1734764 - Documentation request: Lifecycle of a HTTP request

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Core :: Networking: HTTP, task, P5)

Description

[Alex Vincent [:WeirdAl]]

I'm trying to figure out from various pieces of Mozilla code when the following are available and how to get them without altering them.

• HTTP request method
• HTTP request headers
• HTTP request body
• HTTP response status
• HTTP response headers
• HTTP response body

I just want to add a page under https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/networking/index.html to summarize these. I think all of this is available via the 'http-on-modify-request' and 'http-on-examine-response' methods. I'd want several columns:

| Data | Observer topic | Sample JS code |

| HTTP request code | http-on-modify-request | return channel.requestMethod; |

A numbered list for when certain events happen - and when to use (and not use) them - would be nice too:

• The start of the request
• Observer service notifications
• HTTP Activity Observers
• URI Loaders and URI Content Listeners
• When "stream listener tees" cache data and when they pass it on to the next stream listener
• When and how it's safe to cancel a request/response
• Whatever else I'm missing
• The end of the response

I'm willing to write the documentation patch, but I need someone to help me put the pieces together into a coherent picture.

Comment 1

[Alex Vincent [:WeirdAl]]

Attachment: Bug 1734764 - Document the lifecycle of a HTTP request, and how to extract data from it. r=#firefox-source-docs-reviewers

Comment 2

[Sylvestre Ledru [:Sylvestre]]

bravo for adding docs :)

Comment 3

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/e783412ae439
Document the lifecycle of a HTTP request, and how to extract data from it.  r=firefox-source-docs-reviewers,necko-reviewers,sylvestre,dragana DONTBUILD

Comment 4

[Alexandru Michis [:malexandru]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/e783412ae439