I’m very happy to announce that reqres has been released on CRAN. reqres is a new (in R context) approach to working with HTTP messages, that is, the requests you send to a server and the respons it returns. The uunderlying mechanics of a web server is seldom something that R users comes into contact with, indeed the most popular way of using R code for the web is Shiny by RStudio and OpenCPU by Jeroen Ooms, both of which abstracts the actual HTTP messaging away in order to provide a more friendly and R-native interface to building web apps and services.

So why bother with HTTP in R at all?
Both of the above frameworks favors ease-of-use over control, and sometimes you just want control. Maybe you don’t need the overhead that comes with full-fledged web app frameworks, maybe the high abstraction level makes it difficult to achieve what you want, or maybe you’re the developer of Shiny or OpenCPU and wants to declutter your codebase ?. I’m of course here to tell you to take a look at fiery (which I’m developing) if you can give a nod to the two former reasons. I’m not going to spend more time on how and why to build a web server (that will happen in another series of blog posts), but simply state that there are very valid reasons for working directly with HTTP messaging in R and that reqres is here to soothe the pain of it, should you ever be in that position.

An overview of reqres

There are two main objects in reqres that the developer should know about. The Request class and the Response class. Both of these are build on R6 and heavily inspired by the request and response classes in Express.js (a web server framework for Node.js) to the point of seeming very familiar if you’ve ever worked with Express.

The Request class

When a HTTP request is recieved on the server the most likely way it ends up in R is through the httpuv package, a minimal web server build upon libuv (which were developed for Node – we’re beginning to owe the JavaScript crowd a beer). httpuv passes the request on as a Rook compliant environment (Rook being an earlier web server specification developed by Jeffrey Horner) and this is the point where reqres can intercept it and make your life easier.

In order to showcase the Request class we need a HTTP request. Thankfully fiery provides a function for mocking Rook requests, so we can play around with reqres without building up a true server.

library(reqres)
rook <- fiery::fake_request(
    'http://www.data-imaginist.com/reqres/demo?user=Thomas+Lin+Pedersen&id=123',
    method = 'get',
    content = '{"numbers":[1,2,3],"letters":["a","b", "c"]}',
    headers = list(
        Content_Type = 'application/json',
        Accept = 'application/json, application/xml, text/*',
        Accept_Encoding = 'gzip',
        Cookie = 'session=321'
    )
)

request <- Request$new(rook)
request

## A HTTP request
## ==============
## Trusted: No
##  Method: get
##     URL: http://www.data-imaginist.com:80/reqres/demo?user=Thomas+Lin+Pedersen&id=123

We now have a supercharged Request object. Being an R6 class it uses reference semantics and there will thus only exist one version of this request no matter how many times we reassign it to a new variable. We can ask the request all sorts on things about itself, such as the method, full url, path (the part of the url following the host address), the query (the optional part of the url following the ?).

request$method

## [1] "get"

request$url

## [1] "http://www.data-imaginist.com:80/reqres/demo?user=Thomas+Lin+Pedersen&id=123"

request$path

## [1] "/reqres/demo"

request$query

## $user
## [1] "Thomas Lin Pedersen"
## 
## $id
## [1] 123

As can be seen the query gets parsed automatically into a list. The same is true for cookies. One surprise might come when we try to look at the body.

request$body

## NULL

The body is only parsed on request. The reason for this is that the request body can be in all sorts of formats, some not even understandable by R. The format of the body is advertised in the Content-Type header (here application/json) and we can ask the request whether it is of a certain format.

request$is('html')

## [1] FALSE

request$is('json')

## [1] TRUE

This can be used to determine the correct approach to reading the body. An easier way is through the parser() method that takes multiple different parsing functions and chooses the correct (if present) and fills in the body. reqres already comes with a list of parsers for the standard formats so often this is a very easy task.

request$parse(default_parsers)

## [1] TRUE

request$body

## $numbers
## [1] 1 2 3
## 
## $letters
## [1] "a" "b" "c"

The method returns TRUE if successful and FALSE otherwise. One little magic feature is that the body is automatically decompressed if compressed (e.g. gzipped).

Arbitrary headers can be extracted with the get_header() method.

request$get_header('Accept-Encoding')

## [1] "gzip"

The last major feature of the Request class is content negotiation. It is expected that the client informs the server what format, encoding, etc it understands and prefers and the server then choses the best one it can do (this is communicated through the Accept(-*) headers). The Request class has a range of methods that helps you chose the correct format of the response body.

request$accepts(c('html', 'text/plain'))

## [1] "html"

While the content negotiation seems relatively simple in our little contrived example, it can easily end up being hairy as each format can be weighted by a priority score and wildcards should be prioritized less. The accepts() method takes care of all of this for you and simply returns the prefered choice out of the given.

The Response class

While the Request class is mainly meant for parsing and reading the intend of the client, Response class is meant for manipulation, ultimately resulting in an answer to the Request. A response is always linked to a request and cannot exist in solitude. While it can be created using the standard R6 Response$new() ideom, it is recommended to create one from the request instead.

response <- request$respond()
response

## A HTTP response
## ===============
##         Status: 404 - Not Found
##   Content type: text/plain
## 
## In response to: http://www.data-imaginist.com:80/reqres/demo?user=Thomas+Lin+Pedersen&id=123

The reason why this is recommended is that the respond() method will always return a response, either creating one or returning the one already exisiting. Response$new() will throw an error if a response has already been created for the request.

try(Response$new(request))
identical(response, request$respond())

## [1] TRUE

Responses are initialised to 404- Not Found with an empty body but it is often desirable to change this (unless, of course, the requested ressource is not found). Status codes can be manipulated with the status field or the status_with_text() method which will also update the body to contain the name of the status code, e.g.

response$status_with_text(416)
response$body

## [1] "Range Not Satisfiable"

Headers can be set with the set_header() and append_header() method and retrieved with get_header().

response$set_header('Server', 'fiery-0.2.3')
response$get_header('Server')

## [1] "fiery-0.2.3"

The set_header() method is the lowest common denominator when it comes to adding headers to your response. In addition there are a range of helpers for specific common headers.

response$timestamp()
response$get_header('Date')

## [1] "Thu, 10 Aug 2017 09:15:20 GMT"

response$type <- 'json'
response$get_header('Content-Type')

## [1] "application/json"

response$set_links(alternative = '/feed')
response$get_header('Link')

## [1] "</feed>; rel=\"alternative\""

Furtermore, there’s a special method for setting cookies. While cookies are set with the Set-Cookie header, they live in a separate container until the response is ready to be send in order to facilitate lookup by cookie name.

response$set_cookie('session', uuid::UUIDgenerate(), max_age = 9000, secure = TRUE)
response$get_header('Set-Cookie')

## NULL

response$has_cookie('session')

## [1] TRUE

response$as_list()$headers[['Set-Cookie']]

## [1] "session=776396a3-556e-4bef-88a5-228965ecfb3c; Max-Age=9000; Secure"

Apart from the headers, the each response also contains their own data store that can contain any data. This facilitate communication between different middleware (code that modify the HTTP messages on the server). The data store is used pretty much like the headers.

response$set_data('alphabet', letters)
response$has_data('alphabet')

## [1] TRUE

response$get_data('alphabet')

##  [1] "a" "b" "c" "d" "e" "f" "g" "h" "i" "j" "k" "l" "m" "n" "o" "p" "q"
## [18] "r" "s" "t" "u" "v" "w" "x" "y" "z"

response$remove_data('alphabet')

The data contained in the data store will never become part of the actual response so anything can be added here safely.

Often the server responds with a file, e.g. a HTML file defining the web page the client requested. Files are easily added with the file field, which will take care of setting the Content-Type and Last-Modified headers as well as checking that the file actually exists.

response$file <- system.file('NEWS.md', package = 'reqres')
response$type

## [1] "text/markdown"

response$get_header('Last-Modified')

## [1] "Thu, 10 Aug 2017 08:33:54 GMT"

If the file is meant for download rather than display the attach() method will set the correct headers to indicate to the browser that it should initiate a download.

response$attach(system.file('help', 'figures', 'reqres_logo.png', package = 'reqres'))
response$type

## [1] "image/png"

response$get_header('Content-Disposition')

## [1] "attachment; filename=reqres_logo.png"

Lastly, the response body is accessible in the body field. It can be absolutely anything you wish as until the response is send of, but should be formatted to either a raw vector or a string prior to handing the response of to e.g. httpuv. Thankfully there’s a parallel to Request$parse() in the form of Response$format that performs content negotiation based on the supplied formatters, chooses the prefered one and applies it, finally applying compression if the client permits it. To make life easier the standard formatters have been collected in default_formatters so this step is easy-peasy (headers will of course be set for you).

response$body <- mtcars
head(response$body)

##                    mpg cyl disp  hp drat    wt  qsec vs am gear carb
## Mazda RX4         21.0   6  160 110 3.90 2.620 16.46  0  1    4    4
## Mazda RX4 Wag     21.0   6  160 110 3.90 2.875 17.02  0  1    4    4
## Datsun 710        22.8   4  108  93 3.85 2.320 18.61  1  1    4    1
## Hornet 4 Drive    21.4   6  258 110 3.08 3.215 19.44  1  0    3    1
## Hornet Sportabout 18.7   8  360 175 3.15 3.440 17.02  0  0    3    2
## Valiant           18.1   6  225 105 2.76 3.460 20.22  1  0    3    1

response$format(default_formatters, compress = FALSE)

## [1] TRUE

response$body

## [{"mpg":21,"cyl":6,"disp":160,"hp":110,"drat":3.9,"wt":2.62,"qsec":16.46,"vs":0,"am":1,"gear":4,"carb":4,"_row":"Mazda RX4"},{"mpg":21,"cyl":6,"disp":160,"hp":110,"drat":3.9,"wt":2.875,"qsec":17.02,"vs":0,"am":1,"gear":4,"carb":4,"_row":"Mazda RX4 Wag"},{"mpg":22.8,"cyl":4,"disp":108,"hp":93,"drat":3.85,"wt":2.32,"qsec":18.61,"vs":1,"am":1,"gear":4,"carb":1,"_row":"Datsun 710"},{"mpg":21.4,"cyl":6,"disp":258,"hp":110,"drat":3.08,"wt":3.215,"qsec":19.44,"vs":1,"am":0,"gear":3,"carb":1,"_row":"Hornet 4 Drive"},{"mpg":18.7,"cyl":8,"disp":360,"hp":175,"drat":3.15,"wt":3.44,"qsec":17.02,"vs":0,"am":0,"gear":3,"carb":2,"_row":"Hornet Sportabout"},{"mpg":18.1,"cyl":6,"disp":225,"hp":105,"drat":2.76,"wt":3.46,"qsec":20.22,"vs":1,"am":0,"gear":3,"carb":1,"_row":"Valiant"},{"mpg":14.3,"cyl":8,"disp":360,"hp":245,"drat":3.21,"wt":3.57,"qsec":15.84,"vs":0,"am":0,"gear":3,"carb":4,"_row":"Duster 360"},{"mpg":24.4,"cyl":4,"disp":146.7,"hp":62,"drat":3.69,"wt":3.19,"qsec":20,"vs":1,"am":0,"gear":4,"carb":2,"_row":"Merc 240D"},{"mpg":22.8,"cyl":4,"disp":140.8,"hp":95,"drat":3.92,"wt":3.15,"qsec":22.9,"vs":1,"am":0,"gear":4,"carb":2,"_row":"Merc 230"},{"mpg":19.2,"cyl":6,"disp":167.6,"hp":123,"drat":3.92,"wt":3.44,"qsec":18.3,"vs":1,"am":0,"gear":4,"carb":4,"_row":"Merc 280"},{"mpg":17.8,"cyl":6,"disp":167.6,"hp":123,"drat":3.92,"wt":3.44,"qsec":18.9,"vs":1,"am":0,"gear":4,"carb":4,"_row":"Merc 280C"},{"mpg":16.4,"cyl":8,"disp":275.8,"hp":180,"drat":3.07,"wt":4.07,"qsec":17.4,"vs":0,"am":0,"gear":3,"carb":3,"_row":"Merc 450SE"},{"mpg":17.3,"cyl":8,"disp":275.8,"hp":180,"drat":3.07,"wt":3.73,"qsec":17.6,"vs":0,"am":0,"gear":3,"carb":3,"_row":"Merc 450SL"},{"mpg":15.2,"cyl":8,"disp":275.8,"hp":180,"drat":3.07,"wt":3.78,"qsec":18,"vs":0,"am":0,"gear":3,"carb":3,"_row":"Merc 450SLC"},{"mpg":10.4,"cyl":8,"disp":472,"hp":205,"drat":2.93,"wt":5.25,"qsec":17.98,"vs":0,"am":0,"gear":3,"carb":4,"_row":"Cadillac Fleetwood"},{"mpg":10.4,"cyl":8,"disp":460,"hp":215,"drat":3,"wt":5.424,"qsec":17.82,"vs":0,"am":0,"gear":3,"carb":4,"_row":"Lincoln Continental"},{"mpg":14.7,"cyl":8,"disp":440,"hp":230,"drat":3.23,"wt":5.345,"qsec":17.42,"vs":0,"am":0,"gear":3,"carb":4,"_row":"Chrysler Imperial"},{"mpg":32.4,"cyl":4,"disp":78.7,"hp":66,"drat":4.08,"wt":2.2,"qsec":19.47,"vs":1,"am":1,"gear":4,"carb":1,"_row":"Fiat 128"},{"mpg":30.4,"cyl":4,"disp":75.7,"hp":52,"drat":4.93,"wt":1.615,"qsec":18.52,"vs":1,"am":1,"gear":4,"carb":2,"_row":"Honda Civic"},{"mpg":33.9,"cyl":4,"disp":71.1,"hp":65,"drat":4.22,"wt":1.835,"qsec":19.9,"vs":1,"am":1,"gear":4,"carb":1,"_row":"Toyota Corolla"},{"mpg":21.5,"cyl":4,"disp":120.1,"hp":97,"drat":3.7,"wt":2.465,"qsec":20.01,"vs":1,"am":0,"gear":3,"carb":1,"_row":"Toyota Corona"},{"mpg":15.5,"cyl":8,"disp":318,"hp":150,"drat":2.76,"wt":3.52,"qsec":16.87,"vs":0,"am":0,"gear":3,"carb":2,"_row":"Dodge Challenger"},{"mpg":15.2,"cyl":8,"disp":304,"hp":150,"drat":3.15,"wt":3.435,"qsec":17.3,"vs":0,"am":0,"gear":3,"carb":2,"_row":"AMC Javelin"},{"mpg":13.3,"cyl":8,"disp":350,"hp":245,"drat":3.73,"wt":3.84,"qsec":15.41,"vs":0,"am":0,"gear":3,"carb":4,"_row":"Camaro Z28"},{"mpg":19.2,"cyl":8,"disp":400,"hp":175,"drat":3.08,"wt":3.845,"qsec":17.05,"vs":0,"am":0,"gear":3,"carb":2,"_row":"Pontiac Firebird"},{"mpg":27.3,"cyl":4,"disp":79,"hp":66,"drat":4.08,"wt":1.935,"qsec":18.9,"vs":1,"am":1,"gear":4,"carb":1,"_row":"Fiat X1-9"},{"mpg":26,"cyl":4,"disp":120.3,"hp":91,"drat":4.43,"wt":2.14,"qsec":16.7,"vs":0,"am":1,"gear":5,"carb":2,"_row":"Porsche 914-2"},{"mpg":30.4,"cyl":4,"disp":95.1,"hp":113,"drat":3.77,"wt":1.513,"qsec":16.9,"vs":1,"am":1,"gear":5,"carb":2,"_row":"Lotus Europa"},{"mpg":15.8,"cyl":8,"disp":351,"hp":264,"drat":4.22,"wt":3.17,"qsec":14.5,"vs":0,"am":1,"gear":5,"carb":4,"_row":"Ford Pantera L"},{"mpg":19.7,"cyl":6,"disp":145,"hp":175,"drat":3.62,"wt":2.77,"qsec":15.5,"vs":0,"am":1,"gear":5,"carb":6,"_row":"Ferrari Dino"},{"mpg":15,"cyl":8,"disp":301,"hp":335,"drat":3.54,"wt":3.57,"qsec":14.6,"vs":0,"am":1,"gear":5,"carb":8,"_row":"Maserati Bora"},{"mpg":21.4,"cyl":4,"disp":121,"hp":109,"drat":4.11,"wt":2.78,"qsec":18.6,"vs":1,"am":1,"gear":4,"carb":2,"_row":"Volvo 142E"}]

response$compress()
head(response$body, 30)

##  [1] 1f 8b 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 9d 97 dd 6e e3 36 10 85 5f 85 d0 b5 57
## [24] 10 c9 a1 48 f9 ae 6b

response$type

## [1] "application/json"

response$get_header('Content-Encoding')

## [1] "gzip"

Wrapping up

As I hope I’ve made clear, working directly with HTTP messages does not need to be a drag. Sure, there’s a sea of conventions around headers and status codes that can seem daunting, but reqres takes care of the minimum requirements for you, letting you focus on the server logic instead.

Whats next

I obviously hope reqres will become pervasive in the world of R web technologies as I think it will make everyones life easier. fiery already uses it in the development version on GitHub, as does routr so if you’re going to use either of these packages you’ll automatically become aquainted. Furthermore I’ve heard expression of interest from other developers so hopefully it will be adopted beyond my own packages.