This class is the base class for Net::HTTP response classes.

About the Examples

Returned Responses

Method Net::HTTP.get_response returns an instance of one of the subclasses of Net::HTTPResponse:

Net::HTTP.get_response(uri)
# => #<Net::HTTPOK 200 OK readbody=true>
Net::HTTP.get_response(hostname, '/nosuch')
# => #<Net::HTTPNotFound 404 Not Found readbody=true>

As does method Net::HTTP#request:

req = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri)
Net::HTTP.start(hostname) do |http|
  http.request(req)
end # => #<Net::HTTPOK 200 OK readbody=true>

Class Net::HTTPResponse includes module Net::HTTPHeader, which provides access to response header values via (among others):

  • Hash-like method [].

  • Specific reader methods, such as content_type.

Examples:

res = Net::HTTP.get_response(uri) # => #<Net::HTTPOK 200 OK readbody=true>
res['Content-Type']               # => "text/html; charset=UTF-8"
res.content_type                  # => "text/html"

Response Subclasses

Class Net::HTTPResponse has a subclass for each HTTP status code. You can look up the response class for a given code:

Net::HTTPResponse::CODE_TO_OBJ['200'] # => Net::HTTPOK
Net::HTTPResponse::CODE_TO_OBJ['400'] # => Net::HTTPBadRequest
Net::HTTPResponse::CODE_TO_OBJ['404'] # => Net::HTTPNotFound

And you can retrieve the status code for a response object:

Net::HTTP.get_response(uri).code                 # => "200"
Net::HTTP.get_response(hostname, '/nosuch').code # => "404"

The response subclasses (indentation shows class hierarchy):

There is also the Net::HTTPBadResponse exception which is raised when there is a protocol error.

Class Methods

true if the response has a body.