request

HTTP client for haskell, inpired by requests and http-dispatch.

Installation

This pacakge is published on hackage with the same name request, you can install it with cabal or stack or nix as any other hackage packages.

Usage

This library supports modern Haskell record dot syntax. First, enable these language extensions:

{-# LANGUAGE DuplicateRecordFields #-}
{-# LANGUAGE OverloadedRecordDot #-}

Then you can use the library like this:

import Network.HTTP.Request
import qualified Data.ByteString as BS

-- Using shortcuts
resp <- get "https://api.leancloud.cn/1.1/date"
print resp.status        -- 200

-- Or construct a Request manually
let req = Request { method = GET, url = "https://api.leancloud.cn/1.1/date", headers = [], body = (Nothing :: Maybe BS.ByteString) }

-- Response with ByteString body
responseBS <- send req :: IO (Response BS.ByteString)
print responseBS.status        -- 200
print responseBS.body          -- ByteString response

-- Response with String body
responseStr <- send req :: IO (Response String)
print responseStr.body         -- String response

Core API

Request's API has three core concepts: Request record type, Response record type, send function.

Request

Request a is all about the information you will send to the target URL. The type parameter a is the body type, it can be any type that implements ToRequestBody. When send is called, the body is automatically serialized and the appropriate Content-Type header is inferred, unless you set it manually.

data Request a = Request
  { method  :: Method
  , url     :: String
  , headers :: Headers
  , body    :: Maybe a
  } deriving (Show)

Built-in ToRequestBody instances and their inferred Content-Type:

• ByteString / lazy ByteString / Text / String → text/plain; charset=utf-8
• Any type with a ToJSON instance → auto JSON encoding + application/json

The Content-Type is automatically inferred from the body type. You can override it by setting the header manually:

-- Content-Type is auto-inferred from body type
send $ Request POST url [] (Just body)

-- Or override Content-Type manually
send $ Request POST url [("Content-Type", "text/xml")] (Just xmlBytes)

Response

Response is what you got from the server URL.

data Response a = Response
  { status  :: Int
  , headers :: Headers
  , body    :: a
  } deriving (Show)

The response body type a can be any type that implements the FromResponseBody constraint, allowing flexible handling of response data. Built-in supported types include String, ByteString, Text, and any type with a FromJSON instance.

send

Once you have constructed your own Request record, you can call the send function to send it to the server. It automatically serializes the body and infers the Content-Type header. The send function's type is:

send :: (ToRequestBody a, FromResponseBody b) => Request a -> IO (Response b)

JSON Support

JSON Response

For any type with a FromJSON instance, the response body will be automatically decoded:

{-# LANGUAGE DeriveGeneric #-}

import Network.HTTP.Request
import Data.Aeson (FromJSON)
import GHC.Generics (Generic)

data Date = Date
  { __type :: String
  , iso :: String
  } deriving (Show, Generic)

instance FromJSON Date

main :: IO ()
main = do
  response <- get "https://api.leancloud.cn/1.1/date" :: IO (Response Date)
  print response.status  -- 200
  print response.body    -- Date { __type = "Date", iso = "..." }

If JSON decoding fails, an AesonException will be thrown, which can be caught with Control.Exception.catch or try.

JSON Request Body

The post, put, and patch shortcuts accept any type that implements ToRequestBody. For types with a ToJSON instance, the body is automatically JSON-encoded and Content-Type: application/json is set:

{-# LANGUAGE DeriveGeneric #-}

import Network.HTTP.Request
import Data.Aeson (ToJSON)
import GHC.Generics (Generic)

data User = User { name :: String } deriving (Show, Generic)

instance ToJSON User

main :: IO ()
main = do
  response <- post "https://httpbin.org/post" (User "Alice") :: IO (Response String)
  print response.status  -- 200

Shortcuts

As you expected, there are some shortcuts for the most used scenarios.

get    :: (FromResponseBody a) => String -> IO (Response a)
delete :: (FromResponseBody a) => String -> IO (Response a)
post   :: (ToRequestBody a, FromResponseBody b) => String -> a -> IO (Response b)
put    :: (ToRequestBody a, FromResponseBody b) => String -> a -> IO (Response b)
patch  :: (ToRequestBody a, FromResponseBody b) => String -> a -> IO (Response b)

These shortcuts' definitions are simple and direct. You are encouraged to add your own if the built-in does not match your use cases, like add custom headers in every request.

Without Language Extensions

If you prefer not to use the language extensions, you can still use the library with the traditional syntax:

• Create requests using positional arguments: Request GET "url" [] (Nothing :: Maybe BS.ByteString)
• Use prefixed accessor functions: responseStatus response, responseHeaders response, etc.

import Network.HTTP.Request
import qualified Data.ByteString as BS

-- Construct a Request using positional arguments
let req = Request GET "https://api.leancloud.cn/1.1/date" [] (Nothing :: Maybe BS.ByteString)
-- Send it
res <- send req
-- Access the fields using prefixed accessor functions
print $ responseStatus res

API Documents

See the hackage page: http://hackage.haskell.org/package/request/docs/Network-HTTP-Request.html

About the Project

Request is © 2020-2026 by AN Long.

License

Request is distributed by a BSD license.