Shorten or Compress a String/URL

Hello,

If I have a long string which exceeds 8190 characters (the Apache default) that I would like to pass as a URL the HTTP server quite rightly complains.

What approach can I take to shorten or compress the string?

You should know that I am using Hollywood, I tried BaseStr64(), but that in fact made the string even longer much to my amusement.

I could split the data into several chunks and call the PHP multiple times, but that could be a re-write when I am sure there is another way.

You could gzip it, iirc it's a standard compression used for sending web pages, don't see why you shouldn't be able to use it the other way...

If apache has the limit of 8k, you can't exceed this value (and i suppose you can't change it..).
As Severin said use gzip to compress it. But do a gzip+base64 and not the countrary if you need to pass it via querystring. Of course if Apache supports gzip compression you can use a POST to send data using gzip directly

I think I need an example code snippet if you please.

Well i don't know if Hollywood has a library to gzip data. You should search on google how to do this maybe in classic C. Which example do you need?

I would think that posting the data would be the better choice.

PM me, I might be able to help you.

It should be possible to use SendData(id, data$) to send a post request, since POST data is part of the request body.

You should be able to send something like this:

POST /path/script.cgi HTTP/1.0
From: xxxyyyzzz
User-Agent: HTTPTool/1.0
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Content-Length: 32

var1=something&var2=something


At least that is how I use REST webservices in Delphi, granted Delphi and Hollywood is not the same, but I would think the approach should be the same.

@djrikki

A string that long should POSTed not GETed (sic)

Are you bound to hollywood? Python or perl would much easier to use to handle this having http user agent classes inplace to handle such stuff.

I will go the POST route via SendData() I don't see why that shouldn't work that way - although I haven't done this before so here goes.

@djrikki If you get it working, please consider making a unit/class that uses SendData and publish it, so it is easier for others to do in the future :)

@broadblues The solution to this might be to create a class/unit that handles this and the publish it.

Thanks all, objective achieved, yes I went the POST route, updated my PHP script to $_POST instead of $_GET, plus the Hollywood code below, if its any use to anyone else, go ahead and modify.

OpenConnection(1, "example.com", 80)

Local trans = SendData(1, "POST http://www.example.com/script.php HTTP/1.0\nContent-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\nContent-Length: " .. 6 + 10 + StrLen(var1$) + StrLen(var2$) .. "\n\nvar1=" ..var1$ .. "&var2=" .. var2$)

Local gotline$, count, done
/* SKIP HTTP HEADER */
gotline$, count, done = ReceiveData(1, #RECEIVELINE)
While gotline$ <> "Content-Type: text/html"
gotline$, count, done = ReceiveData(1, #RECEIVELINE)
Wend
gotline$, count, done = ReceiveData(1, #RECEIVELINE)
gotline$, count, done = ReceiveData(1, #RECEIVELINE)
/* SKIP HTTP HEADER */

gotline$, count, done = ReceiveData(1, #RECEIVELINE)

While gotline$ <> ""
/* loop through lines */
gotline$, count, done = ReceiveData(1, #RECEIVELINE)
Wend

CloseConnection(1)

Awesome :)