Info
An interactive shell for issuing HTTP commands to a web server or REST API.
Issue HTTP commands (HEAD, GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, OPTIONS, TRACE) to a server with interactive feedback. Makes debugging and testing REST services and public APIs much easier than with cURL.
Usage
Treats the server like a filesystem
$ httpsh http://api.twitter.com/1/statuses
api.twitter.com:/1/statuses> get public_timeline.json
Connecting to http://api.twitter.com/a/statuses/publc_timeline.json
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
>content-length: 40945
>vary: Accept-Encoding
>x-transaction-mask: a6183ffa5f8ca943ff1b53b5644ef1140f40ebd7
...
Use familiar shell commands for navigation
api.twitter.com:/1/statuses> cd ..
api.twitter.com:/1/> cd /
api.twitter.com:/>
Use relative or absolute paths just like bash
api.twitter.com:/1/statuses> get /1/users/suggestions.json
Connecting to http://api.twitter.com/1/users/suggestions.json
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
...
api.twitter.com:/1/statuses> get public_timeline.json
Connecting to http://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/public_timeline.json
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
...
Pipe output to external commands for formatting, validation, etc.
api.twitter.com:/1/statuses> get public_timeline.xml | xmllint --format -
...
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<statuses type="array">
<status>
<created_at>Wed Dec 14 00:57:12 +0000 2011</created_at>
...
Easily post data to a server/service
MongoDB example:
localhost:28017:/> post /foo/bar
... { "a" : 123456 }
...
HTTP/1.0 201
>content-type: text/plain;charset=utf-8
>connection: close
>x-ns: foo._defaultCollection
>content-length: 15
>x-action: bar
{ "ok" : true }
Use JSON to post to standard web forms using special @{} notation!
Post to standard web forms by using JSON notation prefaced with the "@" character:
example.com:/> headers Content-Type:application/x-www-form-urlencoded
example.com::/> post /some/form/handler
... @{
... "name": "Chris",
... "occupation": "Developer"
... }
Converts the JSON definition above to: name=Chris&occupation=Developer for
form posting.
Syntax highlighting
Syntax highlighting of response data for many formats (JSON, XML, HTML, Javascript, etc).
Auto-format responses
The --format command-line parameter will tell httpsh to automatically
format any JSON or XML response returned by a server.
chris@macbookpro:/$ httpsh http://localhost:8888 --format
localhost:8888:/> GET /movies/tt0118715
Connecting to http://localhost:8888/movies/tt0118715
HTTP/1.0 200 OK
<host: localhost:8888
<accept-encoding: identity
>date: Wed, 21 Dec 2011 02:32:18 GMT
>content-type: application/json
>server: RESTless/1.2
{
"Title": "The Big Lebowski",
"Rating": 9.5
}
Set headers
localhost:28017:/> headers Cookie:session=5cb9586618eea2374377bb1584f7de74
localhost:28017:/> headers User-Agent:AppleWebKit/535.13
localhost:28017:/> headers
<Cookie: session=5cb9586618eea2374377bb1584f7de74
<User-Agent: AppleWebKit/535.13
Remove a header by passing no value
localhost:28017:/> headers User-Agent:
localhost:28017:/> headers
<Cookie: session=5cb9586618eea2374377bb1584f7de74
Set and get cookies
api.example.com:/> cookies api_key=8e7d1367cb1b466df014ceb2ad1b0202
www.google.com:/> cookies
Name: PREF
Value: ID=871a0e9212108e48:FF=0:TM=132244474:LM=132121074:S=oVVVAx3_LCZsaPaa
Expires: Fri, 20-Dec-2013 02:37:54 GMT
Domain: .google.com,
Path: /
Tack on query parameters.
If you're using an API that requires a key tacked on every URL, rather than typing it every time set a "tackon" and it will be sent automatically:
graph.facebook.com:/> tackons access_token=AAACEcEase0c...
graph.facebook.com:/> tackons
access_token=AAACEcEase0c...
graph.facebook.com:/> get /me
Connecting to https://graph.facebook.com/me?access_token=AAACEcEase0c...
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
...
Works for POSTs too:
graph.facebook.com:/> post /me/feed
... @{
... "message": "Posting from HttpShell",
... "picture": "http://i.imgur.com/3RPIS.png",
... "link": "https://github.com/chrislongo/HttpShell"
... }
...
Connecting to https://graph.facebook.com/me/feed?access_token=AAACEcEase0c...
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
...
{"id":"100001681000101_24221026521205"}
OAuth
Will automatically sign requests to APIs that use OAuth.
Supports SSL
$ httpsh https://www.google.com
www.google.com:/> head
Connecting to https://www.google.com/
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
...
Help
Command line help:
usage: httpsh [-h] [-f] [-c] [-i] [--version] URL
An interactive shell for issuing HTTP commands to a web server or REST API
positional arguments:
URL url to connect to
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-f, --format Attempt to automatically format known mimetypes (JSON or
XML)
-c, --no-cookies Do not respect cookies sent by host
-i, --no-headers Suppress the display of headers
--version show program's version number and exit
In-app help:
Verbs
head [</path/to/resource>]
get [</path/to/resource>] [| <external command>]
post [</path/to/resource>] [| <external command>]
put [</path/to/resource>] [| <external command>]
delete </path/to/resource> [| <external command>]
options [</path/to/resource>] [| <external command>]
trace [</path/to/resource>] [| <external command>]
Navigation
cd </path/to/resource> or ..
open <url>
Metacommands
headers [<name>]:[<value>]
tackons [<name>]=[<value>]
cookies [<name>]=[<value>]
debuglevel [#]
quit
Installation
$ python setup.py install
Or if pip is installed:
$ pip install httpshell
May require sudo to install!