Syntax

   FACTORY_DEF <ReaderKeyword> HTTPFactory
   [FACTORY_NAME <factory name>]
   [INPUT FEATURE_TYPE <factory type>
      [<attribute name> <attribute value>]*
      [<feature function>]*]*
   [TARGET_URL <target url>]
   [SAVE_FILE <save file>]
   [OUTPUT_FILENAME <output filename>]
   [TARGET_ATTR <target attr>]
   [HTTP_METHOD <http method>]
   [UPLOAD_FILE <upload file>]
   [UPLOAD_BODY <upload body>]
   [UPLOAD_CONTENT_TYPE <upload content type>]
   [REQUEST_HEADER <request header>]*
   [AUTH_USERNAME <auth username>]
   [AUTH_PASSWORD <auth password>]
   [AUTH_METHOD <auth method>]
   [SINGLE_SIGN_ON <single sign on>]
   [PROXY_URL <proxy url>]
   [PROXY_PORT <proxy port>]
   [PROXY_USERNAME <proxy username>]
   [PROXY_PASSWORD <proxy password>]
   [PROXY_AUTH_METHOD <proxy auth method>]
   [TARGET_ATTRIBUTE_ENCODING <encoding name>|<auto-detect>|<empty string>]
   [RESPONSE_HEADER_LIST_ATTR <response header list attr>]
   [STATUS_CODE_ATTR <status code attr>]
   [ERROR_ATTR <error attr>]
   [USE_COOKIES <use cookies>]
   [CONNECTION_TIMEOUT_LENGTH <timeout length>|0]
   [TRANSFER_TIMEOUT_LENGTH <timeout length>|0]
   [OUTPUT (OUTPUT|<REJECTED>) FEATURE_TYPE <feature type>
      [<attribute name> <attribute value>]*
      [<feature function>]*]*

Overview

   Performs an HTTP request on the target URL using either GET, DELETE, POST, or PUT.
   Currently, only the HTTP GET, POST, DELETE, and PUT operations are available.
   Other HTTP operations are unsupported at this time.
   Specifying GET or DELETE will perform the associated operation on the URL and store
   the results in the target attribute. Specifying POST or PUT will upload the associated
   message or file as specified and store the results in the target attribute.
   The HTTP Response status code will be stored in a separate _http_status_code attribute.
   Any errors that cause the feature's request to fail, will set an attribute on the feature
   which contains the appropriate error message.

   If SAVE_FILE is set to Yes, then the HTTP response body will be saved to a temporary file,
   if OUTPUT_FILENAME is empty, or the file specified by OUTPUT_FILENAME if it is not empty.
   The filename will populate the TARGET_ATTR attribute, instead of the contents.
   This is useful to enable when large transfers are being used.

   The HTTP basic access authentication is supported for servers requiring credentials.
   The username, password and authentication method may be specified via the HTTP_USERNAME,
   HTTP_PASSWORD, and HTTP_AUTHMETHOD, respectively. Single sign on is currently unsupported.

   Custom request headers should follow the REQUEST_HEADER tag, enclosed in quotations.
   Each header should be separate, following its own REQUEST_HEADER tag.
   Using key-value pairs, the request header can be set and the response
   header is stored in the attribute following RESPONSE_HEADER_LIST_ATTR.

   To specify a file or message for upload, the appropriate fields must be completed.
   One of either a file or a message can be uploaded per feature. If a file is specified,
   it becomes the body of the HTTP request sent to the server. The content type provided
   will override the Content-Type header, regardless if one was provided as a custom header.
   Multipart uploads are not supported at this time.

   The TARGET_ATTRIBUTE_ENCODING clause indicates which character encoding the response 
   attribute should be tagged with.  If it is set to an empty string, the response 
   attribute will be in the system default encoding.  If it is set to auto-detect,
   the factory will examine the HTTP response headers for an encoding to use. If there
   is no encoding in the headers, the attribute will be in the 'binary' encoding. The
   clause may also name an encoding for the response attribute.

   If the USE_COOKIES parameter is set to YES, then any previously saved cookies whose
   domain matches that of the requested URL will be sent along with the request. Also,
   any cookies contained in the response to this request will be saved for sending later.
   This allows the HTTPFactory to access web resources which have session management.
   The factory can be used to perform a 'login' or authentication request, and then used
   again to perform another request which requires the authenticated session id, which is
   typically stored in a cookie. 

Output Tags

   The HTTPFactory supports the following output tags.

   OUTPUT

      Successful features that did not produce errors when attempting the request.

   <REJECTED>
   
      Invalid requests.