post/submit data to url

[kwiechen]

Is there a PJSR/PCL solution to post/submit data to an url like form.submit?

Kai

 

[Juan Conejero]

Hi Kai,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you on this important topic.

PI 1.8 comes with the new NetworkTransfer core JavaScript object. Here's an example to upload a list of files to a remote FTP site:

Code: [Select]

#include <pjsr/DataType.jsh>
#include <pjsr/SeekMode.jsh>

function FileUploader()
{
   this.uploadFiles = function( remoteURL, files )
   {
      function upload( maxSize )
      {
         if ( this.count < this.file.size )
         {
            var begin = this.count;
            var end = Math.min( begin+maxSize, this.file.size );
            this.count = end;
            this.file.seek( begin, SeekMode_FromBegin );
            return this.file.read( DataType_ByteArray, end-begin );
         }
         return new ByteArray;
      }

      var T = new NetworkTransfer;
      // T.setSSL( true/*useSSL*/, true/*forceSSL*/ );
      T.onUploadDataRequested = upload;
      T.file = new File;

      for ( var i = 0; i < files.length; ++i )
      {
         T.setURL( remoteURL + (new FileInfo(files[i])).nameAndSuffix, "user_name", "user_password" );
         T.file.openForReading( files[i] );
         T.count = 0;
         if ( !T.upload( T.file.size ) )
            console.writeln( T.errorInformation );
         console.writeln( T.responseCode );
         T.file.close();
      }
   }
}

var myFTPUpload = new FileUploader();
myFTPUpload.uploadFiles( "ftp://somesite.com/foo/bar/",
                        ["/path/to/first_file.jpg", "/path/to/second_file.jpg"] );

The NetworkTransfer object supports the FTP, HTTP (including HTTP POST operations) and SMTP protocols at least. It also supports SSL/TLS. In the example above, you can enable SSL for FTP transfers by removing the comment in front of the line "T.setSSL( ...".

Note that PCL 2.0 also includes a fully functional NetworkTransfer class, for which the NetworkTransfer JS object is just a wrapper. Hence, the PCL documentation for this class will give you all the information needed to work with its JS counterpart:

http://pixinsight.com/developer/pcl/doc/html/classpcl_1_1NetworkTransfer.html

Here is another example to send an email message from PixInsight:

Code: [Select]

#include <pjsr/DataType.jsh>
#include <pjsr/SeekMode.jsh>

function EmailSender()
{
   this.upload = function( maxSize )
   {
      if ( this.count < this.message.length )
      {
         var begin = this.count;
         var end = Math.min( begin+maxSize, this.message.length );
         this.count = end;
         return new ByteArray( this.message.substring( begin, end ) );
      }
      return new ByteArray;
   };

   this.send = function( message, from, to )
   {
      var T = new NetworkTransfer;
      T.setURL( "smtp://mail.myhost.com", "smtp_user_name", "smtp_user_password" );
      // T.setSSL( true, true );
      T.onUploadDataRequested = this.upload;
      T.message = message;
      T.count = 0;
      if ( !T.smtp( from, to ) )
         console.writeln( T.errorInformation );
      console.writeln( T.responseCode );
   };
}

#define FROM   "me@myhost.com"
#define TO     "you@yourhost.com"
#define CC     "she@herhost.com"

var message =
"Date: " + (new Date).toString() + "\n" +
"To: <" + TO + ">\n" +
"From: <" + FROM + ">\n" +
"Cc: <" + CC + ">\n" +
"Subject: This is a test message sent from PixInsight\n" +
"\n" + /* empty line to separate headers from body, see RFC5322 */
"The body of the message starts here.\n" +
"\n" +
"It could be a lot of lines, could be MIME encoded, whatever.\n" +
"Check RFC5322 for more information.\n";

var email = new EmailSender;
email.send( message, FROM, [TO, CC] );

An Important note regarding SSL/TLS: In most cases you don't need a dedicated SSL certificate installed on your site or on the site you download/upload data to/from. NetworkTransfer allows you to relax strict SSL verification, so you can use a self-signed, generic certificate. For example:

Code: [Select]

var T = new NetworkTransfer;
T.setSSL( true/*useSSL*/, true/*forceSSL*/, false/*verifyPeer*/, false/*verifyHost*/ );
By disabling the "verifyPeer" and "verifyHost" features, you can use a self-signed SSL certificate, and you don't need a certificate for your particular domain. Hence, the "generic" certificates available on most hosting providers can be used. Note that a self-signed, generic certificate is perfectly valid to enable SSL encryption, which allows you to protect user names and passwords. Sending plain text passwords is *very* dangerous.