CPR: A High-Level HTTP Library to Simplify Web Requests
A brief introduction to the project:
GitHub is home to many open-source projects, one of which is CPR or C++ Requests. Just like its Python counterpart, requests, CPR is a simple-to-use and rapid library in C++ for making HTTP requests. The project's popularity stems from its ease of use and quick turnaround time for sending web requests.
Project Overview:
CPR aims to simplify the often cumbersome process of making web requests from C++ programs. It provides an abstraction layer for HTTP requests, allowing developers to focus on building the application and making HTTP calls, without the nitty-gritty of low-level network programming. Designed for developers working on applications interacting with web services, it fills a crucial gap providing robust, feature-rich and light-weight HTTP client library.
Project Features:
The distinguishing features of CPR include support for making synchronous and asynchronous requests, requests with timeout, session support, and header management. It also enables automatic handling of cookies, proxies, and SSL connections. For instance, one can easily use session object for handling cookies across multiple requests or setting up an HTTPS proxy using the Proxy class.
Technology Stack:
CPR uses modern C++ features extensively and requires a C++14-compliant compiler. It uses libcurl, a free and powerful client-side URL transfer library, underneath and hence inherits its capabilities and stability. Besides, it utilizes Google Test for unit testing, ensuring the library is always in good shape and thereby adding to its reliability.
Project Structure and Architecture:
The CPR project is organized around a series of classes each responsible for handling specific parts of an HTTP request. The classes include Session, Parameter, Authenticity, Header etc. At the core, the Response class provides a unified way of receiving responses from servers. CPR implements an object-oriented architecture ensuring clean and manageable codebase.
