if it is compressed using gzip.

raw_headers(-Lines)

Unify Lines with a list of strings that represents the complete reply header returned by the server. See also headers(-List).

redirect(+Boolean)

If false (default true), do not automatically redirect if a 3XX code is received. Must be combined with status_code(Code) and one of the header options to read the redirect reply. In particular, without status_code(Code) a redirect is mapped to an exception.

status_code(-Code)

If this option is present and Code unifies with the HTTP status code, do not translate errors (4xx, 5xx) into an exception. Instead, http_open/3 behaves as if 2xx (success) is returned, providing the application to read the error document from the returned stream.

output(-Out)

Unify the output stream with Out and do not close it. This can be used to upgrade a connection.

timeout(+Timeout)

If provided, set a timeout on the stream using set_stream/2. With this option if no new data arrives within Timeout seconds the stream raises an exception. Default is to wait forever (infinite).

post(+Data)

Issue a POST request on the HTTP server. Data is handed to http_post_data/3.

proxy(+Host:Port)

Use an HTTP proxy to connect to the outside world. See also socket:proxy_for_url/3. This option overrules the proxy specification defined by socket:proxy_for_url/3.

proxy(+Host, +Port)

Synonym for proxy(+Host:Port). Deprecated.

proxy_authorization(+Authorization)

Send authorization to the proxy. Otherwise the same as the authorization option.

bypass_proxy(+Boolean)

If true, bypass proxy hooks. Default is false.

request_header(Name=Value)

Additional name-value parts are added in the order of appearance to the HTTP request header. No interpretation is done.

max_redirect(+Max)

Sets the maximum length of a redirection chain. This is needed for some IRIs that redirect indefinitely to other IRIs without looping (e.g., redirecting to IRIs with a random element in them). Max must be either a non-negative integer or the atom infinite. The default value is 10.

user_agent(+Agent)

Defines the value of the User-Agent field of the HTTP header. Default is SWI-Prolog.

The hook http:open_options/2 can be used to provide default options based on the broken-down URL. The option status_code(-Code) is particularly useful to query REST interfaces that commonly return status codes other than 200 that need to be be processed by the client code.

http_open([ host('www.example.com'),
            path('/my/path'),
            search([ q='Hello world',
                     lang=en
                   ])
          ])

throws

error(existence_error(url, Id),Context) is raised if the HTTP result code is not in the range 200..299. Context has the shape context(Message, status(Code, TextCode)), where Code is the numeric HTTP code and TextCode is the textual description thereof provided by the server. Message may provide additional details or may be unbound.

See also

ssl_context/3 for SSL related options if library(http/http_ssl_plugin) is loaded.