How do you make a HTTP request with C++?

Question

Is there any way to easily make a HTTP request with C++? Specifically, I want to download the contents of a page (an API) and check the contents to see if it contains a 1 or a 0. Is it also possible to download the contents into a string?

user_135549 · Answer

I had the same problem. libcurl is really complete. There is a C++ wrapper curlpp that might interest you as you ask for a C++ library. neon is another interesting C library that also support WebDAV.

curlpp seems natural if you use C++. There are many examples provided in the source distribution. To get the content of an URL you do something like that (extracted from examples) :

// Edit : rewritten for cURLpp 0.7.3
// Note : namespace changed, was cURLpp in 0.7.2 ...

#include 
#include 

// RAII cleanup

curlpp::Cleanup myCleanup;

// Send request and get a result.
// Here I use a shortcut to get it in a string stream ...

std::ostringstream os;
os << curlpp::options::Url(std::string("http://example.com"));

string asAskedInQuestion = os.str();

See the examples directory in curlpp source distribution, there is a lot of more complex cases, as well as a simple complete minimal one using curlpp.

my 2 cents ...

user_278976 · Answer

Updated answer for April, 2020:

I've had a lot of success, recently, with cpp-httplib (both as a client and a server). It's mature and its approximate, single-threaded RPS is around 6k.

On more of the bleeding edge, there's a really promising framework, cpv-framework, that can get around 180k RPS on two cores (and will scale well with the number of cores because it's based on the seastar framework, which powers the fastest DBs on the planet, scylladb).

However, cpv-framework is still relatively immature; so, for most uses, I highly recommend cpp-httplib.

This recommendation replaces my previous answer (8 years ago).

user_13459 · Answer

As you want a C++ solution, you could use Qt. It has a QHttp class you can use.

You can check the docs:

http->setHost("qt.nokia.com");
http->get(QUrl::toPercentEncoding("/index.html"));

Qt also has a lot more to it that you could use in a common C++ app.

FreeMemory_2132 · Answer

libCURL is a pretty good option for you. Depending on what you need to do, the tutorial should tell you what you want, specifically for the easy handle. But, basically, you could do this just to see the source of a page:

CURL* c;
c = curl_easy_init();
curl_easy_setopt( c, CURL_URL, "www.google.com" );
curl_easy_perform( c );
curl_easy_cleanup( c );

I believe this will cause the result to be printed to stdout. If you want to handle it instead -- which, I assume, you do -- you need to set the CURL_WRITEFUNCTION. All of that is covered in the curl tutorial linked above.

user_85021 · Answer

C++ does not provide any way to do it directly. It would entirely depend on what platforms and libraries that you have.

At worst case, you can use the boost::asio library to establish a TCP connection, send the HTTP headers (RFC 2616), and parse the responses directly. Looking at your application needs, this is simple enough to do.

user_1599699 · Answer

Note that this does not require libcurl, Windows.h, or WinSock! No compilation of libraries, no project configuration, etc. I have this code working in Visual Studio 2017 c++ on Windows 10:

#pragma comment(lib, "urlmon.lib")

#include 
#include 

using namespace std;

...

IStream* stream;
//Also works with https URL's - unsure about the extent of SSL support though.
HRESULT result = URLOpenBlockingStream(0, "http://google.com", &stream, 0, 0);
if (result != 0)
{
    return 1;
}
char buffer[100];
unsigned long bytesRead;
stringstream ss;
stream->Read(buffer, 100, &bytesRead);
while (bytesRead > 0U)
{
    ss.write(buffer, (long long)bytesRead);
    stream->Read(buffer, 100, &bytesRead);
}
stream->Release();
string resultString = ss.str();

I just figured out how to do this, as I wanted a simple API access script, libraries like libcurl were causing me all kinds of problems (even when I followed the directions...), and WinSock is just too low-level and complicated.

I'm not quite sure about all of the IStream reading code (particularly the while condition - feel free to correct/improve), but hey, it works, hassle free! (It makes sense to me that, since I used a blocking (synchronous) call, this is fine, that bytesRead would always be > 0U until the stream (ISequentialStream?) is finished being read, but who knows.)

See also: URL Monikers and Asynchronous Pluggable Protocol Reference

user_1592639 · Answer

Here is some code that will work with no need to use any 3rd party library: First define your gateway, user, password and any other parameters you need to send to this specific server.

#define USERNAME "user"
#define PASSWORD "your password"
#define GATEWAY "your gateway"

Here is the code itself:

HINTERNET hOpenHandle, hResourceHandle, hConnectHandle;
const TCHAR* szHeaders = _T("Content-Type:application/json; charset=utf-8
");


hOpenHandle = InternetOpen(_T("HTTPS"), INTERNET_OPEN_TYPE_DIRECT, NULL, NULL, 0);
if (hOpenHandle == NULL)
{
    return false;
}


hConnectHandle = InternetConnect(hOpenHandle,
    GATEWAY,
    INTERNET_DEFAULT_HTTPS_PORT,
    NULL, NULL, INTERNET_SERVICE_HTTP,
    0, 1);

if (hConnectHandle == NULL)
{
    InternetCloseHandle(hOpenHandle);
    return false;
}


hResourceHandle = HttpOpenRequest(hConnectHandle,
    _T("POST"),
    GATEWAY,
    NULL, NULL, NULL, INTERNET_FLAG_SECURE | INTERNET_FLAG_KEEP_CONNECTION,
    1);

if (hResourceHandle == NULL)
{
    InternetCloseHandle(hOpenHandle);
    InternetCloseHandle(hConnectHandle);
    return false;
}

InternetSetOption(hResourceHandle, INTERNET_OPTION_USERNAME, (LPVOID)USERNAME, _tcslen(USERNAME));
InternetSetOption(hResourceHandle, INTERNET_OPTION_PASSWORD, (LPVOID)PASSWORD, _tcslen(PASSWORD));

std::string buf;
if (HttpSendRequest(hResourceHandle, szHeaders, 0, NULL, 0))
{
    while (true)
    {
        std::string part;
        DWORD size;
        if (!InternetQueryDataAvailable(hResourceHandle, &size, 0, 0))break;
        if (size == 0)break;
        part.resize(size);
        if (!InternetReadFile(hResourceHandle, &part[0], part.size(), &size))break;
        if (size == 0)break;
        part.resize(size);
        buf.append(part);
    }
}

if (!buf.empty())
{
    // Get data back
}

InternetCloseHandle(hResourceHandle);
InternetCloseHandle(hConnectHandle);
InternetCloseHandle(hOpenHandle);

That should work on a Win32 API environment.

Here is an example.

user_24054 · Answer

C and C++ don't have a standard library for HTTP or even for socket connections. Over the years some portable libraries have been developed. The most widely used, as others have said, is libcurl.

Here is a list of alternatives to libcurl (coming from the libcurl's web site).

Also, for Linux, this is a simple HTTP client. You could implement your own simple HTTP GET client, but this won't work if there are authentication or redirects involved or if you need to work behind a proxy. For these cases you need a full-blown library like libcurl.

For source code with libcurl, this is the closest to what you want (Libcurl has many examples). Look at the main function. The html content will be copied to the buffer, after a successfully connection. Just replace parseHtml with your own function.

user_10242594 · Answer

If you are looking for a HTTP client library in C++ that is supported in multiple platforms (Linux, Windows and Mac) for consuming Restful web services. You can have below options.

QT Network Library - Allows the application to send network requests and receive replies
C++ REST SDK - An emerging third-party HTTP library with PPL support
Libcurl - It is probably one of the most used http lib in the native world.

user_4566607 · Answer

Is there any way to easily make a HTTP request with C++? Specifically, I want to download the contents of a page (an API) and check the contents to see if it contains a 1 or a 0. Is it also possible to download the contents into a string?

First off ... I know this question is 12 years old. However . None of the answers provided gave an example that was "simple" without the need to build some external library

Below is the most simple solution I could come up with to retrieve and print the contents of a webpage.

Some Documentation on the functions utilized in the example below

// wininet lib :
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/wininet/
// wininet->internetopena();
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/wininet/nf-wininet-internetopena
// wininet->intenetopenurla();
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/wininet/nf-wininet-internetopenurla
// wininet->internetreadfile();
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/wininet/nf-wininet-internetreadfile
// wininet->internetclosehandle();
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/wininet/nf-wininet-internetclosehandle

#include 

#include 
#include 
#pragma comment(lib, "wininet.lib")

int main()
{
    //  ESTABLISH SOME LOOSE VARIABLES
    const int size = 4096;
    char buf[size];
    DWORD length;

    //  ESTABLISH CONNECTION TO THE INTERNET
    HINTERNET internet = InternetOpenA("Mozilla/5.0", INTERNET_OPEN_TYPE_DIRECT, NULL, NULL, NULL);
    if (!internet)
        ExitProcess(EXIT_FAILURE);  //  Failed to establish connection to internet, Exit

    //  ATTEMPT TO CONNECT TO WEBSITE "google.com"
    HINTERNET response = InternetOpenUrlA(internet, "http://www.google.com", NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL);
    if (!response) {
        //  CONNECTION TO "google.com" FAILED
        InternetCloseHandle(internet);  //  Close handle to internet
        ExitProcess(EXIT_FAILURE);
    }

    //  READ CONTENTS OF WEBPAGE IN HTML FORMAT
    if (!InternetReadFile(response, buf, size, &length)) {     
        //  FAILED TO READ CONTENTS OF WEBPAGE
        //  Close handles and Exit
        InternetCloseHandle(response);                      //  Close handle to response
        InternetCloseHandle(internet);                      //  Close handle to internet
        ExitProcess(EXIT_FAILURE);
    }
    
    //  CLOSE HANDLES AND OUTPUT CONTENTS OF WEBPAGE
    InternetCloseHandle(response);                      //  Close handle to response
    InternetCloseHandle(internet);                      //  Close handle to internet
    std::cout << buf << std::endl;
    return 0;
}

user_1292791 · Answer

All the answers above are helpful. My answer just adds some additions:

Use boost beast, sync example, async example, ssl example
Use nghttp2, example, It supports SSL, HTTP/2
Use Facebook proxygen, this project comprises the core C++ HTTP abstractions used at Facebook. It's aimed at high performance and concurrency. I recommend installing it with vcpkg or you will struggle with the dependencies management. It supports SSL. It also support some advanced protocols:HTTP/1.1, SPDY/3, SPDY/3.1, HTTP/2, and HTTP/3

Both nghttp2 and proxygen are stable, can be considered to use in production.

user_3453898 · Answer

CppRest SDK by MS is what I just found and after about 1/2 hour had my first simple web service call working. Compared that to others mentioned here where I was not able to get anything even installed after hours of looking, I'd say it is pretty impressive

https://github.com/microsoft/cpprestsdk

Scroll down and click on Documentation, then click on Getting Started Tutorial and you will have a simple app running in no time.

user_756233 · Answer

For the record cesanta's mongoose library seems to also support this: https://github.com/cesanta/mongoose/blob/6.17/examples/http_client/http_client.c

How do you make a HTTP request with C++?

25 Answers