httpx - Best HTTP client for reliability (retry, plugins, racing, and more!)

Package httpx is the best-in-class GoLang HTTP client for making HTTP requests with enterprise-level reliability.

Features include:

• Flexible retry policies
• Flexible timeout policies (including adaptive timeouts)
• Optional concurrent request support smooths over rough service patches ("racing")
• Plugin and customization support via event handlers

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Getting Started

Install httpx:

$ go get github.com/gogama/httpx

Import the httpx package and create a Client to begin making reliable HTTP requests:

package main

import "github.com/gogama/httpx"

func main() {
	client := &httpx.Client{} // Use default retry and timeout policies
	client.Get("http://example.com")
}

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Quick Hits

Retry

The httpx.Client provides a reasonable default retry policy. To replace it with your own custom policy, use package retry, for example

client := &httpx.Client{
	RetryPolicy: retry.NewPolicy(
		retry.Times(10).And(
			retry.StatusCode(501, 502, 504).Or(retry.TransientErr)
        ),
        retry.NewExpWaiter(500*time.Millisecond, 30*time.Second, nil)
    )
}

For more elaborate policies, write your own retry.Decider or retry.Waiter implementation. To disable retry altogether, use the built-in policy retry.Never:

Timeouts

The httpx.Client provides a reasonable default timeout policy. To replace it with your own constant timeout, adaptive timeout, or custom policy, use package timeout, for example:

client := &httpx.Client{
	TimeoutPolicy: timeout.Fixed(30*time.Second) // Constant 30 second timeout
}

For more elaborate timeouts, use timeout.Adaptive or write your own timeout.Policy implementation. To disable timeouts altogether, use the built-in policy timeout.Infinite:

Concurrent requests ("racing")

The httpx.Client advanced racing feature is disabled by default. Enable it by specifying a racing policy using built in components from package racing, or by writing your own racing.Scheduler and racing.Starter implementations. Here is a simple example using the built-ins:

client := &httpx.Client{
	// Use up to two extra parallel request attempts. Start the first extra attempt
	// if the response to the initial attempt is not received within 300ms. Start
	// the second extra attempt if neither the initial attempt nor the first extra
	// attempt have received a response after one second. 
	RacingPolicy: racing.NewPolicy( 
		racing.NewStaticScheduler(300*time.Millisecond, 1*time.Second),
		racing.AlwaysStart)
}

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More Info

See the USAGE.md for a more detailed usage guide and FAQ.md for answers to frequently asked questions, or click here for the full httpx API reference documentation.

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Plugins

Customize the behavior of httpx.Client by adding event handlers to the client's handler group.

handlers := &httpx.HandlerGroup{}
handlers.PushBack(httpx.BeforeReadBody, myReadBodyHandler)
client := &httpx.Client{Handlers: handlers}

Besides writing your own, you can add install one of the following open source httpx plugins into your client:

1. aws-xray-httpx - Adds AWS X-Ray tracing support into httpx.Client.
2. reconnx - Discards slow HTTP connections from connection pool.

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License

This project is licensed under the terms of the MIT License.

Acknowledgements

Developer happiness on this project was boosted by JetBrains' generous donation of an open source license for their lovely GoLand IDE. ❤