Async client response with cpp-netlib?

Question

I am considering using cpp netlib for a new project. All of the examples show reading the body of the response in a blocking manner:

client::response response_ = client_.get(request_);
std::string body_ = body(response_);

If I construct my client object with the async tag:

basic_client<http_async_8bit_udp_resolve_tags, 1, 1> client_();

What affect does that have?

Is it possible to get the results of the body wrapper as a boost::shared_future<std::string>?

Do I just need to wrap the blocking call in it's own thread?

Answer 1

Look at the current http client doc: http://cpp-netlib.org/0.12.0/reference/http_client.html

1. the http client is now always async by default

2. you have an option to provide a callback function or object in the get or post call:

   struct body_handler {
   
       explicit body_handler(std::string & body)
       : body(body) {}
   
       BOOST_NETWORK_HTTP_BODY_CALLBACK(operator(), range, error) {
           // in here, range is the Boost.Range iterator_range, and error is
           // the Boost.System error code.
           if (!error)
               body.append(boost::begin(range), boost::end(range));
       }
   
       std::string & body;
   };
   
   // somewhere else
   std::string some_string;
   response_ = client_.get(request("http://cpp-netlib.github.com/"),
                       body_handler(some_string));
   

3. The client::response object already incapsulates the future object:

The response object encapsulates futures which get filled in once the values are available.