scrapy/docs/ref/request-response.rst

.. _ref-request-response:

============================
Request and Response objects
============================

.. module:: scrapy.http
   :synopsis: Request and Response classes

Quick overview
==============

Scrapy uses :class:`Request` and :class:`Response` objects for crawling web
sites. 

Typically, :class:`Request` objects are generated in the spiders and pass
across the system until they reach the Downloader, which executes the request
and returns a :class:`Response` object which travels back to the spider that
issued the request.

Both :class:`Request` and :class:`Response` classes have subclasses which adds
additional functionality not required in the base classes. These are described
below in :ref:`ref-request-subclasses` and :ref:`ref-response-subclasses`.

Request objects
===============

.. class:: Request(url[, callback, method='GET', body, headers, cookies, meta, encoding='utf-8', dont_filter=False, errback])

    A :class:`Request` object represents an HTTP request, which is usually
    generated in the Spider and executed by the Downloader, and thus generating
    a :class:`Response`.
    
    :param url: the URL of this request
    :type url: string

    :param callback: the function that will be called with the response of this
       request (once its downloaded) as its first parameter. For more information
       see :ref:`ref-request-callback-arguments` below.
    :type callback: callable

    :param method: the HTTP method of this request. Defaults to ``'GET'``.
    :type method: string

    :param meta: the initial values for the :attr:`Request.meta` attribute. If
       given, the dict passed in this parameter will be shallow copied.
    :type meta: dict

    :param body: the request body. If a ``unicode`` is passed, then it's encoded to
      ``str`` using the `encoding` passed (which defaults to ``utf-8``). If
      ``body`` is not given,, an empty string is stored. Regardless of the
      type of this argument, the final value stored will be a ``str``` (never
      ``unicode`` or ``None``).
    :type body: str or unicode

    :param headers: the headers of this request. The dict values can be strings
       (for single valued headers) or lists (for multi-valued headers).
    :type headers: dict

    :param cookies: the request cookies. Example::

            request_with_cookies = Request(url="http://www.example.com",
                                           cookies={currency: 'USD', country: 'UY'})

        When some site returns cookies (in a response) those are stored in the
        cookies for that domain and will be sent again in future requests. That's
        the typical behaviour of any regular web browser. However, if, for some
        reason, you want to avoid merging with existing cookies you can instruct
        Scrapy to do so by setting the ``dont_merge_cookies`` item in the
        :attr:`Request.meta`. 
      
        Example of request without merging cookies::

            request_with_cookies = Request(url="http://www.example.com",
                                           cookies={currency: 'USD', country: 'UY'},
                                           meta={'dont_merge_cookies': True})
    :type cookies: dict

    :param encoding: the encoding of this request (defaults to ``'utf-8'``).
       This encoding will be used to percent-encode the URL and to convert the
       body to ``str`` (if given as ``unicode``).
    :type encoding: string

    :param dont_filter: indicates that this request should not be filtered by
       the scheduler. This is used when you want to perform an identical
       request multiple times, to ignore the duplicates filter. Use it with
       care, or you will get into crawling loops. Default to ``False``.
    :type dont_filter: boolean

    :param errback: a function that will be called if any exception was
       raised while processing the request. This includes pages that failed
       with 404 HTTP errors and such. It receives a `Twisted Failure`_ instance
       as first parameter.
    :type errback: callable

    .. _Twisted Failure: http://twistedmatrix.com/documents/8.2.0/api/twisted.python.failure.Failure.html

    .. attribute:: Request.url

        A string containing the URL of this request. Keep in mind that this
        attribute contains the escaped URL, so it can differ from the URL passed in
        the constructor.

    .. attribute:: Request.method

        A string representing the HTTP method in the request. This is guaranteed to
        be uppercase. Example: ``"GET"``, ``"POST"``, ``"PUT"``, etc

    .. attribute:: Request.headers

        A dictionary-like object which contains the request headers.

    .. attribute:: Request.body

        A str that contains the request body

    .. attribute:: Request.meta

        A dict that contains arbitrary metadata for this request. This dict is
        empty for new Requests, and is usually  populated by different Scrapy
        components (extensions, middlewares, etc). So the data contained in this
        dict depends on the extensions you have enabled.

        This dict is `shallow copied`_ when the request is cloned using the
        ``copy()`` or ``replace()`` methods.

    .. _shallow copied: http://docs.python.org/library/copy.html

    .. attribute:: Request.cache

        A dict that contains arbitrary cached data for this request. This dict is
        empty for new Requests, and is usually populated by different Scrapy
        components (extensions, middlewares, etc) to avoid duplicate processing. So
        the data contained in this dict depends on the extensions you have enabled.

        Unlike the ``meta`` attribute, this dict is not copied at all when the
        request is cloned using the ``copy()`` or ``replace()`` methods.

    .. method:: Request.copy()

       Return a new Request which is a copy of this Request. The attribute
       :attr:`Request.meta` is copied, while :attr:`Request.cache` is not. See also
       :ref:`ref-request-callback-arguments`.

    .. method:: Request.replace([url, callback, method, headers, body, cookies, meta, encoding, dont_filter])

       Return a Request object with the same members, except for those members
       given new values by whichever keyword arguments are specified. The attribute
       :attr:`Request.meta` is copied by default (unless a new value is given
       in the ``meta`` argument). The :attr:`Request.cache` attribute is always
       cleared. See also :ref:`ref-request-callback-arguments`.

    .. method:: Request.httprepr()

       Return a string with the raw HTTP representation of this response.

.. _ref-request-callback-copy:

Caveats with copying Requests and callbacks
-------------------------------------------

When you copy a request using the :meth:`Request.copy` or
:meth:`Request.replace` methods the callback of the request is not copied by
default. This is because of legacy reasons along with limitations in the
underlying network library, which doesn't allow sharing `Twisted deferreds`_.

.. _Twisted deferreds: http://twistedmatrix.com/projects/core/documentation/howto/defer.html

For example::

    request = Request("http://www.example.com", callback=myfunc)
    request2 = request.copy() # doesn't copy the callback
    request3 = request.replace(callback=request.callback)

In the above example, ``request2`` is a copy of ``request`` but it has no
callback, while ``request3`` is a copy of ``request`` and also contains the
callback.

.. _ref-request-callback-arguments:

Passing arguments to callback functions
---------------------------------------

The callback of a request is a function that will be called when the response
of that request is downloaded. The callback function will be called with the
:class:`Response` object downloaded as its first argument. 

Example::

    def parse_page1(self, response):
        request = Request("http://www.example.com/some_page.html", 
                          callback=self.parse_page2)

    def parse_page2(self, response):
        # this would log http://www.example.com/some_page.html
        self.log("Visited %s" % response.url) 

In some cases you may be interested in passing arguments to those callback
functions so you can receive those arguments later, when the response is
downloaded. There are two ways for doing this:

    1. using a lambda function (or any other function/callable)
    
    2. using the :attr:`Request.meta` attribute.
    
Here's an example of logging the referer URL of each page using each mechanism.
Keep in mind, however, that the referer URL could be accessed easier via
``response.request.url``).

Using lambda function::

    def parse_page1(self, response):
        myarg = response.url
        request = Request("http://www.example.com/some_page.html", 
                          callback=lambda r: self.parse_page2(r, myarg))

    def parse_page2(self, response, referer_url):
        self.log("Visited page %s from %s" % (response.url, referer_url))

Using Request.meta::

    def parse_page1(self, response):
        request = Request("http://www.example.com/some_page.html", 
                          callback=self.parse_page2)
        request.meta['referer_url'] = response.url

    def parse_page2(self, response):
        referer_url = response.request.meta['referer_url']
        self.log("Visited page %s from %s" % (response.url, referer_url))

.. _ref-request-subclasses: 

Request subclasses
==================

Here is the list of built-in :class:`Request` subclasses. You can also subclass
it to implement your own custom functionality.

FormRequest objects
-------------------

The FormRequest class extends the base :class:`Request` with functionality for
dealing with HTML forms. It uses the `ClientForm`_ library (bundled with
Scrapy) to pre-populate form fields with form data from :class:`Response`
objects.

.. _ClientForm: http://wwwsearch.sourceforge.net/ClientForm/

.. class:: FormRequest(url, [formdata, ...])

    The :class:`FormRequest` class adds a new argument to the constructor. The
    remaining arguments are the same as for the :class:`Request` class and are
    not documented here.

    :param formdata: is a dictionary (or iterable of (key, value) tuples)
       containing HTML Form data which will be url-encoded and assigned to the
       body of the request.
    :type formdata: dict or iterable of tuples

    The :class:`FormRequest` objects support the following class method in
    addition to the standard :class:`Request` methods:

    .. classmethod:: FormRequest.from_response(response, [formnumber=0, formdata, ...])

       Returns a new :class:`FormRequest` object with its form field values
       pre-populated with those found in the HTML ``<form>`` element contained
       in the given response. For an example see :ref:`ref-request-userlogin`.


       :param response: the response containing a HTML form which will be used
          to pre-populate the form fields
       :type response: :class:`Response` object

       :param formnumber: the number of form to use, when the response contains
          multiple forms. The first one (and also the default) is ``0``.
       :type formnumber: integer

       :param formdata: fields to override in the form data. If a field was
          already present in the response ``<form>`` element, its value is
          overridden by the one passed in this parameter.
       :type formdata: dict

       The other parameters of this class method are passed directly to the
       :class:`FormRequest` constructor.


Request usage examples
======================

Using FormRequest to send data via HTTP POST
--------------------------------------------

If you want to simulate a HTML Form POST in your spider, and send a couple of
key-value fields you could return a :class:`FormRequest` object (from your
spider) like this::

   return [FormRequest(url="http://www.example.com/post/action", 
                       formdata={'name': 'John Doe', age: '27'},
                       callback=self.after_post)]

.. _ref-request-userlogin: 

Using FormRequest.from_response() to simulate a user login
----------------------------------------------------------

It is usual for web sites to provide pre-populated form fields through ``<input
type="hidden">`` elements, such as session related data or authentication
tokens (for login pages). When scraping, you'll want these fields to be
automatically pre-populated and only override a couple of them, such as the
user name and password. You can use the :meth:`FormRequest.from_response`
method for this job. Here's an example spider which uses it::

    class LoginSpider(BaseSpider):
        domain_name = 'example.com'
        start_urls = ['http://www.example.com/users/login.php']

        def parse(self, response):
            return [FormRequest.from_response(response,
                        formdata={'username': 'john', 'password': 'secret'},
                        callback=self.after_login)]

        def after_login(self, response): 
            # check login succeed before going on
            if "authentication failed" in response.body:
                self.log("Login failed", level=log.ERROR)
                return
            
            # continue scraping with authenticated session...


Response objects
================

.. class:: Response(url, [status=200, headers, body, meta, flags])

    A :class:`Response` object represents an HTTP response, which is usually
    downloaded (by the Downloader) and fed to the Spiders for processing.
    
    :param url: the URL of this response
    :type url: string

    :param headers: the headers of this response. The dict values can be strings
       (for single valued headers) or lists (for multi-valued headers).
    :type headers: dict

    :param status: the HTTP status of the response. Defaults to ``200``.
    :type status: integer

    :param body: the response body. It must be str, not unicode, unless you're
       using a encoding-aware :ref:`Response sublcass <ref-response-subclasses>`,
       such as :class:`TextResponse`.
    :type body: str

    :param meta: the initial values for the :attr:`Response.meta` attribute. If
       given, the dict will be shallow copied.
    :type meta: dict

    :param flags: is a list containing the initial values for the
       :attr:`Response.flags` attribute. If given, the list will be shallow
       copied.
    :type flags: list

    .. attribute:: Response.url

        A string containing the URL of the response. 

    .. attribute:: Response.status

        An integer representing the HTTP status of the response. Example: ``200``,
        ``404``.

    .. attribute:: Response.headers

        A dictionary-like object which contains the response headers.

    .. attribute:: Response.body

        A str containing the body of this Response. Keep in mind that Reponse.body
        is always a str. If you want the unicode version use
        :meth:`TextResponse.body_as_unicode` (only available in
        :class:`TextResponse` and subclasses).

    .. attribute:: Response.request

        The :class:`Request` object that generated this response. This attribute is
        assigned in the Scrapy engine, after the response and request has passed
        through all :ref:`Downloader Middlewares <topics-downloader-middleware>`.
        In particular, this means that:

        - HTTP redirections will cause the original request (to the URL before
          redirection) to be assigned to the redirected response (with the final
          URL after redirection).

        - Response.request.url doesn't always equals Response.url

        - This attribute is only available in the spider code, and in the 
          :ref:`Spider Middlewares <topics-spider-middleware>`, but not in
          Downloader Middlewares (although you have the Request available there by
          other means) and handlers of the :signal:`response_downloaded` signal.

    .. attribute:: Response.meta

        A dict that contains arbitrary metadata for this response, similar to the
        :attr:`Request.meta` attribute. See the :attr:`Request.meta` attribute for
        more info.

    .. attribute:: Response.flags

        A list that contains flags for this response. Flags are labels used for
        tagging Responses. For example: `'cached'`, `'redirected`', etc. And
        they're shown on the string representation of the Response (`__str__`
        method) which is used by the engine for logging.

    .. attribute:: Response.cache

        A dict that contains arbitrary cached data for this response, similar to
        the :attr:`Request.cache` attribute. See the :attr:`Request.cache`
        attribute for more info.

    .. method:: Response.copy()

       Return a new Response which is a copy of this Response. The attribute
       :attr:`Response.meta` is copied, while :attr:`Response.cache` is not.

    .. method:: Response.replace([url, status, headers, body, meta, flags, cls])

       Return a Response object with the same members, except for those members
       given new values by whichever keyword arguments are specified. The
       attribute :attr:`Response.meta` is copied by default (unless a new value
       is given in the ``meta`` argument). The  :attr:`Response.cache`
       attribute is always cleared.

    .. method:: Response.httprepr()

       Return a string with the raw HTTP representation of this response.

.. _ref-response-subclasses:

Response subclasses
===================

Here is the list of available built-in Response subclasses. You can also
subclass the Response class to implement your own functionality.

TextResponse objects
--------------------

.. class:: TextResponse(url, [encoding[, ...]])

    :class:`TextResponse` objects adds encoding capabilities to the base
    :class:`Response` class, which is meant to be used only for binary data,
    such as images, sounds or any media file.

    :class:`TextResponse` objects support a new constructor arguments, in
    addition to the base :class:`Response` objects. The remaining functionality
    is the same as for the :class:`Response` class and is not documented here.

    :param encoding: is a string which contains the encoding to use for this
       response. If you create a :class:`TextResponse` object with a unicode
       body it will be encoded using this encoding (remember the body attribute
       is always a string). If ``encoding`` is ``None`` (default value), the
       encoding will be looked up in the response headers anb body instead.
    :type encoding: string

    :class:`TextResponse` objects support the following attributes in addition
    to the standard :class:`Response` ones:

    .. attribute:: TextResponse.encoding

       A string with the encoding of this response. The encoding is resolved in the
       following order: 

       1. the encoding passed in the constructor `encoding` argument

       2. the encoding declared in the Content-Type HTTP header

       3. the encoding declared in the response body. The TextResponse class
          doesn't provide any special functionality for this. However, the
          :class:`HtmlResponse` and :class:`XmlResponse` classes do.

       4. the encoding inferred by looking at the response body. This is the more
          fragile method but also the last one tried.

    :class:`TextResponse` objects support the following methods in addition to
    the standard :class:`Response` ones:

    .. method:: TextResponse.headers_encoding()

        Returns a string with the encoding declared in the headers (ie. the
        Content-Type HTTP header).

    .. method:: TextResponse.body_encoding()
 
        Returns a string with the encoding of the body, either declared or inferred
        from its contents. The body encoding declaration is implemented in
        :class:`TextResponse` subclasses such as: :class:`HtmlResponse` or
        :class:`XmlResponse`.
 
    .. method:: TextResponse.body_as_unicode()
 
        Returns the body of the response as unicode. This is equivalent to::
 
            response.body.encode(response.encoding)
 
        But **not** equivalent to::
        
            unicode(response.body)
        
        Since, in the latter case, you would be using you system default encoding
        (typically `ascii`) to convert the body to uniode, instead of the response
        encoding.
 
HtmlResponse objects
--------------------

.. class:: HtmlResponse(url[, ...])

    The :class:`HtmlResponse` class is a subclass of :class:`TextResponse`
    which adds encoding auto-discovering support by looking into the HTML `meta
    http-equiv`_ attribute.  See :attr:`TextResponse.encoding`.

.. _meta http-equiv: http://www.w3schools.com/TAGS/att_meta_http_equiv.asp

XmlResponse objects
-------------------

.. class:: XmlResponse(url[, ...])

    The :class:`XmlResponse` class is a subclass of :class:`TextResponse` which
    adds encoding auto-discovering support by looking into the XML declaration
    line.  See :attr:`TextResponse.encoding`.