User Manual
Advanced Topics
Lua Filter
http

http

The http module makes HTTP requests and returns response objects.

http = require("http")

Functions

get(url, options) 

http = require("http")

response, err = http.get("https://api.example.com/products")
if not response then
    print(err)
    os.exit(-1)
end

print(response.status_code)
print(response.body)

post(url, options) 

response, err = http.post("https://api.example.com/data", {
    headers = {
        ["Content-Type"] = "application/json",
    },
    body = '{"name": "Widget"}',
})

put(url, options), patch(url, options), delete(url, options), head(url, options)

Same signature as get and post.

request(method, url, options)

Generic request with explicit HTTP method.

response, err = http.request("OPTIONS", "https://api.example.com/data")

Options

All request functions accept an optional options table:

Option Description Example
headers Table of HTTP headers {["Accept"] = "text/xml"}
body Request body string '<data/>'
query Raw query string "page=2&limit=10"
cookies Table of cookies {session = "abc123"}
timeout Timeout in seconds or duration string 30 or "5s"
auth Basic auth table {user = "admin", pass = "secret"}

Response object

The response object has the following fields:

Field Type Description
status_code number HTTP status code
body string Response body
body_size number Body size in bytes
url string Final URL (after redirects)
headers table Response headers
cookies table Response cookies

Example: fetch XML data for typesetting 

http = require("http")
xml = require("xml")

response, err = http.get("https://api.example.com/catalog.xml", {
    headers = {
        ["Accept"] = "application/xml",
        ["Authorization"] = "Bearer " .. os.getenv("API_TOKEN"),
    },
    timeout = 10,
})

if not response or response.status_code ~= 200 then
    runtime = require("runtime")
    runtime.log.error("Failed to fetch catalog: " .. (err or response.status_code))
    os.exit(-1)
end

-- Write response body as data.xml for the publishing run
f = io.open("data.xml", "w")
f:write(response.body)
f:close()
xlsx